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/ 9 September 2005
A new strain of a wheat fungal disease that has emerged in East Africa may spread if steps are not taken to develop resistant wheat, researchers said on Thursday. As much as 10% of the world’s wheat crops, with an estimated value of -billion, could fail if the disease is not tackled, said Masa Iwanaga, the director general of
the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre.
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/ 9 September 2005
The African Union (AU) has urged the last active rebel group in Burundi to join the peace process aimed at ending more than a decade of devastating fighting in the impoverished central African nation. In addition, AU said the international community should sustain its support in order to consolidate achievements in Burundi’s democratisation process.
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/ 9 September 2005
Prisoners in Zimbabwe’s main remand prison are forced to use pages from the Bible as toilet paper, an opposition lawmaker said on Friday. Opposition lawmaker Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga made the remarks following a trip she made to Harare Remand Prison with other members of a parliamentary committee.
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/ 9 September 2005
The state was given the go-ahead on Friday to reopen its prosecution of apartheid-era germ-warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson on six charges of conspiring to commit offences abroad. But the principle of double jeopardy — shielding a person from being tried on the same charge twice — might yet preclude a retrial.
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/ 9 September 2005
Three operators of a Taiwan website offering MP3 music downloads have been jailed for two to three years each for copyright infringement, and one user received a lesser term, court officials said on Friday. The executives of Kuro were also each fined three million Taiwan dollars ($91Â 600).
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/ 9 September 2005
Islamic clerics in the Somali capital on Friday dismissed President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as another warlord and said they would not recognise him as the leader of the country’s transitional government in the shattered African nation. The Union of Islamic Courts blamed Yusuf for attempting to spark new fighting in Somalia by deploying hundreds of fighters allegedly trained and armed by Ethiopia in his base in Jowhar.
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/ 9 September 2005
Britain and the United States pressed on Thursday for talks on the accession of Turkey to the European Union to begin as planned on October 3 in spite of increasing opposition from France and Cyprus. The intervention of the US will help persuade some of the waverers but could be counter-productive in France, which has emerged as one of Turkey’s main opponents.
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/ 9 September 2005
The Adult World sex shop on Plein Street, Cape Town, located over the road from South Africa’s Parliament, has been closed following complaints by the government and members of Parliament, according to the Department of Home Affairs.
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/ 9 September 2005
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday warned that hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Mozambique will go hungry unless the international community steps into the funding void and helps tackle the agency’s dramatic shortfall. Southern Mozambique is particularly hard hit by the food shortages.
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/ 9 September 2005
The JSE was firmer just before noon on Friday as players looked to pick up stock following Thursday’s pullback. The gains came on light volumes, however. By 11.55am, the all-share and all-share industrial indices added 0,52% and 0,54% respectively. Financials climbed 0,38% and the banks index gained 0,56%.