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/ 18 February 2005
The Democratic Alliance trio prohibited from entering Zimbabwe on Friday said this action undermined the protocol of the Southern African Development Community. Chairperson Joe Seremane, chief whip Douglas Gibson and researcher Paul Boughey flew to Harare on Friday morning for a pre-election fact-finding visit.
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/ 18 February 2005
Ugandan authorities have banned the internationally acclaimed women’s rights play The Vagina Monologues as an affront to public morality and threatened to arrest organisers if they follow through on plans to stage benefit performances. Information Minister Nsaba Buturo said the play has been deemed offensive and vulgar.
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/ 18 February 2005
Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter was forced to mix and match and select a squad of mainly unknown players for next weekend’s Cosafa Cup Group A clash against Seychelles in Mauritius. In announcing his squad on Friday, Baxter named 19 players — to be cut to 18 — with an average age of 21.
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/ 18 February 2005
It is the moment feared and cherished by Oscar hopefuls: the envelope is opened, a name is read out and then the winner has to struggle to the stage to receive the coveted statuette. But not this year, writes Dan Glaister in Los Angeles.
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/ 18 February 2005
South Africans have every reason to be confident of a bright future for their country, says President Thabo Mbeki. Writing in the African National Congress’ on-line publication, ANC Today, on Friday, he compared the transition period in South Africa with that in former communist East European states.
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/ 18 February 2005
A Cape High Court judge has upheld a bid by the governing body of Cape Town’s Mikro Primary School to preserve its Afrikaans-only status. However, the matter could end up in the Constitutional Court if the Western Cape education department has its way. The department ordered the school to created a special English-medium grade-one class this year.
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/ 18 February 2005
The Tshwane University of Technology obtained an urgent High Court interdict on Friday prohibiting protesting students from disrupting classes, damaging property or harassing students and staff. On Thursday morning, more than 1 000 students ran amok at the university’s Soshanguve campus.
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/ 18 February 2005
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it is rushing an emergency team to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to tackle an outbreak of highly fatal pneumonic plague that is thought to have killed dozens of people. The outbreak occurred in an unidentified northern mining town riven by conflict and cut off from humanitarian aid.
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/ 18 February 2005
Environmental activists have exposed what they claim to be the world’s biggest timber-smuggling racket, the supply of the luxurious dark hardwood, merbau, from Indonesia’s eastern Papua province to China and then on to Europe and North America. One Indonesian trader said on camera that at least 5% of his illegal stock ends up in Britain.
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/ 18 February 2005
The debate over interest rate cuts could knock next week’s discussions on the 2005/06 Budget from the headlines, an economist said on Friday. ”An expected decline in CPIX inflation to 3,8% may prove to be the most positive news on Budget day from a market point of view,” said economist John Loos.