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/ 2 September 2004
On the face of things, Microsoft’s online music service looks a lot like the market leader, Apple Computer’s iTunes. When the service launches on Thursday, songs will cost 99 cents — the same as Apple. The catalogue will initially include about 500 000 songs, but the company plans to scale up to more than one million songs over the next few weeks
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/ 2 September 2004
The publication by ThisDay newspaper of a list of 136 MPs ”fingered” in the travel voucher investigation adds nothing of value to the public’s understanding of the issues involved, said South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on Thursday. ”The report borders on being malicious and slanderous,” said an ANC spokesperson.
Travelgate: R17m now owed
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/ 2 September 2004
President Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic on Thursday issued a decree dismissing the government of Prime Minister Celestin-Leroy Gaombalet, state radio said. The radio gave no further details and did not say who will be appointed as the country’s new prime minister.
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/ 2 September 2004
Hundreds of relatives of the Russian school hostages were on Thursday gathered outside the school in the town of Beslan. The armed captors who stormed the school on Wednesday released 26 women and children on Thursday, but hundreds of others are still being held. And anger is mounting among the relatives.
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/ 2 September 2004
Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds — worried that its feathered friends are underfed — has devised a highly original and not very scientific means to measure a possible decline in the insect population, The Independent reported on Thursday.
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/ 2 September 2004
The Department of Health is willing to negotiate its controversial dispensing fee regulations but will only do so if pharmacists withdraw their court action, the department’s Humphrey Zokufa said on Thursday. ”Yes, we will negotiate, but only if they withdraw their court action,” said Zokufa.
Cape pharmacies open after protest
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/ 2 September 2004
Israel threatened to launch a military attack against Syria on Thursday, accusing Damascus of being directly implicated in a double Hamas suicide attack. As Israel’s top diplomats pressed their case that Damascus should pay the price for sheltering Hamas leaders, Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim hinted a strike on Syrian targets could be imminent.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) members turned out in full force around the country to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase. Sadtu spokesperson Jon Lewis said an estimated 30Â 000 people marched through the streets of Johannesburg.
Minister: Teachers’ strike ‘ill-timed’
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/ 2 September 2004
It will inevitably result in a book and a film, but the story of Germany’s cannibal has already brought a summer chart hit to the country’s masters of the macabre: hard-rock band Rammstein. "The soft and the hard parts are all on the menu, it’s so good with seasoning and flambéd," go the not so subtle lyrics of Rammstein’s <i>Mein Teil (My Part)</i>.
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/ 2 September 2004
The strike by some South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) members is ill-timed and has the potential of disrupting learning and teaching in schools, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Thursday. Sadtu planned protest marches on Thursday in all nine provinces.