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/ 6 December 2004
The hunt for Osama bin Laden has gone cold, reducing Pakistan’s security forces to little more than guesswork, President Pervez Musharraf admitted at the weekend. Speaking to reporters in Washington before flying to Britain on Sunday, Musharraf blamed the US for failing to send enough troops to neighbouring Afghanistan.
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/ 6 December 2004
Insurgents in Iraq mounted a third straight day of serious attacks on Sunday, killing 17 people when they opened fire on buses delivering workers to an ordnance disposal site. At least 70 Iraqis, many of them members of the police and security forces, have been killed since Friday in attacks across central and northern Iraq.
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/ 6 December 2004
Atibu Filibungan wobbled over the jungle track with another consignment on the back of his bicycle: a baby chimpanzee. A few months old, she peered through the bars of the home-made cage, the 15th chimp to be transported by Filibungan, better known to locals as Mr Delivery. Chimpanzees are an endangered species and the trade is illegal but Filibungan was not worried.
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/ 6 December 2004
A moment of carelessness had humiliating consequences for French bomb squad officers, when they accidentally mislaid an explosive device, hidden for training purposes in an unknown passenger’s suitcase, triggering a global terror alert. Officers training sniffer dogs at Roissy airport outside Paris this weekend slipped 150g of plastic explosive in the side pocket of a blue bag, selected randomly from luggage waiting to be loaded on to a plane.
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/ 6 December 2004
This was not a camping trip for softies. We had to take all our own water — for both drinking and washing. Toilet facilities extended to a spade that you had to take with you to a secluded bit of the bush. But these discomforts were a small price to pay for access to one of the country’s hidden treasures. <i>Escape</i> visits some of our most beautiful rock art, which is hidden in the Soutpansberg.
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/ 6 December 2004
Wine and spirits producer KWV said on Monday that it has dismissed two winemakers who were found to be adding flavourants to Sauvignon Blanc. KWV said the winemaker for its 2004 Laborie Sauvignon Blanc, Gideon Theron, and Ian Nieuwoudt, the winemaker for the 2004 KWV Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, were dismissed after it was established that they were guilty of manipulating two lots of wines.
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/ 6 December 2004
The Constitutional Court has given rail commuters a reason to celebrate and reaffirmed their right to be safe from crime. Two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court ruled that Metrorail and the South African Rail Commuter Corporation were responsible for the safety of train passengers, effectively overturning the findings of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
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/ 6 December 2004
As more and more golf developments spring up around the country, serious questions are being asked about their impact on the local fauna and flora. While a growing tourism industry, golf is not popular among environmentalists.
Is this fair, asks <i>Earthyear</i>.
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/ 6 December 2004
Governments in Western Europe inclined to criticise Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interference in neighbours such as Ukraine or abuses in Chechnya may have second thoughts in future as their energy dependency grows. American qualms about the Kremlin’s authoritarianism or its support for Iran may be more readily suppressed when Russia’s position as the world’s second-largest oil exporter is factored in.
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/ 6 December 2004
With the news that his three-week old daughter Ella was in hospital with bronchitis, Retief Goosen wanted to pack his bags and fly home to England on Wednesday night. But his wife, Tracy, encouraged him to play the tournament and the South African finished with a seven-under-par total of 281 to end up six shots clear of compatriot Ernie Els and Australian Stuart Appleby.