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/ 31 January 2005
Iran said on Monday that its current freeze on uranium enrichment will be short-lived but insisted that its nuclear activities pose no risk to the region, as claimed by arch-enemy the United States. Enrichment is a key process that makes what can be fuel for nuclear reactors but also the explosive core of atomic bombs.
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/ 31 January 2005
Russia pledged its ”active” support on Monday for visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas amid growing signs of a revival in the long-dormant Middle East peace process. Abbas said Moscow will play a decisive role in restarting the Israeli-Palestinian talks.
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/ 31 January 2005
Giant soccer clubs Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, together with the biggest church in the country, the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), have merged to form a cellular network distribution. ZOK, derived from the first letters of Zion, Orlando and Kaizer, was officially announced at a media briefing in Midrand on Monday.
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/ 31 January 2005
The Department of Public Works is compiling a shortlist of candidates to be interviewed to head the government’s R15-billion Expanded Public Works Programme. The programme’s aim is to create a million jobs over a five-year period — at least 200 000 each year. But the Democratic Alliance said it is all going too slowly.
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/ 31 January 2005
Three collapsed banks reopened on Monday in Zimbabwe under the aegis of a new umbrella banking group that President Robert Mugabe’s government hopes will revive the ailing financial sector. Clients whose money was locked up in the Royal, Barbican and Trust banks queued up from morning nationwide to withdraw their funds.
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/ 31 January 2005
Former Scorpion Gerda Ferreira told the Durban High Court how the Scorpions managed a simultaneous search and seizure operation for documents relating to South Africa’s multimillion-rand arms deal in South Africa, Mauritius and France.
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/ 31 January 2005
Two United States children’s animated characters, Buster the rabbit and SpongeBob SquarePants, have whipped up a storm, with conservative Christians and the new US education secretary scrutinising pro-gay associations in viewing for young children. ”Many parents would not want their young children exposed to [these] lifestyles,” Spellings said.
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/ 31 January 2005
A dog in north-eastern Croatia was being hailed as a hero on Monday after it reportedly raised the alarm to rescue a man who had been buried under a snow drift during a blizzard. The dog barked until his owner followed him to the place where 54-year-old Stjepan Peserlin lay unconscious beneath a pile of snow.
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/ 31 January 2005
An Iraqi militant organisation on Monday claimed it had shot down an RAF Hercules transport plane in Iraq, killing up to 15 British service personnel. A statement posted on an Islamic website by Ansar al-Islam said its fighters had tracked the aircraft, ”which was flying at a low altitude, and fired an anti-tank missile at it”.
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/ 31 January 2005
Gold Fields will continue to oppose Harmony’s hostile offer, the mining company said on Monday. ”This deal is far from over, not only has the fat lady not sung, she is nowhere near sight,” Gold Fields chief executive Ian Cockerill said at the release of the company’s December 2004 quarterly results in Johannesburg.