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/ 28 October 2004
A two-year-old boy was on Wednesday rescued from underneath rubble four days after he, his sister and mother were buried in their car by a landslide set off by an earthquake in north-west Japan. Firefighters pulled Yuta Minagawa to safety but were unable to save his mother, Takako Minagawa, who was pronounced dead after being airlifted to hospital.
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/ 28 October 2004
Michael Ovitz, the former Walt Disney president, on Wednesday told a Delaware courtroom that he remains at a loss to explain why his relationship with chief executive Michael Eisner soured so quickly. Ovitz was testifying in a trial brought by shareholders in Disney angered by the -million severance package he banked when ousted from the business in 1996 after just 14 months.
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/ 28 October 2004
The United Nations on Wednesday announced the creation of a new kind of rapid reaction force to step in wherever art treasures are threatened by war or natural disaster. The ”cultural blue berets”, as they are already being called, will initially be formed entirely of Italians and could include members of Italy’s paramilitary police, the carabinieri.
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/ 28 October 2004
Europe’s most important trial was thrown into uncertainty on Wednesday when the two British lawyers defending Slobodan Milosevic against 66 war crimes charges tendered their resignations. The two barristers, Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins, said the former Yugoslav president’s refusal to deal with them made their jobs impossible and asked the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to withdraw them from defending him.
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/ 28 October 2004
The Cape High Court hearing of Mark Thatcher’s bid to avoid answering questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors entered its third day on Thursday. State advocate Michael Donen is expected to finish his argument by lunch on Thursday, and Thatcher’s senior counsel, Peter Hodes, will reply after lunch.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124499">E Guinea on ‘fishing expedition'</a>
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/ 28 October 2004
South African producer prices for all commodities rose by 1,4% in the 12 months to the end of September from a 1,1% increase for the 12 months to end August, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. On the month, the producer price index (PPI) was -0,9% compared with a 0,1% month-on-month (m/m) drop in August.
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/ 28 October 2004
Food retailer Shoprite Holdings is expecting an "exciting" and much-improved second half of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003, with its turnover in the three months from July to September rising by 9,3% on a like-for-like basis, continuing the upward sales trend it experienced in the latter part of its financial year to the end of June 2004.
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/ 28 October 2004
South African global financial and risk services provider Alexander Forbes said on Thursday that it is not involved in an investigation into the business activities of a number of large, United States-based global insurance brokers. The probe has been expanded to an active investigation of improper business practices, specifically bid-rigging.
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/ 28 October 2004
A full-blown emergency is threatening Ethiopia’s Somali region, the United Nations warned on Thursday. Wells are drying up and malnutrition is beginning to set in, according to a joint UN rapid-assessment team sent to monitor the crisis. "The Somali region is declining into a crisis situation with some districts already in a state of emergency," said the UN agencies report.
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/ 28 October 2004
A series of bomb explosions at a bridge in Soweto and ”heathen” mosques and temples were aimed at creating a climate for a Boeremag revolution, a self-confessed Boeremag coup plotter told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. Former Bela-Bela farmer Deon Crous was testifying in the trial of 22 alleged Boeremag members — who have pleaded not guilty to charges including high treason, murder, sabotage, terrorism and those relating the manufacturing and possession of explosives and firearms.