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/ 21 October 2005

MDC’s unedifying war over elections

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is fighting a civil war over whether to participate in elections for an upper house of Parliament next month. The battle is being fought in full public view as newspapers carry daily reports of party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s increasingly desperate attempts to block candidates from filing nomination papers.

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/ 21 October 2005

Covering corruption

”Since we started publishing in 1985, the Mail & Guardian has uncovered corruption in both the private and public sectors. Inkathagate, the investigation that told how the state was secretly funding Inkatha as a bulwark against the African National Congress, helped alter the course of the country’s politics,” writes editor of the Mail & Guardian Ferial Haffajee.

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/ 21 October 2005

Robert Mbeki, I presume

Is SABC anchorwoman Lerato Mbele about to be sent for re-education? The manne had to wonder, after Monday’s 10pm newscast. Having revealed that ”President Mbeki” had addressed the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in Rome, she hastily backtracked with ”President Mugabe”; but things got ugly when she apologised for the confusion.

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/ 20 October 2005

UN warns of ‘wave of death’ in Pakistan

The United Nations begged the world on Thursday not to abandon survivors of Pakistan’s earthquake, warning of a second wave of deaths without a dramatic effort on a par with the Berlin airlift to reach stranded villagers. ”We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse,” said Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator.

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/ 20 October 2005

Wedded to the shotgun

The arrival of avian flu in Europe has sparked a debate in a country with one of the continent’s strongest gun lobbies over whether to ban the shooting of migratory birds. More than 700 000 Italians go shooting during a season that varies from region to region but lasts in most parts of the country from September to January.

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/ 20 October 2005

Unknown gay group claims behind bomb hoax in Warsaw

An unknown gay rights group claimed it planted a dozen fake bombs around Warsaw that paralysed the Polish capital on Thursday, three days before the second round of a presidential election. ”You paralyse our life, we’ll paralyse yours,” a lengthy e-mail sent to media groups in Warsaw said, referring among other issues to a ban on a gay pride parade by Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski.

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/ 20 October 2005

Deadlock on composition of diamond board

Parliamentary discussions deadlocked on Thursday over the proposed composition of the board of regulators for the diamond and precious metals industry. Minerals and energy portfolio committee members disagreed with proposals in the draft Diamond Bill suggesting the board only have one representative from organised labour on it.