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/ 2 February 2005
Vatican officials on Wednesday said Pope John Paul II was in a stable condition after the pontiff was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties. The 84-year-old pope was taken to the Gemelli hospital, in Rome, after a bout of flu suddenly worsened on Tuesday. On Tuesday night, the Vatican said he had suffered an acute attack of laryngospasm.
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/ 2 February 2005
The medieval old town of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will be brightened up for four long winter nights this week by 10 000 lights, hoisted above the city on 500 helium-filled weather balloons. The semi-permanent art installation, called the Light Dome, will illuminate the city every night for three hours.
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/ 2 February 2005
Shares in media and entertainment group Johnnic Communications (Johncom) soared to a record high on Wednesday on continued speculation that Caxton is to make a bid for the group. By 2.57pm, Johncom shares surged 5,88% or two rand to R36, although only 5Â 000 shares had traded in one deal.
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/ 2 February 2005
Iraq’s leading Sunni Muslim clerics said on Wednesday the landmark elections lack legitimacy because large numbers of Sunnis did not participate in the balloting — which the clerics had asked them to boycott. Meanwhile, the Mosul police chief has demanded that insurgents hand over weapons within two weeks.
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/ 2 February 2005
Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation chief executive Ernest Khosa has resigned again, the province’s finance department confirmed on Wednesday. Spokesperson Thomas Nkosi said Khosa resigned on Tuesday. He resigned last week, but withdrew his resignation over the weekend.
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/ 2 February 2005
The sex crimes trial of Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo is not to be used as a forum to discredit the police investigation, a Pretoria High Court judge warned on Wednesday. Judge Essop Patel questioned the relevance of questions put by the defence to investigating officer Captain Carel Cornelius.
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/ 2 February 2005
Health managers in the Eastern Cape face censure and possible dismissal if they do not deal with complaints about negligence at hospitals under their care, health minister Bevan Goqwana said on Wednesday. In a statement, Goqwana warned quality assurance managers to ”pull up their socks or ship out”.
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/ 2 February 2005
The Inkatha Freedom Party has expressed its shock at the suspension of Compensation Fund commissioner Bongiwe Ncube, apparently under investigation for management irregularities. ”The IFP demands that the case be discussed openly,” IFP labour spokesperson Prince Nhlahla Zulu said in a statement on Wednesday.
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/ 2 February 2005
A ”no-name brand” air gun was indeed the weapon pointed at her from the tree that murder victim Nelson Chisale was tied to in January this year, a domestic worker testified on Wednesday. She was giving evidence in the trial of three men accused of feeding Chisale to lions after assaulting him on a Limpopo farm.
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/ 2 February 2005
New vehicle sales for 2005 have started on a strong note, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) said on Wednesday. It said aggregate combined new vehicle sales at 40Â 627 units registered an improvement of 7Â 026 units or 20,9%, compared to 33Â 601 units sold during the corresponding month last year.