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/ 22 May 2006

Network failure: It wasn’t us, says Cell C

Cell C has denied it was to blame for the problems experienced by the Vodacom network on Friday. ”Problems experienced were on Vodacom’s network and our understanding is that these were rectified by Vodacom’s engineers fixing their own network problems,” said Cell C head of communications Vanashree Pillay on Monday.

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/ 22 May 2006

Film that pans Berlusconi tipped at Cannes

A searing indictment of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wrapped into a tender story of one man’s bid to overcome failure won a rapturous welcome from Cannes critics on Monday. Director Nanni Moretti’s film was released in March, just before the elections in which the conservative Berlusconi was narrowly ousted after five years in office.

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/ 22 May 2006

Former radio boss released by police in Chad

Police in Chad have released the former head of an independent radio station, Tchanguiz Vatankhah, who was detained for more than three weeks for his political activities, a media body said on Monday. Vatankhah, who is president of the Chad Union of Privately Owned Radio Stations (URPT), was freed last Friday, said a URPT statement.

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/ 22 May 2006

Battle for Cape Town continues

Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon took to the streets of Mitchells Plain on Monday, where his party is fighting a key by-election against Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats in the coloured working-class district of Tafelsig. He argued that voters were being given a chance to vote against De Lille’s flirtation with the African National Congress ”reign of ruin”.

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/ 22 May 2006

Montenegro independence could help Balkan stability

Analysts in the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo say Montenegro’s independence is likely to contribute to stability in the historically volatile Balkans. The outcome could finally encourage Belgrade to focus on its own problems, after its involvement in the brutal wars of the early 1990s that tore apart former communist Yugoslavia, they add.

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/ 22 May 2006

Japanese TV apologises for ‘sickening’ diet

A major Japanese television network apologised on Monday after almost 160 people were struck with vomiting and diarrhoea after following a weight-loss plan it broadcast. A May 6 show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) introduced a diet of rice mixed with white kidney beans that had been roasted for about three minutes and ground into powder.

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/ 22 May 2006

Afghanistan air raid kills up to 80 Taliban

Up to 80 Taliban rebels and at least 16 civilians were killed on Monday during a coalition air and ground attack on a village in southern Afghanistan, officials and witnesses said. The United States-led coalition said it called in war planes after troops who were trying to capture insurgents in Kandahar province came under fire.

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/ 22 May 2006

Travelgate: Agency director arrested

A director of the liquidated Bathong travel agency, David Phokeng, was arrested on Monday in a bid to make him co-operate with the liquidation inquiry. Bellville magistrate Mannie van Reenen ordered the arrest after the attorney acting for the liquidators, Bernhard Kurz, complained that Phokeng regarded the hearings as a joke.