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/ 30 September 2005

Mbeki defends African peer-review process

President Thabo Mbeki has rejected criticism that the African Peer-Review Mechanism (APRM) will be ineffective because of its voluntary nature. Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today, on Friday, he said the process enables each African country to assess the progress it is making towards achieving shared goals.

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/ 30 September 2005

Swedes name daughter after whisky brand

A Swedish couple have won the right after a court battle to name their daughter Edradour, after a Scottish whisky brand, media reported on Friday. Initially the tax office, which in Sweden registers the names for newborns, refused the name, saying it was too closely linked to an alcoholic drink.

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/ 30 September 2005

Medicine-pricing ruling confusing, says DA

Friday’s Constitutional Court judgement on medicine pricing achieved nothing for the consumer and sowed more confusion, the Democratic Alliance said. The ”contentious matter” has been thrown ”back into the hands of the very people who were unable to find a solution to the problems in the first place”, the DA said.

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/ 30 September 2005

‘Let him rot in jail’

There were gasps in the public gallery as Mark Scott-Crossley, one of the men who threw farmworker Nelson Chisale to lions at Hoedspruit in January last year, was sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Simon Mathebula, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, three of them suspended for five years.

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/ 30 September 2005

Microsoft executive to meet EU antitrust chief

Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer will meet with the European Union’s antitrust chief next week, her spokesperson said on Friday, as the company appeals a March 2004 ruling by EU regulators. Neelie Kroes planned to meet Ballmer over breakfast on Wednesday to discuss general antitrust issues, EU spokesperson Jonathan Todd said.

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/ 30 September 2005

Chuck and cover

I have been a bad parent. The teachers tut-tut; my children look at me uncomprehendingly, the first traces of disappointment sketched on their faces. ”We understand,” says one teacher. ”You’re not from here. But it is something you need to do.”

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/ 30 September 2005

Southern Sudan’s post-war parliament sworn in

Southern Sudan’s new parliament sat for the first time on Friday in the southern capital of Juba to discuss the region’s post-war constitution, according to reports monitored in the Kenyan capital. The legislature is part of a peace deal signed by the Khartoum government and the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement .

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/ 30 September 2005

End Gbagbo’s mandate, say Ivorian rebels

Côte d’Ivoire rebels holding the north of the country said on Friday they want a ”bold decision” from a West African regional summit in Nigeria to end the mandate of embattled President Laurent Gbagbo. They accused Gbagbo of failing to implement measures called for in the three-year-old, French-brokered peace deal.