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/ 7 February 2005
The partnerships between De Beers and the governments of diamond-producing countries will be key in transforming the diamond industry going forward, but as the senior partner, the South African government should use its stick "very infrequently" or the company could "disengage", De Beers chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer has cautioned.
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/ 7 February 2005
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday promised active US involvement in Middle East peacemaking, saying Washington will dispatch a high-level ”security coordinator” to the region and send more than -million in immediate aid to the Palestinians.
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/ 7 February 2005
A new Hollywood war movie due for worldwide release in August may offend Japanese audiences because of its graphic depiction of brutalities committed by Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II, movie executives said on Monday. The -million movie, entitled The Great Raid, stars Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt.
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/ 7 February 2005
A charity golf day held at Centurion raised R280 000 towards relief of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in December, the Department of Health said on Monday. Sunday’s event was organised by the Association of South-East Asian Nations and heads of the diplomatic missions to South Africa.
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/ 7 February 2005
The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, on Sunday claimed a landslide election victory after early results and exit polls suggested his party might sweep up to 80% of the 500 seats in Parliament. If, as expected, the final results mirror the predictions, the next four years may be the country’s first experience of one-party government.
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/ 7 February 2005
Zimbabwe ruling Zanu-PF has fired the seventh of its 10 provincial chairperson — nearly two months after he was arrested for allegedly spying for neighbouring South Africa. Wealthy lawmaker Philip Chiyangwa has lost his post as chairperson of the Mashonaland West province.
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/ 7 February 2005
Insurgents struck at Iraqi police forces with a suicide bomb, a car bomb and mortars in the cities of Mosul and Baqouba on Monday, killing at least 30 people as they pressed their campaign to undermine the nation’s fledgling security forces. The Mosul blast was claimed on a website by the al-Qaeda in Iraq group.
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/ 7 February 2005
The South African Bank Note company (SABN) has dismissed reports that its new R20 note has been counterfeited, saying forgers could not possibly match the technology required to produce the currency. ”Even if they managed to get a semblance of accuracy, they would not even get the feel of the paper right,” said SABN managing director Peter Gloster.
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/ 7 February 2005
People who feel the need to talk to their near and dear even after they have passed away can now do so quite literally, thanks to a special cellphone invented by a German who wanted to keep in touch with his late mother. The system consists of a one-way phone and loudspeaker device that can be buried close to the person’s coffin.
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/ 7 February 2005
A budding romance between a Jordanian man and woman turned into an ugly public divorce when the couple found out that they were in fact man and wife, state media reported on Sunday. Separated for several months, boredom and chance briefly reunited Bakr Melhem and his wife, Sanaa, in an internet chat room.