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/ 21 February 2005
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Sunday prepared to celebrate his 81st birthday, launching a fresh attack on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and hitting out at his sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe also described the relationship between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and former colonial ruler Britain as ”treasonous”.
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/ 21 February 2005
Seventy-nine people are confirmed dead and another 120 are feared drowned after a ferry capsized and sank during a storm in Bangladesh. The double-decker Maharaj was on its way to the eastern town of Chandpur when it went down in the Buriganga river just outside the capital, Dhaka, in strong winds on Saturday night.
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/ 21 February 2005
Former United States president Bill Clinton said he’d tried it but hadn’t inhaled. George Bush decided that it was best just to duck the issue altogether. ”I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” the president told a friend and adviser during his first presidential campaign. ”You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”
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/ 21 February 2005
The political crisis in Togo, where the military has installed the son of the former dictator as president, drew mounting international attention at the weekend as neighbouring west African countries imposed an arms embargo and cut links with the regime.
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/ 21 February 2005
United States President George Bush landed in Brussels on Sunday night for four days of talks with European Union and Russian leaders, which are being held amid unprecedented security. With hopes for the talks tinged with wariness and anxiety in Europe, the first foreign trip of the second Bush term was a signal of the White House’s new priority to repair relations with Europe.
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/ 21 February 2005
The former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers resigned on Sunday as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment. Lubbers (65) who has been in charge of the UN’s refugee operation since 2001, stepped down following a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Friday.
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/ 21 February 2005
There is a New Establishment for the New South Africa, underwritten by a New Network of Influence. Such networks are, by definition, amorphous. There is no list, no membership application form. Nor can one say that there is a formulaic list of characteristics; it is not a dating agency. Richard Calland explores South Africa’s batting order of political power.
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/ 21 February 2005
"Players of the online game <i>Everquest</i> can now order pizza from within the game itself. Now that’s a sign of a society that’s moving in the right direction. Who needs streets, housing, sanitation, civil order, education or a decent government?" Ian Fraser delves into the world of the internet and comes up with weird headstones, brains in bottles and much more.
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/ 21 February 2005
Recently, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni changed everything but interest rates. He shifted the Reserve Bank’s focus and the future of the South African economy when he said: "It is important South Africa has a competitive and stable exchange rate, which is beneficial to the local economy …" A central banker expanding his mandate beyond price stability to include competitiveness is remarkable.
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/ 21 February 2005
It is the type of retirement package by which even those leaders most wedded to their jobs might be seduced. When outgoing Namibian President Sam Nujoma hands over power to his successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, on March 21, he will continue receiving the same monthly salary as the Southern African country’s new leader.