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/ 12 September 2005
Be it Hollywood or Bollywood, movie stars are not known to be sticklers for punctuality. But two Indian stars, John Abraham and Akshay Kumar, shooting a new film in Bombay, have found a way to motivate each other to get to the set on time each morning — they’ve started a running wager.
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/ 12 September 2005
Large developers are bulldozing through laws and processes set up to ensure development is sustainable, and government officials and judges appear powerless to stop them. Faced by what they call "a national crisis" caused by dodgy developers of townhouse complexes and golf estates, sustainable development activists are calling for a ministerial commission of inquiry.
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/ 12 September 2005
De Beers faces a multibillion-rand tax claim over a massive stockpile of diamonds it exported just ahead of South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> learnt recently. Subsequent exports are also under scrutiny. De Beers shipped 19-million carats — about three-and-a-half tonnes of unpolished stones — to London ahead of the April elections.
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/ 12 September 2005
At the dusk of a century and the twilight of his life in 1998, Tanzania’s former leader Julius Nyerere met with top-level staff at the World Bank in Washington, DC. "Why have you failed?" the World Bank experts asked. Nyerere answered: "The British empire left us a country with 85% illiteracy, two engineers and 12 doctors."
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/ 12 September 2005
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The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is expected to respond on Monday to a request that documents seized during raids on former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s residences be given back. Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley said he had been told the NPA would meet on Monday before responding to his request.
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/ 12 September 2005
The Freedom Front Plus’s statements about an alleged alteration to the Tshwane municipality’s emblem were ”misplaced and incorrect”, the mayor’s spokesperson said on Monday. According to the FF+, the words ”Miraculous change — Pretoria to Tshwane” would be added to the metro’s emblem.
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/ 12 September 2005
The death toll from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in northern India rose to 664 on Monday with 18 more deaths as doctors appealed for more ventilators to save the lives of young patients. On Sunday, a state government spokesperson said more than 2 400 patients were lying in hospitals, often two to a bed.
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/ 12 September 2005
Nigeria’s police will withdraw their entire contingent of 120 officers serving on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo over sexual-harassment allegations. ”We are withdrawing the entire contingent because when one is contaminated, the whole bunch is contaminated,” a police spokesperson said.
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/ 12 September 2005
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has quietly signed into law constitutional amendments restricting property and citizenship rights and creating a Senate. Mugabe signed the amendments into law on Friday, the same day the International Monetary Fund deferred a decision for six months on whether to expel Zimbabwe.
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/ 12 September 2005
George du Rand saved the best for last on the final day of the Telkom South African Short-Course Championships on Sunday. The 22-year-old from Bloemfontein bettered his own national and continental record on his way to winning the 100m backstroke. Terence Parkin and Suzaan van Biljon proved their status as top breaststrokers.