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/ 18 November 2004

Sudan peace pledge at rare UN meeting

United Nations leaders attending a rare Security Council session in Nairobi, Kenya, won a pledge on Thursday that Sudan’s government and main southern rebel group will reach a deal to end their two-decade war this year. The agreement came after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the meeting: ”There is no time to waste.”

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/ 18 November 2004

DRC probes report of rocket attack on Tanzania

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government said on Thursday it is investigating reports of an ”isolated and regrettable” rocket attack on neighbouring Rwanda from its territory. A senior Rwandan army officer said on Wednesday that Rwandan rebels launched rockets across the border from one of their strongholds in the eastern DRC.

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/ 18 November 2004

Tsvangirai branded ‘state enemy number one’

President Robert Mugabe’s government has labelled opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as state enemy number one, the official Zimbabwe media reported on Thursday. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa also issued a veiled threat of unspecified action to be taken against Tsvangirai, the head of the Movement for Democratic Change, when he returns from a lengthy international tour.

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/ 18 November 2004

Russian sweets-for-smokes plan fails

Young Russians are reluctant to be weaned off cigarettes, and a drive to persuade them hand over their packets of fags in return for sweets on Thursday fell flat, organisers admitted. Militants of the youth section of the pro-Kremlin United Russia armed themselves with sweets that they hoped to exchange for 3 000 packets of cigarettes.

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/ 18 November 2004

Eastern Cape dismissal drama plays on

A meeting to determine the fate of seven Eastern Cape Development Corporation directors — who were irregularly dismissed by the provincial minister for economic affairs, environment and tourism, Andre de Wet, in September — turned pear-shaped on Wednesday after De Wet effectively ruled against a High Court judgement instructing him to act "without capriciousness".

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/ 18 November 2004

CIA memo urges spies to support Bush

The new United States director of central intelligence, Porter Goss, told CIA staff this week their job was ”to support the Bush administration and its policies in our work”, stirring a new controversy over the future of the agency. The memorandum was attacked by critics as an attempt to suppress dissent, particularly over Iraq, and ensure the agency only produces assessments the White House wants to hear.