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/ 13 October 2004
About 1% of adults have absolutely no interest in sex, a surprisingly high figure that is not far from the estimated 3% of the population who are gay, according to a study reported in next Saturday’s <i>New Scientist</i>. Plucky activists have already started campaigning to promote awareness and acceptance of asexuality.
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/ 13 October 2004
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) believes it has already obtained permission for former public accounts committee chairperson Gavin Woods to testify at Schabir Shaik’s fraud and corruption trial. This follows a warning by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete that two MPs due to give evidence will need Parliament’s permission.
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/ 13 October 2004
The United States attorney’s office has opened an investigation into last week’s closure of a Liverpool factory that led to a drastic shortage in flu vaccines in the US and Britain. British authorities suspended the plant’s licence for three months following the announcement in August that a batch of flu vaccines had been contaminated.
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/ 13 October 2004
Any person in Iraq runs a very high risk of being killed, said the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria on Wednesday. Responding to the death of two more South Africans who were gunned down on Tuesday in a roadside attack on their convoy, ISS analyst Henri Boshoff said more deaths should be expected.
Two more South Africans killed in Iraq
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/ 13 October 2004
He is Germany’s most famous literary son, whose upright posture deep into old age impressed many of his contemporaries. But on Tuesday it emerged that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — the biggest name in the German cultural pantheon and the German-speaking world’s answer to Shakespeare — suffered for more than 40 years from acute backache.
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/ 13 October 2004
The German version of the reality show Big Brother has run into trouble after one of its contestants told a series of offensive jokes about Jews on live national television, the broadcaster said on Wednesday. The head of pay-TV service Premiere, Georg Kofler, fired two employees who allowed the scene to be broadcast.
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/ 13 October 2004
No rebel forces will present themselves this week at a disarmament site in north-eastern Côte d’Ivoire, rebel spokesperson Sidiki Konate announced on Wednesday. ”We will not allow ourselves to be drawn into the political manipulation by President [Laurent] Gbagbo, who is fixated on that date,” Konate said.
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/ 13 October 2004
Two more South Africans were killed in Iraq on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Wednesday in Pretoria. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the government was still trying to gather details concerning the attack. He said however that the two men had been employed by Omega Risk Solutions, Iraq.
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/ 13 October 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma still owes more than R1-million for costs incurred in the construction of his Nkandla village in KwaZulu-Natal, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. Prosecutor Billy Downer said the state will prove that the source of the funding for Nkandla was a bribe from arms company Thomson CSF.
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/ 13 October 2004
Driven by demand for flash memory chips used in cell phones, Intel’s third-quarter profits rose 15% as the chip-making giant struggled to overcome lacklustre PC sales, growing inventory, product missteps and stiff competition. For the three months ended on September 25, Intel earned ,9-billion, or 30 cents per share, on sales of ,5-billion.