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/ 18 January 2005
Chanting ”Oh Allah I’m here”, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims draped in white garments on Tuesday began to take part in rituals symbolising the life of their seventh-century prophet and streaming into the mammoth tent city of Mina. Two million people travel to the holy cities in Saudi Arabia each year to participate in the hajj pilgrimage.
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/ 18 January 2005
An earthquake registering 6,3 on the Richter scale shook the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Tuesday night, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the Japan Meteorological Agency. Earlier, a moderate earthquake measuring 4,6 on the Richter scale shook the central region of Niigata.
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/ 18 January 2005
President Thabo Mbeki is not obliged to say why he decided to pardon convicted fraudster Allan Boesak, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Tuesday. The Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday it has written to both Mbeki and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla, asking for full reasons.
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/ 18 January 2005
Soviet-era compact television sets, known for bad reception and low picture quality, are finally popular — as homes for bats. A group of disabled workers in the south-eastern Czech Republic produces bat boxes from the Rubin TV sets’ sturdy plywood casing, which is hard to break and easily resists bad weather.
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/ 18 January 2005
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with army chiefs in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and was briefed on plans to put a halt to rocket attacks by Palestinians, officials said. ”We must make the strongest possible effort to prevent the firing [of Qassams and mortars] at Israeli communities,” Sharon told troops in Gaza.
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/ 18 January 2005
Amnesty International has called for the war crimes committed during the Sudanese civil war to be investigated by prosecutors at the United Nations International Criminal Court in The Hague. In a report released in London on Tuesday, Amnesty urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Sudan to the special court.
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/ 18 January 2005
British Minister of Finance Gordon Brown claimed strong backing from his European Union colleagues on Tuesday for a plan to revive Africa through debt cancellation and a doubling in aid. Fresh from a four-nation African tour, Brown said a meeting of EU finance ministers agreed on the need to ease the burden of Africa’s debt.
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/ 18 January 2005
Nigeria’s police chief has taken early retirement after investigators probing money-laundering allegations found ,5-million (R45,6-million) hidden in a network of bank accounts, officials told said on Tuesday. Inspector General Tafa Balogun has been replaced by an acting chief and will formally retire on March 6.
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/ 18 January 2005
A new biography of Abraham Lincoln is making headlines with its assertion that the romantic leanings of the renowned 16th president of the United States were primarily homosexual. <i>The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln</i>, by CA Tripp, has ruffled more than a few feathers.