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/ 7 February 2005
Nepal’s new government, headed by King Gyanendra, has offered to hold unconditional talks with Maoist rebels to end an insurgency that has claimed more than 11 000 lives, state media said on Monday. Gyanendra, who controls the army, last week fired the government led by prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
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/ 7 February 2005
A government agency’s ban on visitors bearing Lunar New Year gifts from entering its building to curb corruption has stirred ridicule from the public, state media said on Monday. Gift-giving is a long-practised tradition during the new-year period but in present-day China it has become a way to bribe government officials.
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/ 7 February 2005
The much-mentioned encrypted fax continued to take centre stage in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Monday. Prosecutor Billy Downer continued with his argument to admit as evidence seven documents, which the defence opposes.
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/ 7 February 2005
The long-awaited report of the Jali commission into corruption and maladministration in prisons could be out by mid-year, commission secretary Charles Frank said on Monday. ”We will do our best but I don’t foresee it being done before the beginning of June,” he said from his office in Durban.
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/ 7 February 2005
The partnerships between De Beers and the governments of diamond-producing countries will be key in transforming the diamond industry going forward, but as the senior partner, the South African government should use its stick "very infrequently" or the company could "disengage", De Beers chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer has cautioned.
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/ 7 February 2005
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday promised active US involvement in Middle East peacemaking, saying Washington will dispatch a high-level ”security coordinator” to the region and send more than -million in immediate aid to the Palestinians.
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/ 7 February 2005
A new Hollywood war movie due for worldwide release in August may offend Japanese audiences because of its graphic depiction of brutalities committed by Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II, movie executives said on Monday. The -million movie, entitled The Great Raid, stars Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt.
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/ 7 February 2005
A charity golf day held at Centurion raised R280 000 towards relief of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in December, the Department of Health said on Monday. Sunday’s event was organised by the Association of South-East Asian Nations and heads of the diplomatic missions to South Africa.
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/ 7 February 2005
The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, on Sunday claimed a landslide election victory after early results and exit polls suggested his party might sweep up to 80% of the 500 seats in Parliament. If, as expected, the final results mirror the predictions, the next four years may be the country’s first experience of one-party government.
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/ 7 February 2005
Zimbabwe ruling Zanu-PF has fired the seventh of its 10 provincial chairperson — nearly two months after he was arrested for allegedly spying for neighbouring South Africa. Wealthy lawmaker Philip Chiyangwa has lost his post as chairperson of the Mashonaland West province.