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/ 1 November 2004

Namibian envoy’s grandson out on bail

A Namibian national accused of assaulting and attempting to rape a Pretoria advocate was granted R50 000 bail in the city’s magistrate’s court on Monday, radio news reported. Twenty-year-old Ismail ”Zondi” Ashipembe is the grandson of the third secretary at the Namibian High Commission.

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/ 1 November 2004

Chamsa wants VAT hike, end to pension tax

The Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South Africa (Chamsa) has welcomed the South African government’s commitment to low inflation — but says a thick-point definition of the target should be introduced. Chamsa also said value-added tax (VAT) should be increased by 1% to raise about R6,5-billion in tax revenue.

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/ 1 November 2004

President of Burundi to retire from politics

War-ravaged Burundi’s transitional President, Domitien Ndayizeye, said on Monday he will retire from politics at the end of his term in office, which is due to expire in April next year. ”The last 18 months have been very tiring. I feel old enough not to continue in politics,” Ndayizeye, who is 52, told reporters.

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/ 1 November 2004

Police nab napping robber

A man allegedly broke in to a house in western Japan with the intention of robbing it, but was so drunk that he fell asleep in his victim’s home without stealing a thing, police said on Monday. The occupant returned to his home in Kobe city on Sunday afternoon to find the unemployed suspect asleep on the floor upstairs

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/ 1 November 2004

Making the world’s water safer to drink

Adding a naturally occurring mineral to water contaminated by arsenic could be a quick and cheap means of removing the toxic chemical, says the Science and Development Network. Water containing high concentrations of arsenic threatens the health of tens of millions of people, mainly in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

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/ 1 November 2004

Tired Burundi president dreams of retirement

War-ravaged Burundi’s transitional president, Domitien Ndayizeye, said on Monday he would retire from politics at the end of his term in office, which is due to expire in April 2005. ”The last 18 months have been very tiring. I feel old enough not to continue in politics,” Ndayizeye, who is 52, told reporters.

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/ 1 November 2004

Writing’s on the door for Telkom

Solidarity, the mainly white trade union, and the left-leaning Congress of South African Trade Unions were to work jointly on Monday to protest against retrenchments by fixed-line monopoly Telkom — by posting 25 statements on the door of the National Assembly. The Assembly is to debate the Telkom retrenchments on Tuesday.

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/ 1 November 2004

New film pokes fun at George’s ‘Bushisms’

”I know how hard it [is] for you to put food on your family,” a sympathetic United States President George Bush told baffled single mothers in one of his inimitable foot-in-mouth utterances. Just days ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, a new political film is taking a light-hearted poke at the lexicon of unique words and phrases invented by the leader of the free world.

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/ 1 November 2004

Happy birthday, Hello Kitty

Japan’s Hello Kitty, the moon-faced, mouthless white cat, celebrated her 30th birthday on Monday, evolving from a nameless feline on a cheap vinyl purse into the money-making global icon of cuteness. Tamaki Hirayoshi, a 37-year-old woman in Tokyo, has collected about 1 000 Hello Kitty products over three decades.