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/ 24 January 2007
A long-awaited report on good governance in South Africa identifies crime, graft and xenophobia as potential pitfalls for the continent’s biggest economy, according to a leaked copy obtained by the media. The African Peer Review Mechanism report places official corruption among South Africa’s biggest problems.
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/ 24 January 2007
Bellville prosecuting authorities on Wednesday withdrew charges against a bomb hoaxer on board a kulula.com flight out of Cape Town. Alberton stock controller Barend Griffin (26) had joked that he had a bomb in a carton that contained a bathroom appliance while at Cape Town International Airport waiting to board a flight to Johannesburg.
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/ 24 January 2007
Two South Africans on Wednesday remained adamant they are not linked to terror group al-Qaeda. ”… There is nothing further to state in any further press release, other than our clients’ emphasis that they are innocent,” said Shaheed Dollie, attorney representing Junaid and Farhad Dockrat.
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/ 24 January 2007
South Africa has expressed concern about the increasing incidents of its citizens being deported on arrival in foreign countries. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday that the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates are countries where South Africans are regularly deported from.
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/ 24 January 2007
Fifty-three people have died in Luanda, Angola’s seaside capital, in torrential rains that have lashed the city for three days, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. ”We have recorded 53 deaths until now,” Divaldo Martins said, adding that more than 1Â 300 families were homeless.
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/ 24 January 2007
Insufficient government planning is behind the crisis in funds for the building of stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Democratic Alliance (DA) charged on Wednesday. ”The insufficient planning is clear in the 2004 estimate of R1,6-billion for the upgrading and construction of 13 and not 10 stadiums,” said DA spokesperson James Masango. In 2005, the estimate was R2,5-billion.
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/ 24 January 2007
Israeli President Moshe Katsav informed Parliament on Wednesday he was taking a leave of absence after prosecutors announced they intended to charge him with rape and other sexual offences, Channel Two television said. Katsav’s self-imposed suspension from his largely ceremonial duties stopped short of meeting mounting demands by legislators that he resign.
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/ 24 January 2007
Unions in Guinea said they were ready to resume negotiations on Wednesday to end a crippling general strike after days of violent clashes around the West African country in which at least 40 people have been killed. Union chiefs say President Lansana Conte, a reclusive, chain-smoking diabetic in his 70s, is unfit to rule and are demanding he step aside.
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/ 24 January 2007
Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa workers marched to its offices in Pretoria on Wednesday to demand compensation for radiation illness, Earth Life Africa said. ”The company has been disputing that the people are ill and are delaying providing compensation for them,” spokesperson Mashile Phalane said of the 100 demonstrators.
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/ 24 January 2007
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov questioned on Wednesday the purpose of a United States plan to place an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic. US officials say the system will protect it and it European allies from missiles that could be fired from North Korea, Iran or other ”rogue regimes”.