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/ 14 January 2005
Police in southern France on Friday reported the first suicide from the Millau viaduct, the world’s tallest bridge, after finding the body of a man at the base of one of its seven pillars. The man, who was not immediately identified, apparently abandoned his car on the bridge before climbing over the side rail and jumping to his death.
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/ 14 January 2005
An enormous white zeppelin described as the world’s largest successfully completed its maiden flight on Friday in Japan. The German-made, 75m-long airship wafted into blue skies above the western port city of Kobe on Friday morning for half an hour before embarking on a five-hour flight to Nagoya in central Japan.
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/ 14 January 2005
The director and two curators of the South African National Museum of Military History were arrested on Thursday night for stockpiling working weapons and military vehicles, the museum said. ”Police … have accused us of stockpiling weapons as if we were preparing for a war,” said acting museum director Sandy Mckenzie.
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/ 14 January 2005
Any staff found to have been involved in cheating in last year’s Mpumalanga matric examinations will be punished appropriately, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Friday. ”Minister Pandor is committed to ensuring that where criminal conduct and fraud is committed, the full might of the law is applied,” her ministry said.
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/ 14 January 2005
Emergency rescue personnel were trying to rescue 20 people stranded high on a roller coaster that malfunctioned on Friday afternoon at the Ratanga Junction entertainment complex outside Cape Town. A strong south-easter blowing at gale-force was complicating the rescue. Metro emergency officials said no injuries were reported.
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/ 14 January 2005
England captain Michael Vaughan led a remarkable comeback after tea on the second day of the fourth Castle Lager/MTN cricket Test against South Africa on Friday. At close of play, England had 411 for the loss of eight wickets, and appeared to have taken total control of the match again.
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/ 14 January 2005
Thieves have relieved the Johannesburg Art Gallery of a valuable 19th-century Dutch pre-Impressionist painting — the fourth heist at the institution in the past eight years. Johann Barthold Jongkind’s A Normandy Beach was painted in 1863 and donated to the gallery by mining magnate Otto Beit.
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/ 14 January 2005
South Africa’s agreement to take seriously Swaziland’s claim to its national territory has implications for all of Africa, and the pledges African countries have made to honour boundaries drawn up during the colonial era, diplomats have said. Because of colonial-era territorial gerrymandering, more Swazis live outside Swaziland than in the small country left behind within diminished borders.
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/ 14 January 2005
A gale-force south-easter, blowing at more than 50kph on Friday and predicted to continue over the weekend, threatened to cause flare-ups on the fire-ravaged Table Mountain area above Muizenberg on Friday. Since Thursday, an area from Boyes Drive to Steenberg, Swanswyk and further had been affected by the runaway fire.
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/ 14 January 2005
The controversial African National Congress statement on the transformation of the judiciary reflects an unresolved debate on the judiciary in the ANC leadership, with one important faction under Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang believing that judges are thwarting the government’s will.