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/ 1 November 2004
Conflicting reports from the disputed region of Sool, northern Somalia, indicate that at least 100 people were killed on Friday when forces from the self-declared republic of Somaliland clashed with those of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Both sides are accusing the other of initiating the hostilities.
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/ 1 November 2004
It’s official — Swiss cheese is the best in the world. Cheeses from Alpine Switzerland won 37 of 60 medals available at the third annual Mountain Cheese Olympics, including 13 gold medals, the organisers said. More than 400 mountain cheeses from around the world competed in the four-day event.
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/ 1 November 2004
Four journalists will go on trial in Zimbabwe in January on charges of defaming President Robert Mugabe. A newspaper report that said he had used a plane from the national carrier for his holidays. Editors Iden Wetherell and Vincent Kahiya, and reporters Dumisani Muleya and Itai Dzamara from the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent are to return to court on January 10 for the start of the trial.
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/ 1 November 2004
South Africa’s long-awaited Convergence Bill will be passed next year, Director General of Communications Lyndall Shope-Mafole said on Monday. Convergence means carrying all types of communication on one digital network — comprising voice, data, internet and other information and communications technology platforms.
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/ 1 November 2004
World oil prices rose on Monday after union leaders announced plans for an indefinite general strike in Nigeria, Africa’s largest exporter of crude, to begin later this month, traders said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose 49 cents to ,25 a barrel in electronic trading.
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/ 1 November 2004
I do have to admit that I feel a bit like Rip van Winkle, whoever he might have been. I have been out on the road for a month, which seems like a short space of time when you think about if from one perspective, but is really a lifetime when you look at it from another point of view. The world passes beneath your feet in real time while you’re out there. Meanwhile, back home, seismic changes are rumbling like there’s no tomorrow.
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/ 1 November 2004
A Hong Kong company was on Monday struggling to keep pace with demand for a belching, wolf-whistling robot expected to be one of the bestselling toys worldwide this Christmas. Shops across the United Kingdom and United States have sold out of the hi-tech Robosapien, which also breaks wind and snores.
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/ 1 November 2004
Newly designed 1 000 yen, 5 000 yen and 10 000 yen Japanese banknotes with embedded anti-counterfeiting technologies went into circulation on Monday. Japan has been seeing an increasing number of forged banknotes, with 14 000 fake bills found in the first six months of this year.
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/ 1 November 2004
Ultra-Orthodox volunteers were picking through the debris of fruit and vegetables on Monday as they tried to retrieve body parts of the victims of a suicide bombing in a cramped Tel Aviv marketplace. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, currently in hospital outside Paris, condemned the deadly suicide bombing.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=124718">Market blast rocks Tel Aviv</a>
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/ 1 November 2004
The deputy governor of Baghdad was shot dead on his way to work on Monday, in the latest attack by insurgents against the United States-backed Iraqi regime. Hatim Kamil was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car in the southern Doura neighbourhood, an interior ministry spokesperson said. Two of his bodyguards were wounded in the attack.