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/ 14 December 2004
A day after the official opposition Democratic Alliance gave President Thabo Mbeki a ”D” in its ”report card”, a national survey suggested that 2004 had in fact been the president’s personal best, with an average of 58%. According to Research Surveys, for three years — 2000 to 2002 — the president’s approval rating was generally in the low 30s.
DA rates Cabinet with ‘report card’
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/ 14 December 2004
Every Christmas, Seiji Makino used to dread facing up to his three children whose questions about Santa Claus would leave him tongue-tied. But this year Makino and other Japanese who want to be able to bellow out a perfect ”Ho, ho, ho” are getting help in the form of professional training by the country’s only ”certified” Santa Claus.
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/ 14 December 2004
World crude oil prices rose on Monday as traders worried about heating oil supplies in anticipation of a plunge in temperatures in the northeastern United States. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, climbed 30 cents to ,01 a barrel.
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/ 14 December 2004
MD and CEO of Total South Africa Philip Jordan has been elected as the chairperson of the South African Petroleum Industry Association for 2005, the association said in a statement on Tuesday. Jordan succeeds Simphiwe Mehlomakulu, a general manager at PetroSA.
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/ 14 December 2004
One person out of every eight on Earth is now connected to the internet, and this phenomenal growth has occurred in less than 10 years. By 2010, this internet usage growth could narrow to one in five people. This is according to the latest statistics released this week by <i>ResearchWorldwide.com</i>.
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/ 14 December 2004
HIV/Aids medicines must be free for everyone who needs them in the developing world, or there will be no hope of reaching the United Nations target of three million being treated by 2005, doctors, economists and institutions say on Tuesday.
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/ 14 December 2004
A suicide car bomber killed seven people when he struck a checkpoint at Baghdad’s Green Zone early on Tuesday, the second attack in two days at the district that houses Iraq’s interim government and foreign embassies, officials said. At least 13 people were injured in the blast, said Dr Hassan Abdel Satar from Baghdad’s Yarmouk Hospital.
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/ 14 December 2004
United States President George Bush is to steer clear of Britain in a new year re-election tour of Europe, partly to give British Prime Minister Tony Blair space to rebuild his damaged foreign policy around the Middle East peace process, climate change and aid to Africa.
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/ 14 December 2004
Romania was thrown into an uncertain but hopeful period of political turmoil on Monday when the mayor of Bucharest, Traian Basescu, upset predictions and the political establishment to narrowly win the country’s presidency. Running on an anti-sleaze and communist-bashing platform, Basescu unseated the former communists who have run Romania almost uninterruptedly since the revolution of Christmas 1989.
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/ 14 December 2004
A judge in Genoa on Monday ordered a full trial for 28 officers allegedly involved in a brutal mass beating of demonstrators during the G8 summit three years ago. Almost 100 people, including five Britons, were injured after police, carabinieri and revenue guards stormed a school in Genoa that was the makeshift headquarters of an umbrella protest group.