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/ 28 November 2005
A little girl strokes the beard of an enormous Father Christmas at Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall, while her mother croons gentle descriptions of his velvety coat and big girth. It’s Monday morning, which many security analysts warn is a danger time for robbers who know that coffers are swollen from the weekend’s pre-Christmas takings.
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/ 28 November 2005
An explosion at a coal mine in remote north-eastern China killed 134 workers and left another 15 trapped underground, China News Service said on Monday, amid frantic rescue efforts to find survivors. A total of 221 miners were underground when the cave-in occurred.
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/ 28 November 2005
Iranian rescue workers handed out blankets, food and water on Monday to survivors of a powerful earthquake on a Gulf island that killed 10 people and forced villagers to spend the night in tents. Power was restored to the afflicted villages on the Gulf island of Qeshm after a blackout caused by the quake.
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/ 28 November 2005
Hundreds of Nigerian troops descended on Monday on the capital of the country’s biggest oil-producing region after militant youths rallied around a state governor accused of embezzling millions of dollars, the military said. The deployment marks a dramatic increase in tension in the restive Niger Delta.
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/ 28 November 2005
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba on Monday defended his country’s controversial land-expropriation policy at the start of a five-day visit to Germany. Pohamba said that 15 years after shaking off South African rule, land reform to redistribute land from white farmers to black landless people is essential.
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/ 28 November 2005
Kenya’s opposition vowed on Monday to defy a government ban on demonstrations and keep up demands for President Mwai Kibaki to call new elections after last week’s rejection of a new Constitution he backed. Leaders of the Orange Democratic Movement said the ban is illegal.
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/ 28 November 2005
The Department of Foreign Affairs has appealed to the government of Equatorial Guinea to either charge or release two South African air-crew members being refused exit from the oil-rich West African state. Sechan Pillay and Ruwaide Kalbine have been unable to leave since November 17.
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/ 28 November 2005
A defiant Saddam Hussein on Monday exchanged angry words with the presiding judge and heard testimony from the first prosecution witness as the trial of the former Iraqi dictator resumed after a 40-day break. After barely two hours in session, the court was adjourned to December 5.
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/ 28 November 2005
”A curse on Saddam,” demanded relatives of victims of the 1982 Shi’ite massacre for which Saddam Hussein went on trial again on Monday, calling for a quick execution for the ousted Iraqi dictator. But Saddam’s supporters also turned out in his hometown of Tikrit, blasting as unjust the trial of the once-all-powerful leader.
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/ 28 November 2005
The drug maker Merck & Co said on Monday that it will cut about 7 000 jobs, or 11% of its work force, by the end of 2008 and will close or sell five of its 31 manufacturing plants in moves that it says will save up to -billion. It employs just less than 63 000 people.