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/ 1 December 2004
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Former Heath investigating unit head Willem Heath will take the stand in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Thursday.
This follows two days of testimony relating to Heath’s exclusion from investigations into alleged arms deal irregularities.
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/ 1 December 2004
Britain said on Wednesday it believed kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan was likely dead, even though dental records proved a body found in Iraq wasn’t hers.
The Foreign Office said dental tests were conducted on a mutilated body found in Fallujah by United States marines, who believed it was that of a Western woman.
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/ 1 December 2004
The Ugandan army said on Wednesday that it had deployed an unspecified number of troops along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prevent incursions by ”negative elements” based there. Referring to Ugandan rebels in DRC, army spokesperson Major Shaban Bantariza said: ”They are not a great threat but we are following them and picking up some of them one by one.”
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/ 1 December 2004
Among the champions of an international landmine ban attending a major conference in Nairobi this week was a group of former generals from several countries who said on Wednesday that the deadly devices offered a false sense of security and were of little military value. Currently, Russia, Nepal, Georgia and Myanmar are the only governments known to have used landmines since May 2003.
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/ 1 December 2004
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged Britain to increase pressure on the government of President Robert Mugabe to ensure fair elections in March. He also said the MDC will decide in two or three weeks whether it will participate in the elections. ”We have not yet finalised a decision. We will consider all options, including that of participation and non-participation.”
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/ 1 December 2004
The Constitutional Court reserved judgment on Wednesday on an attempt by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) to join an appeal bid by the State against the acquittal of apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson.
The institute seeks permission to join the proceedings as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) to allow it to present arguments on the legal implications arising from the failure to hold Basson accountable under international law.
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/ 1 December 2004
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As the world focused on the murderous advance of Aids on Wednesday with pledges, appeals, processions and concerts, the day was stamped by China’s warnings about its exposure to the epidemic. In a World Aids Day message to China’s 1,3 billion people, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called for ”still greater, substantial efforts” to stir public awareness about Aids.
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/ 1 December 2004
Ukraine’s Parliament voted to oust the country’s pro-Moscow government on Wednesday as European and Russian mediators took a second stab at trying to quell a political crisis. Parliament backed an opposition proposal to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and replace his team with a ”people’s government,” while thousands of chanting and singing demonstrators built human chains around official buildings.
Ukraine opposition renews blockade
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/ 1 December 2004
Mimas, one of the 33 moons of Saturn, suspended against the blue-streaked backdrop of the giant planet’s northern hemisphere, is snapped by a departing spacecraft. Cassini-Huygens is a joint Nasa-European mission to explore Saturn, its rings and satellites, and it has just made a close approach to the planet before swinging away for another loop around Saturn’s mysterious moon Titan.