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/ 13 December 2006
The four South Africans abducted in Iraq on Sunday are believed to be alive and there has been contact with their captors, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. ”As far as we are aware, they are still alive,” said department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
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/ 13 December 2006
The government will ban canned hunting, despite media reports to the contrary, the Department of Environmental Affairs confirmed on Wednesday. The ban will come into effect in March next year, with the promulgation of regulations in terms of the Biodiversity Act, it said in a statement. The new regulations were unveiled to the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
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/ 13 December 2006
European Union leaders should support tough action against Sudanese leaders for their failure to end abuses in the strife-torn region of Darfur, the International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. On the eve of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, the campaigning groups called for individual sanctions on Sudanese leaders, an assets freeze and a travel ban.
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/ 13 December 2006
Zimbabwean lawyers, human rights and pro-democracy activists on Wednesday marched across Harare protesting against increasing human rights violations and the use of torture by state security agents. The protesters, numbering more than a 100 people and who demanded urgent action to end human rights abuses and torture, handed a petition to the Supreme Court.
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/ 13 December 2006
A member of the old United Democratic Front (UDF) senior leadership may emerge as a strong and even winning candidate in the succession struggle in the African National Congress (ANC), political analyst Frederik van Zyl Slabbert predicts. This has been reported in the Helen Suzman Foundation publication, <i>Focus</i>, as reported by scribe Patrick Laurence.
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/ 13 December 2006
British police admitted on Wednesday they ”fear the worst” after the latest grisly findings in a probable serial-killer probe, as they race against time to prevent the death toll of five rising further. Extra officers are being drafted in from around the country to hunt for a killer already dubbed the ”Ipswich Ripper”.
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/ 13 December 2006
Shivering in a corner at Qatar’s al-Sadd Stadium stands security guard Nasser Abdullah, his traditional white robe and headdress no protection against freak weather wreaking havoc at the Asian Games. Since the start of the Asian Games on December 1, more rain has fallen than the desert state has seen in 40 years.
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/ 13 December 2006
At a time when questions about the United States’s use of military power abound, the US is using its muscle to make friends in a region that many fear could become a haven for radicalism. This week, the military started air-dropping about 100 000kg of supplies in Dadaab, Kenya, following the worst flood season in East Africa in 50 years.
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/ 13 December 2006
South Africa will help the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to find a diplomatic solution to the ongoing fighting in the country, South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Wednesday. He was speaking only a day after the forces of warlord Laurent Nkunda apparently attacked and killed three men who wanted to return to the regular army.
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/ 13 December 2006
The South African Air Force (SAAF) can transport VIPs or be combat ready, not both, said the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday. ”The few remaining resources that the SAAF has will either have to be used for transporting VIPs or maintaining combat readiness. It cannot do both,” said DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn.