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/ 23 February 2005
Freezing temperatures and heavy rain continued to hamper the efforts of rescue and relief workers on Wednesday in Iran’s quake-stricken Kerman province. The death toll has been raised to 450 but was expected to exceed 500 on Wednesday as rescue workers cleared debris and recovered more bodies.
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/ 23 February 2005
Demonstrators pulled a float portraying a prisoner being beaten at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison through the German city of Mainz on Wednesday, part of a protest by several thousand people against visiting United States President George Bush. Police said about 5 000 people turned out for the rally and parade.
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/ 23 February 2005
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it is happy with the amount Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel set aside for HIV/Aids on Wednesday but worries about whether it will be spent properly. The total budget for fighting HIV/Aids will rise in the coming year to about R4,3-billion, a rise of about R1-billion over current spending.
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/ 23 February 2005
Beleaguered Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia’s future was on the line Wednesday as he shied away from a vote in Parliament on his prospective Cabinet, which has already begun to unravel. Barely an hour before MPs were to begin a session to vote on his ministerial team, a legislative council spokesperson announced that the meeting was off.
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/ 23 February 2005
There has been a 76% increase over the past three years in the number of people receiving disability and care dependency grants in the Eastern Cape, according to the Budget Review tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel at Parliament on Wednesday.
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/ 23 February 2005
Whether drowning your sorrows or celebrating your fiscal gains in 2005, both will be more expensive as Minister of Finance Trevor Manual has announced increases in excise duties on most alcoholic beverages on Wednesday during his Budget address. Also, from March 1, buying a house will cost buyers less as Manuel announced the reduction of transfer duties on properties.
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/ 23 February 2005
The Inkatha Freedom Party was the first to welcome Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s 2005/06 Budget tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. The party said while the Budget was ”highly commendable” it had some doubts over whether the government could meet its implementation requirements.
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/ 23 February 2005
Real household consumption spending grew at an estimated year-on-year rate of 5,9% during 2004, according to Budget information tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. The documents were tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel while presenting his Budget in the National Assembly.
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/ 23 February 2005
Award-winning Xhosa-language film uCarmen eKhayelitsha got another honourable mention on Wednesday, in Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Budget speech. In his opening remarks, he said the world had acclaimed the film, which won a Golden Bear award at the weekend as the best film at the Berlin Film Festival.
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/ 23 February 2005
South Africa’s savings rate is among the lowest in the world, according to the Budget Review, tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday.The document says savings in the country dropped from 16,2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2003, to 14,7% of GDP in the third quarter of 2004.