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/ 28 January 2005
Thousands of expatriate Iraqis began casting ballots on Friday in their country’s first free election for more than half a century, with emotions running high despite the relatively limited numbers taking part. ”I’m doing this for my children … it’s the first step in a thousand-mile journey,” a voter in Dubai said.
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/ 28 January 2005
The naked jogger has met his fate: a year in jail and a 000 (R5 950) fine for running around the neighbourhood without his shorts. Officers said they saw Patterson jogging bare from the waist down and ordered him to stop. When he kept running, officers used a stun gun to pause the pursuit of the pantless perpetrator.
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/ 28 January 2005
Swedish twin sisters Gunhild Gallstedt and Siri Ingvarsson celebrate their 100th birthday this weekend surrounded by three generations of family, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter reported on Friday. The sisters were born in Malmo on January 30 1905 and have lived in the same apartment block in Stockholm for the past 60 years.
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/ 28 January 2005
A coroner’s inquest has accused the Royal Swaziland Police Force of torture and neglect in a case that has highlighted human rights groups’ concerns over the treatment of suspects in custody. Mandla Ngubeni died in June last year after the police interrogated him over the disappearance of R28 000 from his place of employment.
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/ 28 January 2005
Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said in a statement on Friday that the 40 MPs implicated in the Travelgate scandal — 27 current and 13 former MPs — will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on February 18. The names of the MPs — who allegedly used their travel vouchers for illicit purposes — will be disclosed when they appear in court.
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/ 28 January 2005
The African National Congress has accused the influential British newspaper The Economist of publishing ”outright falsehoods” in an article on President Thabo Mbeki. It makes the claim in an anonymous article posted on the party’s website on Friday, in reaction to an Economist report on Mbeki last week titled ”The man with two faces”.
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/ 28 January 2005
Four South Africans are still unaccounted for following their disappearance during the Asian tsunami disaster, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in Pretoria on Friday. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe said the South African government is still working closely with Interpol to trace the missing people.
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/ 28 January 2005
The Israeli army’s chief of staff, General Moshe Yaalon, ordered on Friday an end to ”offensive operations” in the Gaza Strip after the deployment of thousands of Palestinians security forces in the territory. Yaalon also said that targeted killing operations of militants in the West Bank will only be carried out with his own authorisation.
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/ 28 January 2005
Sport is elitist. Anyone who wants to argue that toss needs to go two rounds with a pro fighter, and then we’ll see if fuzzy notions of universal brotherhood persist.
Sport tolerates no affirmative action. Those who are up to its challenges are affirmed; the rest are crushed like the no-hopers and also-rans they always were, writes Tom Eaton.
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/ 28 January 2005
Despite recent rain, Lake St Lucia — South Africa’s first World Heritage Site — is still below its normal levels, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said on Friday. At present, the level of the lake is about 80cm below mean sea level, and the lake’s surface area is about 30% of normal. The lake has become compartmented into three distinct water bodies.