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/ 22 December 2004
A team of international scientists has found new fish and insect species, including a monster cockroach, living in caves in Indonesia’s remote East Kalimantan province, the group announced on Wednesday. The team said the area where the new species were discovered is threatened by environmental degradation.
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/ 22 December 2004
Armando Guebuza, one of Mozambique’s richest businessmen and a stalwart of the ruling party and the country’s fight against Portuguese colonial rule, crowned his political career on Tuesday by being elected president in key polls. Guebuza inflicted a crushing defeat on main opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama in the polls.
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/ 22 December 2004
Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Tuesday postponed the deportation of about 2 000 illegal immigrants over the festive period. Mapisa-Nqakula made the announcement during a visit to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp on the West Rand.
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/ 22 December 2004
After a trying year punctuated by calls for his resignation by United States lawmakers, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says the US and the UN have to find a way to put their disputes behind them and move ahead with plans to reform the world body and meet poverty-reduction goals.
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/ 22 December 2004
Australian exploration company Hancock Prospecting is looking to start the development of the Aus$1,7-billion Hope Downs iron-ore project in Western Australia following the arbitration ruling in favour of the company, Hancock chairperson Gina Rinehart said in a statement.
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/ 22 December 2004
The value of South Africa’s information communications and technology (ICT) sector is estimated to have grown by 9,7% to R45,6-billion in 2004. It is expected to rise by 8,8% in 2005. Microsoft South Africa notes that salaries in the industry are almost five times higher than South Africa’s average salaries.
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/ 22 December 2004
An ex-mistress of Ray Charles agreed on Tuesday to be grilled by lawyers over her sexual history in a bid to establish whether her 17-year-old son is really the late soul legend’s child. But unemployed Mary Anne den Bok told a court on Tuesday that she regretted asking for a twentyfold increase in child support payments from Charles’s estate to at least  000 a month.
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/ 22 December 2004
Another youth has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 70-year-old Heidelberg farmer, East Rand police said on Wednesday. Superintendent Andy Pieke said the 16-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday in the Ramaphosa squatter camp near Boksburg. He allegedly was in possession of a stolen television set.
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/ 22 December 2004
Johannesburg residents were still waiting for their water to be restored late on Tuesday night after 10-hour-long repairs to a burst pipe on the corner of Central and Ninth avenues in Houghton Estate. Although the problem had been resolved by 9pm, there would be no water until pressure in the pipe was restored — which could take until midnight, said Joburg Water company spokesperson Jameel Chand.
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/ 22 December 2004
Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip have adopted Star of David badges similar to those which Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis in the 30s in protest at Israel’s plan to evacuate them from their homes. Many of the settlers equate the prime minister, Ariel Sharon’s plans to evacuate the settlements next year with the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.