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/ 18 June 2006

North Koreans directed to raise flag, await message

North Korea directed its people to hoist the national flag and await a state message on television on Sunday, a Japanese newspaper said, amid reports the North was planning a new missile test. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said North Korea’s reported instruction might not be linked to the missile launch, saying it could be preparations for another national event.

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/ 16 June 2006

Eleven killed in Baghdad mosque bombing

At least 19 people were killed across Iraq on Friday, including 11 in Baghdad when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a massive Shi’ite mosque despite a security crackdown in the capital, police said. The blast, which also wounded 25 people, came just an hour before the main weekly Muslim prayers.

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/ 16 June 2006

Goodbye laughing Michael

The worst thing about having old friends is that they go and die on you. When they do, strands of a web of common experience die with them. You also lose what might be called the shorthand of your friendship; how you could talk to each other without ever having to explain why, what or wherefore.

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/ 15 June 2006

Serbia recognises Montenegro’s independence

The Serbian government said on Thursday it recognised the independence of Montenegro, after the tiny Balkan state voted last month in an historic referendum to break away from Belgrade. The Serbian Parliament decided 10 days ago to proclaim independence after the referendum in Montenegro, its last remaining ally from the former Yugoslavia.

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/ 15 June 2006

Abbas calls for cross-party accord within a week

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged rival factions to reach an agreement that would allow his people to break the international isolation that has gripped them since Hamas took office. Abbas said he was optimistic the various parties would reach an agreement on a statehood document during a new round of talks in Gaza.

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/ 15 June 2006

Tigers deny Sri Lanka bus bombing

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels denied involvement in Thursday’s bus bombing that killed at least 64 passengers and said the blast had been aimed at discrediting them. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rejected government charges that they carried out the morning attack near Kebitigollewa town in the North-Central Province and in turn pointed a finger at the government.

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/ 15 June 2006

Who really speaks for youth?

If we were to ask young people who the youth leaders of today are, we would most likely come up with names such as African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula, Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela and … well, who else? They are certainly among the loudest voices we hear purporting to speak for the youth of the country, but where are the others?

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/ 14 June 2006

Mentos and Diet Coke: An explosive marriage

A handful of Mentos candy dropped in a Diet Coke bottle produces an explosive soda geyser — and a multitude of internet videos of giddy people trying the experiment in backyards and bathtubs. Hundreds of videos have sprung up of people slipping Mentos into soda bottles and watching the Coke fountain jet about 2m high.

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/ 14 June 2006

Hunting bugs in Soweto

Open source is alive and well in South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto. Bongani Hlope carries the flag high, planning a <i>tsotsitaal</i> translation for Linux to make it more accessible for his neighbours. By day, he’s a Java developer at health-insurance giant Discovery Health.

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/ 14 June 2006

Flash flooding in China leaves 55 dead or missing

Fifty-five people are dead or missing from flash floods that ripped through south-western China’s Guizhou province early this week, the government said on Wednesday. At least 25 people were confirmed dead from the flooding in mountainous areas of Guizhou, while another 30 people were missing, the state flood-control headquarters reported.

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/ 13 June 2006

Israeli PM approves arms transfer to Abbas

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he has given a green light to a transfer of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s personal security force so it can tackle Hamas. The light weapons, from Jordan, are to enable Abbas "to cope with Hamas", the hard-line Islamist group that leads the Palestinian government, Olmert said.

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/ 13 June 2006

Indonesia downgrades Mount Merapi alert

Indonesia on Tuesday downgraded its top alert on Mount Merapi volcano as scientists said they no longer believe an eruption is imminent. Merapi — whose name means "Mountain of Fire" — was put on red alert on May 13 and its activity has fluctuated since then. It has declined substantially since Friday when part of a lava dome forming at its peak collapsed.

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/ 13 June 2006

Five million PCs in SA, and counting

The number of PCs in use in South Africa will pass the five-million mark for the first time this year, according to a new study released on Tuesday. Booming sales in PCs means not only more people than ever before are using new PCs, but also that PCs already in the field will remain in use for a longer period.

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/ 13 June 2006

How to hedge your bets

There is likely to be a major sell-off of the JSE over the next few months, says Mark Wurr, head of trading at brokerage firm Global Trader. While most of this will be foreigners taking profits in a market that ramped up more than 70% in a year, the market will settle down again once all the froth is out, providing buying opportunities later in the year.

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/ 12 June 2006

Nation on the move

An African woman recently asked me why I didn’t just call a local, supposedly black company, with feminist credentials to boot, to do what the traditional removal companies — Stuttafords, stuff like that — would charge me a fortune to do when I had to move house. So I did.

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/ 12 June 2006

Flying blind

A blind Belgian man on Saturday claimed a place in the record books after completing a tour of France in a light aeroplane. Luc Costermans, a 41-year-old former businessman blinded two years ago in an accident, said he hoped to make it into the <i>Guinness World Records</i> book for his tour of the country, completed on Friday.

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/ 12 June 2006

Aussie kids aged six, 10 go on road trip

Two young brothers aged 10 and six drove for more than 100km along one of Australia’s busiest roads to visit their grandfather, police said on Monday. The pair reached speeds of up to 90kph as they raced along the Newell highway in their grandmother’s station wagon, shocking fellow motorists who alerted the police.

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/ 12 June 2006

Absa to boost ATMs, self-service kiosks

Banking group Absa plans to spend R80-million on the upgrade and expansion of its automated teller machines (ATMs) and network of kiosks in the current financial year to the end of December 2006. The expansion will comprise 350 new ATMs, 115 self-service kiosks (non-cash terminals) and 250 internet kiosks.

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/ 12 June 2006

Cronin stumbles over the presidency

Jeremy Cronin’s article ("What kind of presidency," May 26) should kick off a real debate. I have always enjoyed reading Cronin and believe his views are sobering for a developmental state like South Africa. However, in this article, he stumbles. To blame South Africa’s problems on a powerfully managed presidency does not add up.

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/ 11 June 2006

Egyptian man finds four-legged cock

An Egyptian poultry trader found a four-legged cock among chickens he bought from a farm, the official Mena news agency reported on Saturday. The cock, which also had two excretory tracts, weighed 2,5kg, said the man from Kafr Saqr in al-Sharqiya province, 86km north-east of Cairo.

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/ 11 June 2006

North Korea threatens to ‘punish’ US over spy flights

North Korea’s Air Force Command on Sunday threatened to "punish" the United States for its spy flights over the communist state, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down 37 years ago. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the air force said that a US RC-135 reconnaissance plane had made flights over its territorial waters on June 6, 8 and 10.

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/ 11 June 2006

Indonesia on alert over Mount Merapi

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi continued to spew lava and searing clouds of gas and ash on Sunday as geologists maintained the top danger alert on the smouldering volcano. Despite losing a huge chunk of the lava dome forming at its peak on Friday, which lessened the danger of a major eruption, geologists said the volcano still posed a threat.