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/ 24 October 2005
Surrounded by a crowd of admirers, 24-year-old Jack has no idea how close his home came to being shut down a decade ago as he dangles from a rope, scratching his shaggy red fur. The orangutan plays happily at a zoo in northern Japan that was saved from the brink of closure and redesigned as a playground for animals that is now the country’s top wildlife attraction.
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/ 24 October 2005
The Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs is exploring the possibility of creating "agricultural suburbs" in rural towns to provide permanent housing for farmworkers. Glen Thomas, director general in the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs, admitted to Parliament’s land affairs and agriculture committee that the Labour Tenants Act and the Extension of Security Act had not done enough to give farm workers security of tenure.
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/ 24 October 2005
Nigeria will begin three days of national mourning on Monday after an unexplained plane crash killed 117 passengers and crew flying from Lagos to the capital Abuja, the federal government announced. South African television producer Adele Lorenzo was among the dead, media reports said on Monday.
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/ 24 October 2005
South Africa’s corporate tax should be reduced to 25% or less as part of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged. Manuel presents the MTBPS to Parliament on Tuesday.
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/ 24 October 2005
South Africa could achieve six percent economic growth before the government’s target date if its policies were rapidly implemented, the International Investment Council said on Sunday. Council members suggested that remaining barriers to growth, such as skills shortages, regulations and infrastructure, should be dealt with more quickly.
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/ 24 October 2005
A strengthened Hurricane Wilma barrelled toward the United States state of Florida early on Monday as officials urged residents to leave the coastal area or move to shelters. Wilma was upgraded late on Sunday to a category three storm after it displayed sustained winds of 185kph, which qualified it for category three status, said US National Hurricane Centre forecaster Jamie Rhome.
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/ 24 October 2005
The United States and Britain stepped up pressure on Syria on Sunday, calling for foreign ministers of the United Nations security council countries to meet to consider urgent measures that might include demanding that senior Syrian officials give face-to-face evidence on the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri.
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/ 24 October 2005
Hurricane Wilma left the north-eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula on Sunday after inflicting two days of punishing storms that devastated the area’s tourist resorts and badly damaged the homes of hundreds of thousands of local people.
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/ 24 October 2005
Vanilla, liquorice and chocolate — will these flavours entice South Africa’s notoriously resistant men into wearing condoms? Recently, an Aids media project announced it would be distributing hundreds of thousands of free, vanilla-flavoured condoms to lure men into having safer sex.
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/ 24 October 2005
The mayor of Bloemfontein’s Mangaung council, Papi Mokoena, was still in office on Thursday, defiantly ignoring an African National Congress order to step down. Mokoena; the Mangaung council speaker Zongezile Zumane; city manager Mojalefa Matlole and other officials have been charged in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court with corruption after a Scorpions’ investigation.