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/ 10 September 2004
The United States secretary of state, Colin Powell, dramatically increased pressure on the Sudanese government on Thursday by declaring the killings and destruction in its Darfur region to be genocide. Powell, directly blaming the Sudanese government, said: ”This was a coordinated effort, not just random violence.”
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/ 10 September 2004
The British mercenary Simon Mann, who faces up to 10 years in jail on Friday for trying to buy arms to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea, contributed 000 to the plot, according to a list of alleged financiers believed to be in the hands of the South African police. Ely Calil, the London-based Lebanese oil millionaire who is being sued in London by the Equatorial Guinea regime, is alleged to have raised another 000.
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/ 10 September 2004
On a bright Alamagordo evening almost 60 years ago, a posse of scientists sat in an army hut chewing tobacco and comparing Bunsen-burner scars. The faintly frantic air in the room that night might have been a result of their plan, the next day, to trigger the first nuclear explosion in history. Or it might have been because there was a small possibility that the blast would ignite the planet’s atmosphere.
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/ 10 September 2004
Like many South Africans I was devastated by the news that a baker’s dozen of our most respected senior politicians have been accused of not revealing to Parliament the full details of their accumulated prosperities. ”The MPs who tried to cover their assets”, jibed the front-page headline in this very paper in a patently clear attempt to hide terrible and hurtful slander behind subtle wordplay.
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/ 10 September 2004
The government says it will meet and even surpass the water and sanitation targets set at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg two years ago. Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Chippy Olver told the Johannesburg +2 conference last week that by 2010 all South Africans will have access to adequate sanitation and safe drinking water.
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/ 10 September 2004
Israel’s Agriculture Minister, Israel Katz, has announced plans for further expansion of Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley by expropriating 3 200ha of land. Katz’s proposal, follows revelations that the government plans to build homes for thousands more settlers on the West Bank, further entrenching its control even while it pulls out of the Gaza Strip.
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/ 10 September 2004
Much has been written about the financial scandals that rocked the United States economy last year. After the huge losses, has anyone emerged with their shirts on their backs? Certainly the Enron employees invited to pose for <i>Playboy</i> didn’t. It is hard to believe that MCI, now valued at $5,5-billion is all that is left of the MCIWorldCom behemoth, which was once worth $190-billion.
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/ 10 September 2004
Petrochemical giant Sasol unveiled details of long-awaited plans to grow in the Middle East, and possibly China, this week, against the troubled backdrop of a devastating accident and labour dissidence at Secunda. Unveiling Sasol’s results up to June, CEO Peter Cox put a brave face in reaction to the blast that had claimed seven lives by Wednesday and left hundreds injured.
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/ 10 September 2004
The political economist Thomas Malthus caused a stir in 1798 when he published his controversial work, An Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus postulated that unrestrained population growth will result in the increased production of food beyond the capacity of the Earth’s resources to sustain and this, in time, will lead to scarcity. Saliem Fakir agrees: the lifestyles of the fat and famous could spell the failure of civilisation.
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/ 10 September 2004
The love affair between Nollywood — the Nigerian film industry — and Zambian television viewers began in 2003 when the Zambia National Broadcasting Cooperation began airing the soap opera, Super Story. The first instalment won such a devoted viewership that it opened the floodgates for pirated tapes to enter the Zambian market. And with piracy came the darker vice of pornography.