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/ 23 February 2005
The trade union Solidarity on Wednesday said it is to ask mining group Kumba Resources to impose a two-year moratorium on retrenchments. The trade union claimed that Kumba is persisting with the retrenchment of 400 workers in spite of a very profitable financial year. The request will form part of Solidarity’s Save the Workers campaign.
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/ 23 February 2005
The United States State Department on Tuesday accused Zimbabwe of a ”pattern of intimidation” of journalists amid reports some foreign newsmen had fled the country after being questioned by the authorities. Spokesperson Richard Boucher also said the the forthcoming parliamentary elections needed to be ”free and fair”.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>When Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel unveils the 2005/06 Budget on Wednesday, he will be closely watched by South African financial markets. However, with major surprises unlikely, market analysts are divided on how much effect the Budget is likely to have.
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/ 23 February 2005
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Businessman Schabir Shaik is still bankrolling Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. ”I continue to do so till this day,” Shaik told the court at his fraud and corruption trial. Shaik began testifying in his defence on Monday and for the past two days he has detailed payments made to and on behalf of Zuma.
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/ 23 February 2005
An alleged al-Qaeda plot to assassinate George Bush was revealed on Tuesday when an American man was charged with conspiring to kill the United States president. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (23) apparently planned to carry out the assassination, either by getting ”close enough to the president to shoot him on the street” or with a car bomb.
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/ 23 February 2005
French prosecutors are taking action against the youngest son of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, who is alleged to have beaten a pregnant woman during a rampage in a Paris hotel. Motassim Bilal Gadaffi, known as Hannibal, will be summonsed for questioning about the alleged attack, during which he is also said to have scuffled with police and brandished a gun.
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/ 23 February 2005
Iraq took a big step towards appointing its first elected prime minister since the fall of Saddam Hussein on Tuesday when the main Shia alliance chose a self-effacing man, who used to be a family doctor in Britain, as its candidate. Ibrahim al-Jaafari (58) is almost certain to head the new government after winning the unanimous approval of the Shia bloc.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni says that most South Africans don’t remember interest rates being as low as they are at present. He said that interest rates had been lowered "most definitely because inflation has come down."
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/ 23 February 2005
Simphiwe Mbalula’s home was saved last month when a runaway fire razed about 3Â 200 shacks in the Joe Slovo informal settlement outside Cape Town. Instead of relief, he feels unlucky, as all the victims of the fire have been fast-tracked to the front of council housing lists. They will receive houses as part of the first phase of the N2 Gateway Project.
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/ 23 February 2005
Mohammed Yassin has trouble falling asleep at night. But his insomnia is not caused by haunting dreams of a second tsunami — the sound of construction work until late at night is what keeps him, and other Nusa residents, awake. But few people in the Indonesian village are complaining, because the work is for a good cause.