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/ 27 October 2004
An inquiry into the cause of an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, last month — which left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured — began on Wednesday, the Department of Labour said. Spokesperson Page Boikanyo said 40 witnesses, including workers and subcontractors, will be questioned during the inquiry.
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/ 27 October 2004
Nearly 800 members of British forces began leaving their bases in southern Iraq on Wednesday, heading north to replace United States troops who are expected to take part in an offensive against insurgent strongholds. The deployment came hours after Iraq’s most feared militant group released a video threatening to behead a Japanese captive.
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/ 27 October 2004
A 37-year-old police officer convicted of killing a Germiston hotelier was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. Inspector Sibongakonke Ndlovu, found guilty on Friday of shooting dead Petrus Jooste — the owner of the Republic hotel in Elsburg — on New Year’s Day, apparently became ill when the sentence was passed.
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/ 27 October 2004
A sum of R2-million that former president Nelson Mandela gave to Deputy President Jacob Zuma in October 2000 was used to pay the debts of Zuma and Schabir Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. At that stage, Zuma experienced huge financial problems.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124444">Company used ‘creative accounting'</a>
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/ 27 October 2004
A 500-day campaign, aimed at turning Johannesburg into a safer environment, will be launched next month, mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday. Operation Token Days — which forms part of the city’s broader safety strategy — will kick off on November 8 and run for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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/ 27 October 2004
The judges hearing Mark Thatcher’s Cape High Court application on Wednesday subjected the state’s legal team to some tough questioning on Thatcher’s constitutional rights. Thatcher is seeking to overturn a subpoena ordering him to answer questions on an alleged coup bid in Equatorial Guinea.
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/ 27 October 2004
Former combatant Marcus Weah says he was forced to smoke marijuana to make him brave in battle, and quit easily the day guns fell silent in Liberia, but he is rare. For the thousands of ex-fighters who will find quitting a drug habit more difficult, there is little available help.
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/ 27 October 2004
The sleepy town of Cabinda has a forlorn air about it, but few outward signs of the decades-long conflict that has plagued the oil-rich Angolan province. Although Cabinda produces 60% of Angola’s oil revenues, the province, saddled with one of the highest HIV rates in the country, has been slow to respond to the epidemic.
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/ 27 October 2004
At least eight people have died from an outbreak of bubonic plague in north-western China but authorities said the disease has been brought under control, state media reported on Wednesday. The plague outbreak was controlled after local health authorities took swift measures to contain the disease.
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/ 27 October 2004
The Democratic Alliance believes the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was shockingly treated in Zimbabwe, party chairperson Joe Seremane said on Wednesday. Seremane was referring to Tuesday’s summary deportation of a 13-strong Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.