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/ 22 November 2005
The first European Union citizen to face charges of complicity in genocide and international war crimes went on trial in The Netherlands on Monday accused of aiding Saddam Hussein to gas the Kurds of Halabja almost 20 years ago. Frans van Anraat was arrested almost a year ago in Amsterdam just as he was preparing to leave the country, with his suitcases packed and a new passport in his pocket.
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/ 22 November 2005
South African nuclear vendor PBMR has signed a contract with German company SGL Carbon for the supply of hardware for the construction of an envisaged demonstration power plant. The contract, worth about €20-million (or R154 million), was the largest hardware order placed by PBMR so far, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
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/ 22 November 2005
Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany’s first woman Chancellor before the Bundestag Lower House of Parliament following her formal election by the chamber on Tuesday. The pastor’s daughter became Germany’s eighth post-war leader and the first person from the former communist east to take the helm of the reunited country.
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/ 22 November 2005
Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him television appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with Donald Trump, has died, the <i>Santa Barbara News-Press</i> reported on Tuesday. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died on Friday.
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/ 22 November 2005
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire may be the scariest of the films about the teen wizard but it also had the most successful opening of the series. Warner Brothers said Potter was the top film in all 19 countries where it opened at the weekend, including the United States, where it ended a box-office slump, and in Britain, where it smashed all records.
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/ 22 November 2005
The Gauteng government plans to accelerate spending on infrastructure and social services in the next three years. Provincial minister for finance and economic affairs Paul Mashatile tabled the provincial medium-term budget policy statement to the Gauteng legislature on Tuesday.
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/ 22 November 2005
National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha’s application to have his suspension overturned was removed from the Pretoria High Court’s urgent roll on Tuesday and postponed indefinitely. Masetlha’s attorney, Imraan Haffegee, said his client will no longer pursue the matter in the form of an urgent application.
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/ 22 November 2005
The United States and international maritime authorities have boosted already-dire piracy warnings for vessels off the coast of lawless Somalia following a surge in attempted hijackings. In a new alert, the US Office of Naval Intelligence said ships in the region should stay at least 200 nautical miles (370km) from the coast.
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/ 22 November 2005
The United Nations has ordered the families of all its staff in Eritrea to leave the country amid soaring border tensions with arch-rival Ethiopia that have raised fears of a new war, senior UN officials said on Monday. The move comes as a result of a weekend UN decision to raise the security-threat level throughout most of Eritrea.
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/ 22 November 2005
Heavy rain and a water-logged ground forced the third one-dayer between India and South Africa to be abandoned without a ball being bowled in Chennai, India, on Tuesday. The five-match series remains locked at 1-1 after South Africa won the first match in Hyderabad by five wickets and India drew level with a six-wicket win in Bangalore.