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/ 14 January 2004
South African President Thabo Mbeki began a two day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday aimed at encouraging the transition to democracy here and rebuilding ties with a country traumatised by five years of war.
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/ 14 January 2004
Canada became the third largest producer of diamonds in 2003, behind Botswana and Russia, but ahead of South Africa, the government statistics agency announced Tuesday. Between 1998 and 2002, Canadian companies mined about 13,8-million carats, diamonds collectively worth ,8-billion Canadian dollars, it said.
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/ 14 January 2004
Actor-writer Spalding Gray, noted for his one-man shows in which he tells of his life in artful, witty monologues, has been reported missing, police said. Police in New York City and in Southampton, New York, were searching for the 62-year-old actor, who has homes in both places.
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/ 14 January 2004
The actual area South African commercial maize farmers have devoted to maize during the current 2003/04 season is expected to be 2,55-million hectares, down 6,4% from the 2,724-million hectares farmers intended to plant in November, a survey of 22 grain traders shows.
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/ 14 January 2004
There is something eerily familiar about the American court system. Every now and then the prosecution interrupts the defence with the words: ”Objection — argumentative,” or the judge asks the legal adversaries to ”please approach the bench”, and you look over your shoulder for Cagney and Lacey or Ally McBeal.
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/ 14 January 2004
Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, took a heavy blow on Tuesday when Italy’s constitutional court ruled that a law which gave him immunity from prosecution last year was unconstitutional. The decision means the billionaire prime minister will once again face a corruption trial which was suspended last June.
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/ 14 January 2004
Arms manufacturer Denel was on Tuesday ordered to pay its workers a 9,5% salary increase backdated to July 2003, trade union Solidarity said. It said Denel has, for months, been refusing to pay its workers the 9,5% pay rise as agreed upon by the firm and several trade unions whose members work for Denel.
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/ 14 January 2004
Despite scepticism from the Democratic Alliance and the New National Party, the Gauteng education department said it was confident that it would be able to accommodate all new pupils registering this year. ”Parents still seeking late admissions will not be turned away,” said Thebe Mohatle, departmental spokesperson.
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/ 14 January 2004
The newspaper USA Today on Tuesday went public with its own Jayson Blair-style scandal, delivering another hammer blow to the reputation of journalism in the United States. The newspaper printed a half-page mea culpa, admitting that its star foreign correspondent, Jack Kelley, had ”repeatedly misled editors” during a seven-month internal investigation into the veracity of his work.
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/ 14 January 2004
The United States is sending troops and defence contractors to the Sahara desert in West Africa to open what it calls a new front in the war on terror. A small vanguard force arrived this week in Mauritania to pave the way for a -million plan to bolster the security forces and border controls of Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger.