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/ 17 September 2004
A powerful blast on an oil tanker in the Siberian region of Yakutia left four people dead, six injured and three missing, Itar-Tass news agency said on Friday. The explosion occurred Thursday when oil was being poured into the tanker, which was docked on the Anabar river in the city of Yuriung-Khaya.
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/ 17 September 2004
Zambia has temporarily suspended exports of crude oil to neighbouring Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo after fuel shortages hit the Southern African country, state media reported on Friday. The suspension will remain in force until the situation improves in Zambia.
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/ 17 September 2004
Eight public service unions and government representatives were meeting in Pretoria on Friday to discuss a pay dispute which resulted in a national strike on Thursday, and may be extended to next week. Union representative Fikile Hugo said the unions would urge the meeting to appoint a facilitator for continued negotiations.
‘Biggest strike’ in South African history
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/ 17 September 2004
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was in positive territory in noon trade on Friday, fuelled by strength in world markets and a light weakening in the rand. However, dealers said that the market could turn negative later in the day on profit taking following Thursday’s futures closeout.
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/ 17 September 2004
A man who has turned state witness in a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) case has allegedly received death threats, the Vanderbijlpark regional court heard on Friday. This emerged during a bail application by two Randburg engineering company directors who were arrested during an international investigation into a nuclear trafficking network.
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/ 17 September 2004
A brilliant blue wave breaks, perfectly curled by a steady offshore breeze. Like their baggy-shorted brethren the world over, surfers spring upright on their boards, then drop down into a plunging, right-breaking barrel. But at this beach, mosques in pastel colors crumble on the shores, haggard cattle munch the weeds, and the drinks are sweet tea, cooked over open fires in dented aluminum pots on the sand.
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/ 17 September 2004
Hurricane Ivan drilled southern American states along the Gulf Coast with 209kph winds that inflicted far less damage than feared everywhere except Florida’s western Panhandle, where residents were left with surge-ravaged beachfronts, flooded streets and homes ripped apart by deadly tornadoes.
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/ 17 September 2004
Movie fans who can’t wait for Peter Jackson’s multimillion-dollar remake of King Kong can log on to the internet to watch the gorilla thriller as it is being made. A new website — maintained by fans of the Academy Award-winning director — features online video clips of the normally media-shy Jackson on set with actors and film crew.
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/ 17 September 2004
Angola’s oil production has for the first time broken the one million barrels a day barrier after a new offshore field came online, officials said on Thursday. An offshore field called Kizomba, operated and majority-owned by Britain’s BP Amoco, is producing 120 000 barrels a day, two senior officials with state oil company Sonangol said on condition of anonymity. Sonangol also owns a stake in the field.
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/ 17 September 2004
”Earlier this year a colleague and I turned left off the N1 to the Gariep Dam area. The dam, once named after Hendrik Verwoerd, was part of the grand Orange River Project of the late 1960s. The main resort still sits in a time warp reminiscent of this era.” Escape visited some forgotten towns whose citizens survived being washed out by an apartheid-era dam-turned-resort.