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/ 9 November 2006
A series of concerted bombings ripped through Baghdad markets on Thursday as attacks across Iraq killed at least 27 people and left little doubt that a brief respite in the violence earlier in the week was over. Overnight at least a dozen mortar shells crashed down on Sunni neighbourhoods in the capital.
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/ 9 November 2006
Sony will roll out the the PlayStation 3, the latest version of its blockbuster games machine, in Japan on Saturday in a three-way showdown with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s upcoming Wii in the nearly -billion video-game market. The stakes are high for Sony.
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/ 9 November 2006
The government in Côte d’Ivoire has culled more than 200 pigs that were being raised near sites polluted by toxic waste dumped in Abidjan in August for fear of contamination of the food chain. The government announced that as part of its management of the toxic-waste crisis, farms located near the polluted sites have been monitored.
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/ 9 November 2006
Eastern Cape legislature members have three different versions of an annual report for a department that has received nine audit disclaimers in 10 years, the Public Service Accountability Monitor said on Thursday. This was highlighted at a joint sitting of the legislature’s housing and local government committees last Friday.
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/ 9 November 2006
Artists and other creative workers could soon enjoy the benefits of a social-security scheme, the Creative Workers’ Union of South Africa (CWUSA) said on Thursday. It is hoped that the scheme will be launched in September next year, the CWUSA’s general secretary, Oupa Lebogo, told reporters in Johannesburg.
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/ 9 November 2006
Public Protector Mabedla Lawrence Mushwana has found that a R65Â 000 interest-free loan paid by Sandi Majali, of Imvume Investments, to Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya’s wife for renovations on Skweyiya’s Waterkloof home did not influence the awarding of a multimillion-rand contract to a company partly owned by Imvume.
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/ 9 November 2006
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik cut a lonely figure in the back of the police van that carried him through the gates of Durban’s Westville Prison on Thursday. It was the start of the 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption that the former financial adviser to Jacob Zuma had tried so desperately to avoid, but his hopes were dashed by a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday.
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/ 9 November 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista, the software giant’s first major upgrade of its operating system in five years, is complete and will be available to retail customers on January 30, a senior executive said on Wednesday. In the first year of release, Vista will be installed on more than 100-million computers worldwide, according to research firm IDC.
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/ 9 November 2006
The 2006 <i>Human Development Report</i>, titled <i>Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis</i>, focuses on the ongoing problems that surround provision of potable water and sanitation. The document was launched on Thursday in Cape Town by the United Nations Development Programme.
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/ 9 November 2006
A global action plan is urgently needed to resolve the world’s growing water and sanitation crisis, and South Africa can help establish one, says the United Nations Development Programme. Its latest <i>Human Development Report</i>, focusing on water and sanitation, was launched in Cape Town on Thursday.