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/ 18 January 2007
Darlene Conley, a veteran stage and television actress who entertained daytime audiences for nearly two decades as the feisty fashion mogul Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful, has died. She was 72. Conley died on January 7 of stomach cancer at her Los Angeles home surrounded by family and friends.
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/ 18 January 2007
Second seed Rafael Nadal got a wake-up call on Thursday but title contenders Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis were in a class of their own, breezing into the Australian Open third round. Clay court specialist Nadal, drawn to face world number one Roger Federer in this year’s final, was given a marathon workout by 61st ranked German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
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/ 18 January 2007
The top United Nations envoy to Somalia, making his first visit since a war last month, said on Thursday the Horn of Africa nation now had its best chance to end 16 years of anarchy and bloodshed. Francois Lonseny Fall made a swift visit to Mogadishu two weeks after Ethiopian and Somali government troops swept aside Islamists who had run south Somalia for six months.
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/ 18 January 2007
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad’s excuses for why South Africa voted against a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning human rights abuses in Burma ”are dismal”, says official opposition Democratic Alliance foreign affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson.
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/ 18 January 2007
A severe storm front battered the British Isles and Germany on Thursday, causing havoc with shipping and leaving one man dead in England, with forecasters predicting worse weather to come. In the English Channel, French and British helicopters began winching to safety the 26 crew who abandoned a sinking cargo ship off the coast of Cornwall.
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/ 18 January 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s decision that the media will only be allowed to direct questions to provincial officials is an attempt to gag the media, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) said on Thursday. ”It does not only infringe on media freedom but also on the constitutional right to freedom of speech,” said Pieter Groenewald, the party’s spokesperson on safety and security.
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/ 18 January 2007
A tourist was injured when she fell off a suspension bridge at the Tsitsikamma National Park near Plettenberg Bay, South African National Parks said on Thursday. Spokesperson Wanda Mkutshulwa said Sandra Malan suffered a broken leg, a sprained ankle and cuts and bruises on her jaw and legs.
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/ 18 January 2007
Power cuts rippled across South Africa on Thursday, blacking out parts of major cities and spurring warnings from state utility Eskom that unexpected shortages could extend into next week. The cuts, which Eskom attributed to power-station maintenance and the shutdown of one unit at Koeberg, caused power failures stretching from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
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/ 18 January 2007
At least four workers were killed and 39 injured when a fire broke out on Thursday in a tower under construction in Dubai, the trading hub of the United Arab Emirates, a hospital official and witnesses said. Dozens of workers were trapped by thick smoke as rescue crews tried to reach them. Witnesses said they saw a man fall from one of the 37-storey building’s upper floors.
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/ 18 January 2007
Torrential rains have destroyed more than 1 000 houses, leaving more than 6 000 people homeless in northern Mozambique, officials said on Thursday. A statement by the government’s relief agency said 13 classrooms have also been swept away by the rain, and a further 150 houses are at risk of collapse.