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/ 3 February 2005
Madagascar has banned a Brazilian sect and ordered it to cease operations in the vast Indian Ocean island, four months after its members were jailed for burning a Bible and other religious objects, officials said on Thursday. Last year, a court in Madagascar jailed four members of the same sect, which claims to have six million members worldwide.
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/ 3 February 2005
Despite five of its seven South African mines operating at a loss, De Beers announced on Thursday that 2004 had been another good year for diamond sales. The diamond giant said that against a background of accelerating economic growth in the major diamond-buying countries, diamond jewellery sales had performed well.
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/ 3 February 2005
The South African rand traded at R6,1675 — its worst level since November 12 last year — early on Thursday afternoon as funds in London unwound long rand positions. Market analysts said the local unit could be in for a nervous time, possibly weakening further when New York enters the fray.
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/ 3 February 2005
Reserving 30% of wards in local elections in Lesotho exclusively for women is ”sexual apartheid”, an opposition politician said on Thursday. Lesotho’s Local Government Act reserves 390 out of 1 272 electoral divisions — to be contested on April 30 — exclusively for women.
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/ 3 February 2005
The South African gold-mining industry has been in a period of decline over the past 10 years and further consolidation of the sector is a logical move, such as the proposed merger of Harmony and Gold Fields, Harmony chief executive Bernard Swanepoel said on Thursday.
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/ 3 February 2005
Beggars at major intersections in Johannesburg were pulled off the streets on Thursday by the Johannesburg Metro Police in a crackdown forming part of Operation Token Days, which targets the breaking of by-laws. Loud voices, screaming and sirens made a telephone conversation with a metro police spokesperson virtually impossible.
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/ 3 February 2005
Chechen rebels called for the first ceasefire of the five-year guerrilla war in Russia’s war-torn republic on Thursday but pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya brushed the move off as a ”bluff” while the Kremlin kept silent over the announcement. ”This is all a bluff,” said the Chechen’s state council chief, Taus Dzhabrailov, of the ceasefire call.
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/ 3 February 2005
A child complainant in the sex-crimes trial of Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo had confessed to attempting blackmail others in the past, the high court heard on Thursday. Prinsloo’s advocate Piet Coetzee asked investigating officer Captain Carel Cornelius whether he was aware the girl had previously laid a charge against other people.
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/ 3 February 2005
Five people were critically injured and at least 20 hurt when a tornado whipped through the town of Klipplaat near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday evening. ”The town looks like Baghdad. It’s dead. There was wind, rain, hail coming from all four corners,” Iqwezi municipality councillor Mannetjie Blouw said.
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/ 3 February 2005
Defence counsel for three men accused of feeding a man to lions in Hoedspruit last year had to delay presenting their case on Thursday after one of the accused fell ill. ”Accused number one tells me he’s suffering from chest and throat pains,” Mathews Kekana, counsel for Richard ”Doctor” Mathebula, said outside the Phalaborwa Circuit Court.