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/ 23 December 2004
At least 20 people were killed in an explosion as they stole fuel from a damaged pipeline in a fishing community near Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, police said on Thursday. Fire broke out on Tuesday night in the Ilado community on a pipeline operated by the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
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/ 23 December 2004
Two more young girls have been rescued from being sold for sex, and four people have been arrested, Gauteng police said on Thursday. The girls were lured into a child-prostitution ring after they ran away from an orphanage in Johannesburg, said Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini.
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/ 23 December 2004
South African insurance assessors are counting the costs of the damage caused by the pre-Christmas deluge that swept across the drought-ravaged southern Cape on Wednesday, flooding towns, cutting power supplies and washing away roads. Santam said on Thursday that early indications are for a ”catastrophe” rating.
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/ 23 December 2004
The Zimbabwe Independent said on Thursday it is facing a cash crisis after the government froze assets at the newspaper’s bank, which has been a target of a report by the newspaper alleging financial mismanagement. The independent weekly exposed alleged financial mismanagement at CFX Bank on December 17.
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/ 23 December 2004
Attempts by the Department of Health to prosecute pharmacists who revert to the old pricing of medicines will amount to a vexatious prosecution and pharmacists will be entitled to sue the state for civil damages, says attorney Anthony Norton, representing the parties in favour of scrapping of the government’s medicine-pricing regulations.
Govt appeal halts medicine ruling
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/ 23 December 2004
Seven gunmen robbed the South African Revenue Service’s customs offices in Durban on Thursday, escaping with R70 000 in cash, the service said. Staff members who had been held up in the cash hall were being treated for shock. Staff and members of the public took down the registration numbers of the two getaway vehicles.
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/ 23 December 2004
The United States military was re-examining security measure at bases around Iraq on Thursday, a day after saying that a suicide bomber likely carried out the attack at a camp near Mosul that killed 22 people. The explosion on Monday at the tightly guarded US base raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated the compound.
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/ 23 December 2004
Alarmed by glimpses of sweaty citizens in the buff, the city council in the south-eastern city of Villahermosa, Mexico, has adopted a law banning citizens from allowing themselves to be seen nude by the public, even while in their own homes, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
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/ 23 December 2004
The unpaid mayor of a small English town has applied for unemployment benefits, but been rejected since he spends too much time at mandatory civic events, the Daily Telegraph said on Thursday. Roy Miller lost his full-time job at a print factory, which closed at the weekend after laying off its 400 employees.
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/ 23 December 2004
A speeding taxi driver who ran a series of red lights trying to rush a heavily pregnant woman to hospital may face fines and have his licence endorsed, state media said on Thursday. Gao Haijun jumped several red lights on Sunday after an anxious couple asked him to take them to the closest delivery ward.