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/ 26 February 2004
Gay marriage, likely to become a hot issue in this year’s United States presidential election, stirs little emotion in Europe although few countries have accepted it. Even The Netherlands, the first state to legalise homosexual civil marriage on April 1 2001, still restricts the ability of gays to adopt children.
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/ 26 February 2004
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has prepared a series of protest actions to support baggage handlers who have been on strike over a wage dispute for the past two months, Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Thursday.
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/ 26 February 2004
A pause for rest during a traverse in the Hex River Mountains led to the serendipitous discovery of a new species of Disa flower, a nursery manager at the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens said on Thursday. The new flower is related to the red Disa, which is unique to the Western Cape.
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/ 26 February 2004
In a statement issued on Thursday following the first of the monetary policy committee meetings for 2004, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said the success achieved in bringing inflation down to levels last experienced in the 1960s has been a major accomplishment
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/ 26 February 2004
The South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee decided on Thursday to leave the repo rate unchanged at 8%. Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said the expectation of the committee is that inflation will remain within the target range during the forecast period while the economy continues to pick up momentum.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=31824">Mboweni hails inflation success</a>
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/ 26 February 2004
The Ugandan Parliament has passed a motion calling for the insurgency-hit north to be officially declared a disaster zone and urging the international community to help end the violence, officials said on Thursday. Only the president has the mandate to declare a region a disaster area.
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/ 26 February 2004
The Democratic Alliance has again hit out at the African National Congress’s apparent ”inability” to provide answers on allegations that the ruling party may have benefited from a private oil deal with the government of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
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/ 26 February 2004
At least 15 people were killed and 17 more injured on Thursday in a café explosion in Siberia, which apparently was caused by a natural gas leak. Neglect of safety precautions has led to frequent gas explosions in Russian apartment buildings and public facilities.
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/ 26 February 2004
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against Israel’s West Bank barrier on Thursday, and two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier at a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops. The West Bank protesters were trying to block construction workers from putting up a new section of fencing.
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/ 26 February 2004
Year-on-year producer price inflation for all commodities for South African consumption (PPI) came in higher at -1,4% last month compared with -1.8% in December 2003, Statistics SA reported on Thursday. This could be explained by increases in the annual rates of change of several production price indices.