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/ 3 December 2004

Germany plans aid for Darfur

The German parliament unanimously agreed on Friday to provide up to 200 troops to help transport African Union (AU) soldiers into the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. Germany will use two of its military transport planes to fly Tanzanian African Union troops into Darfur from Tanzania and a third plane will be put on standby.

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/ 3 December 2004

Mandela gave R1m to Zuma, court hears

Two ABSA bank employees closely involved with the Jacob Zuma Education Trust Fund told the Durban High Court on Friday that the trust had applied for funding from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund but was told it did not qualify. However, Mandela allegedly endorsed a cheque of R2-million for Zuma.

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/ 3 December 2004

Union threatens strike over shirt

A major British union Friday threatened a strike over the case of a hospital porter who refuses to tuck in his shirt in contravention of the dress code. The GMB union, which claims 600 000 members and is the product of union mergers over recent years, characterised as ”pathetic” the action of the private company which employs the porter.

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/ 3 December 2004

Zimbabwe opposition warns of food crisis

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party claimed on Friday that government forecasts of a bumper grain harvest were false and that the southern African country faced a severe food crisis next year. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shadow agriculture minister Renson Gasela told a press conference in the capital the government had inflated its estimated maize harvest as a pretext for putting a stop to international food aid.

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/ 3 December 2004

Bank consultant gets life for murder

Bank consultant Juanita Coetzee was sentenced to life and 14 years in jail by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday for murdering her former husband shortly after their divorce. Judge Joop Labuschagne said that Coetzee was not a battered wife, as claimed, but a manipulative woman who had her former husband killed to inherit over R1-million.

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/ 3 December 2004

Carter gives Mozambique poll a thumbs-up

Former United States president Jimmy Carter gave Mozambique’s third multi-party elections a tentative thumbs-up on Friday despite a poor turnout, saying the two days of voting appeared to have gone off well. Carter said of the polls, which were held on Wednesday and Thursday: ”We interrogated any obsevers who were there, especially from the opposition parties… and we have found that they had no complaints.”

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/ 3 December 2004

Rwanda ‘trying to disrupt’ DRC peace

President Joseph Kabila accused Rwanda on Friday of trying to create a confrontation with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an effort to disrupt Congolese efforts to secure the country and move toward 2005 elections. It was Kabila’s first public statement since Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame began warning last week that his country would act against Rwanda Hutu rebels in the eastern DRC.

  • Thousands flee clashes in the DRC
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    / 3 December 2004

    Iran’s nuclear freeze is temporary, says cleric

    Iran will resume enriching uranium after a maximum of six months, powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani vowed on Friday, reaffirming that Tehran’s freeze on nuclear fuel cycle work is only temporary. The United States accuses Iran of running a covert nuclear weapons programme, but the Islamic republic insists it only wants to enrich uranium to low levels to produce fuel for a series of atomic power stations.