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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

SA soldier shot and killed in Bujumbura

A South African soldier taking part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Burundi has been shot dead, apparently by a colleague, the South African National Defence Force said on Thursday. Gunner Elvin Mopani Hendricks (24) died in a shooting incident on Wednesday night in a military camp in Bujumbura.

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/ 18 November 2004

Manuel looks to rand relief

A little less market confidence in the rand might be a ”welcome relief”, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. He told a Bureau for Economic Research conference in Somerset West that by making the correct decisions, South Africa had by 2001 been able to adopt an expansionary fiscal stance, in a context of renewed business confidence.