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/ 10 December 2006
South Africa, the world’s top gold producer, has launched a crackdown against ”pirates” who live for months in the bowels of abandoned pits, plundering booty worth millions of rands. Known as the ”Zama Zama”, which means ”Let’s try our luck”, the so-called ”gold pirates” have struck terror among local miners as well as police by setting up booby traps and homemade bombs to keep them away.
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/ 10 December 2006
The horror of Darfur seems especially disturbing when seen through an infant’s eyes and this sketch, of a village being bombed from the air, was drawn by an anonymous child — one of the thousands now living in displaced people’s camps in Sudan.
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/ 10 December 2006
The debate over how to punish Iran for its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work resumes in New York on Monday with Western diplomats confident that the United Nations Security Council will approve targeted sanctions against Tehran by Christmas.
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/ 10 December 2006
The Local Organising Committee should release quarterly reports informing the public about how their plans for the Soccer World Cup were progressing, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”The South African public deserves to know about actual progress, not just plans for the future,” said James Masango, the DA’s sport and recreation spokesperson.
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/ 10 December 2006
A long-awaited British police report into Princess Diana’s death due this week could finally lay to rest conspiracy theories that she was murdered rather than that she died the victim of a tragic accident. A three-year inquiry headed by Britain’s former top police officer John Stevens is expected to announce on Thursday it has ruled out foul play.
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/ 10 December 2006
Nigerian police used teargas on Saturday to quell fighting between supporters of rival candidates for governor in Niger and Plateau states as the ruling party began gubernatorial primaries across the nation. In central Benue state, one policeman was killed by a mob protesting against the outcome of an earlier primary to pick members of the state house of assembly.
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/ 10 December 2006
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off its seaside launch pad on Saturday, defying the odds of poor weather and ending the ban on night-time flights imposed after the 2003 Columbia disaster. High winds had threatened to delay the flight for the second time in as many days but the gusts calmed, clearing the way for Nasa’s third shuttle mission in six months.
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/ 10 December 2006
England have not benefited from winning the World Cup and must appoint former South Africa coach Nick Mallett to get back on track, according to the architect of their 2003 triumph. ”It is personally shattering for me to say this, but winning the World Cup was the worst thing that ever happened to the England team,” Clive Woodward said in the Sunday Times.
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/ 10 December 2006
South Africa’s most dangerous criminal, Annanias Mathe, did not use vaseline to slip out of his cell window in the high security C-Max prison but walked out after paying warders an R80 000 bribe, reported the Sunday Times. Mathe escaped on November 18 and was shot and recaptured by a vehicle tracking company on Monday when he stole a car.
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/ 10 December 2006
Flying Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to the United Kingdom cost taxpayers an estimated R4,55-million, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday. This was ”irregular and way out of proportion with reasonable standards”, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said in a statement.