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/ 11 December 2004
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has unconditionally apologised to President Thabo Mbeki for infringing his dignity and that of his office. ”The breakdown of procedures to protect the confidentiality of donor and medical information is deeply regretted,” the SANBS chairperson said on Friday.
Apology for Mbeki blood slip-up
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/ 11 December 2004
Adults tend to ignore the scruffy kerbside shrine. However fast they walk past the drooping flower arrangements, the people of San Juan Ixtayopan admit the consequences of what happened are not so easy to leave behind. It was here that two police officers were murdered three weeks ago, set upon by an enraged mob.
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/ 11 December 2004
For years, pipelines from the former Soviet Union have shipped the prosaic necessities of oil and gas to western Europe. But now smugglers have developed their own pipeline network for a more potent fuel — moonshine. Border guards in Lithuania have unearthed a lengthy pipeline that was intended to convey illicit alcohol.
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/ 11 December 2004
Several thousand people remain stranded without adequate food, water or shelter on a remote south Pacific island following repeated volcanic eruptions, local authorities said on Friday. Five people have already died after drinking ash-contaminated water on Manam in Papua New Guinea.
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/ 11 December 2004
He is most famous for his far-fetched tale of how dinosaurs could be brought to life with DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber. Now the bestselling author Michael Crichton has written a thriller about ecoterrorism that the critics say is equally fantastic in its refusal to accept that global warming is a clear and present danger.
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/ 11 December 2004
Kenya has started to repossess millions of hectares of land illegally seized by former president Daniel arap Moi and his cronies during his 24-year rule. An official report published on Friday depicts a vast, kleptocratic looting of land for political patronage, which damaged the economy and stoked ethnic tension.
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/ 11 December 2004
Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was on Friday night cleared of the most serious corruption charge hanging over him when a Milan court ruled that a key accusation — that of bribing a judge with almost 000 — was ”out of time”. He was found not guilty of all other charges.
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/ 11 December 2004
The story of Friday’s second round at the Dunhill Championship was more about the losers than the winners. After shooting a five-under-par 67 on Thursday to lie one shot off leader Bruce McDonald of Zimbabwe at the Leopard Creek Golf Course, tournament favourite Ernie Els played a slovenly back nine on Friday to shoot a three-over-par 75.
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/ 11 December 2004
Ajax Cape Town had to wait until the 89th minute before they gained a 1-0 win and maximum points in their Premier League game against Golden Arrows at a wind-swept Athlone Stadium on Friday night. Brent Carlse’s 20m drive after finally breaking through gave Arrows goalkeeper Daniel Phiri no chance.
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/ 11 December 2004
Fresh allegations about a regime of torture and humiliation inflicted on detainees by their American captors at Guantánamo Bay have been made by a Briton still held there, according to British Foreign Office documents. The claims are the latest to surface from the prison where the United States holds 550 Muslim men.