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/ 20 December 2004
Iraqi Shi’ite leaders braced on Monday for greater violence but vowed to push ahead with elections in January after twin car bombs claimed the lives of 66 people in the pilgrimage cities of Najaf and Karbala. The bombings were a stark reminder of the violence that could lie ahead in the six weeks before the January 30 elections.
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/ 20 December 2004
A puritanical member of the congregation in the small southern English village of Wiston is thought to be behind the smashing of an 800-year-old pagan symbol that warns against lust, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. The erotic stone carving with its genitalia exposed had long been a talking point.
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/ 20 December 2004
New fighting was reported on Sunday between the army and mutineers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the military said clashes in the area had killed at least 14 earlier in the week. United Nations and rebel sources said new battles took place after three days of calm north of Kanyabayonga.
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/ 20 December 2004
A top-ranking civil servant of President Robert Mugabe’s government was arrested after giving written reprieves to white farmers under imminent threat of having their land confiscated, state radio said on Monday. State radio said the official has been charged with theft and vandalism of farm equipment on already commandeered farms.
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/ 20 December 2004
The Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa welcomed a Supreme Court of Appeal judgement on Monday that set aside government medicine-pricing regulations. ”What the judgement means in effect is that the pricing regulations are no longer in operation,” spokesperson Lorraine Osman said.
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/ 20 December 2004
The youth league of the trade union Solidarity launched a campaign from behind the bars of an animal enclosure at the Pretoria Zoo on Monday to exempt young people from affirmative-action policies. ”We agree with the concept of affirmative action, but the way it is being implemented is incorrect,” said a Solidarity spokesperson.
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/ 20 December 2004
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher arrived in South Africa at the weekend to spend Christmas with her son Mark who cannot travel as he is charged with bankrolling an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. This is Thatcher’s 10th annual visit to Cape Town since her son bought his plush Cape Town home.
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/ 20 December 2004
Amelia Earhart once said that preparation is two-thirds of any venture. But on the morning of July 2 1937, even the best-prepared flight ended in tragedy when Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished as they approached a tiny Pacific island on one of the last legs of a groundbreaking round-the-world flight.
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/ 20 December 2004
India’s capital made tracks into the future on Sunday when its first underground trains began to run. Designed to cut pollution and improve life for 14-million people crowded into the traffic-choked capital, the Delhi metro has been running an 18-stop overground service since March.
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/ 20 December 2004
Turkish euphoria at last week’s historic decision to open talks on European Union accession was tempered on Sunday when Cyprus warned that it could still veto membership. The Greek Cypriot leader has threatened to derail the process if Ankara does not expand its customs union with the EU to include the island.