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/ 20 September 2004

Sopranos, expired sitcoms take home Emmys

<i>The Sopranos</i> finally whacked its competitors in the best-drama category at the Emmy Awards, but it was HBO and its record-breaking <i>Angels in America</i> that fluttered away with the most trophies. <i>Frasier</i> and <i>Sex and the City</i>, which have both ended their runs, also collected some trophies.

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/ 20 September 2004

Khartoum to abide by ‘unfair’ resolution

Sudan promised to protect civilians in Darfur on Sunday, responding to Saturday’s United Nations security council resolution threatening the regime with oil sanctions and ordering an inquiry into whether the atrocities in the region constitute genocide. Khartoum appeared to bow to the pressure to rein in its militias, but in a statement by its Washington embassy it called the resolution ”unfair and unjust”.

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/ 20 September 2004

Strike on hold, for now

Public servants have put on hold plans for further strike action after a working group set up by labour unions and the government re-drafted a proposed pay rise agreement on Sunday afternoon. The latest draft provided for a 6,2% increase for public servants for this year and consumer inflation plus 0,4% for the following two years, a union negotiator said.

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/ 20 September 2004

Grieving Beslan residents suspect death toll cover-up

Beslan residents, desperately searching for their missing relatives, have begun to suspect that the government has underestimated or tried to conceal the true casualty figures from the massacre. The official death toll from the siege 16 days ago has remained at 329. Yet Zhana Gasiyeva, a deputy to the transport minister for North Ossetia, said that 1 347 people had been taken hostage — a figure that contradicts the ministry of interior’s total of 1 189.

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/ 20 September 2004

Undermining SA’s culture of violence

In the Nguni languages, an indlavini is a violent and reckless man who disrespects elders and tradition. The tough cities also produced the utsotsi, a street-wise petty criminal who asserts his masculinity through violence. Amplified by the media, such notions have now become entrenched. With the introduction of HIV into the social equation, their consequences are also deadlier than ever before.

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/ 20 September 2004

The UK’s new rubbish dump: China

More than a third of the waste paper and plastic collected by British local authorities, supermarkets and businesses for recycling is being sent 12 800km to China without any knowledge of the environmental or social costs — and to the complete surprise of most consumers.

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/ 20 September 2004

Are preschoolers getting their due?

"Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man," goes the old Jesuit saying — an advertisement, if ever there were one, for the virtues of preprimary education. Yet, a decade after the advent of democracy, South Africa appears to spend more on keeping convicted criminals in their cells than on keeping children off the streets and in preschool.