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/ 6 February 2004

Armed opposition group seizes Haitian city

An armed opposition group seized control of Haiti’s fourth-largest city in clashes that killed at least four people, while the government vowed to restore order. Members of the Gonaives Resistance Front on Thursday set fire to the mayor’s home in Gonaives, then doused the police station with fuel, lighting it while officers fled.

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/ 6 February 2004

Mbeki avoids fireworks

South African President Thabo Mbeki avoided fireworks in his State of the Nation speech on Friday, but gave reassurances on his government misusing a potential two-thirds majority in the next election while promising that the stability of the past 10 years will be maintained.

  • ‘We were very disappointed’
  • Mbeki: No major policy shifts
  • Economists react to Mbeki speech
  • Parliament a riot of colour
  • Mbeki’s speech: Full text (PDF)
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    / 6 February 2004

    Major fraud scam trial opens in Nigeria

    Five alleged perpetrators of the world’s biggest advance-fee fraud scam were taken before a Nigerian High Court on Thursday charged with 86 counts of duping a Brazilian bank out of -million. Emmanuel Nwude, former director of Union Bank, a top-rated bank in Nigeria, led the accused, who all pleaded not guilty.

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    / 6 February 2004

    New fears of bird flu in pigs

    Pigs in Vietnam have tested positive for the bird-flu virus that has infected millions of chickens and ducks across Asia and killed 18 people, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation said on Friday. However, some experts cautioned the tests were not conclusive and that it was too early to start talking about culling swine.

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    / 6 February 2004

    Rising tide drowns shellfish hunters

    At least 18 shellfish hunters died when they were trapped by fast-rising tides in treacherous Morecambe Bay in northern England, police said on Friday. Police reported seven others were rescued and the search was continuing. The dead — 16 men and two women — were among a group of people all believed to be Chinese nationals.

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    / 6 February 2004

    Killer quake jolts Indonesia

    A series of powerful earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 6,9 struck Indonesia’s remote Papua province Friday, killing 26 people, injuring as many as 600 and destroying hundreds of houses, authorities said. The quakes hit hardest in the town of Nabire, damaging the local airport, a bridge, roads and buildings.

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    / 6 February 2004

    Mammy Blue

    Women worldwide have fearlessly fought against sexual discrimination and maltreatment. Daniel Mengara, a Gabonese author, champions their outcry with his novel Mema, which adroitly portrays the gloomy life many African women lead. Leseli Mokhele reviews.

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    / 6 February 2004

    Give art a chance

    ”I first encountered Yoko Ono’s work at a big exhibition at the Riverside Gallery in London. It was some time in the late 1980s, when I was at art college. I liked her work immediately, because it was beyond any genre or categories I had seen before”. Yoko Ono, who turns 71 on February 18, is a household name. But no one knows how good she is as an artist, writes Sam Taylor-Wood.