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/ 20 October 2005
Parliamentary discussions deadlocked on Thursday over the proposed composition of the board of regulators for the diamond and precious metals industry. Minerals and energy portfolio committee members disagreed with proposals in the draft Diamond Bill suggesting the board only have one representative from organised labour on it.
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/ 20 October 2005
An unknown gay rights group claimed it planted a dozen fake bombs around Warsaw that paralysed the Polish capital on Thursday, three days before the second round of a presidential election. ”You paralyse our life, we’ll paralyse yours,” a lengthy e-mail sent to media groups in Warsaw said, referring among other issues to a ban on a gay pride parade by Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski.
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/ 20 October 2005
A monstrous Hurricane Wilma barrelled toward Mexico and the storm-weary United States coast on Thursday, forcing tens of thousands to flee coastlines after it mushroomed into the most powerful storm recorded to date in the Atlantic. Cuba has started to evacuate 235 000 people.
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/ 20 October 2005
Mark Glennon knew what was coming. He slept in a bullet-proof vest and his west Dublin council house was a fortress of bullet-proof glass, CCTV cameras and reinforced doors. To maintain his edge, and his trigger finger, he fuelled himself with cocaine.
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/ 20 October 2005
Paris, mid-October: a morning of bountiful autumn sunshine that makes one happy to be alive. But we are among the dead, searching in a sector of the Père Lachaise cemetery for the grave of Poulenc. Though we aren’t going to find him here: the names, and the stars where elsewhere there are crosses, denote that this quiet corner, ”amants légendaires”, is the seventh division, the Jewish quarter, and we need to push on up the Chemin Serré.
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/ 20 October 2005
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni sent a strong signal on Thursday that the next move in interest rates would be upwards, the Reuters website reported. Mboweni said he had jokingly told the monetary policy committee last week that if anyone argued for a rate cut, he would strip.
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/ 20 October 2005
Most people in Johannesburg used their private vehicles to get to work on Thursday despite the government’s call to use public transport and participate in Car-Free Day. Several high-ranking officials and premiers made use of buses and taxis, but motorists in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein still preferred their cars.
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/ 20 October 2005
Johannesburg police do not want to comment on claims that slain mining entrepreneur Brett Kebble’s car was taken to panel beaters and cleaned before forensic tests had been carried out. Sources close to the investigation said that Kebble’s Mercedes was out of police control or custody for ”a significant period of time” after the murder.
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/ 20 October 2005
South Africa’s online publishing industry grew 13,8% in local readership to 1,98-million users and 97,37-million page impressions in the third quarter of 2005 compared with the second quarter, the Online Publishers Association said on Thursday. The latest Nielsen/Netratings audited figures also indicate a large increase in international visitors to South African websites.
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/ 20 October 2005
David Beckham and Jonathan Woodgate made Real Madrid history on Wednesday as it was the first time that two Englishmen had scored in the same game for the Spanish giants. The England internationals, with Woodgate hoping to soon be back in England coach Sven Goran Eriksson’s plans after 17 months out injured, scored Real’s first and last goals in their 4-1 Champions League thrashing of Rosenborg.