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/ 10 November 2007
African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma is the only man who can steer the ANC-led tripartite alliance back to its leftist tradition and worker bias, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sastu) said on Friday. Sadtu held a national general council meeting in Johannesburg.
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/ 9 November 2007
Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under virtual house arrest on Friday, a spokesperson said, to stop her from holding her first rally since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule. A senior official in Islamabad said police had cordoned off Bhutto’s home in the city but only for her protection.
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/ 8 November 2007
With just more than a month to the African National Congress presidential election, Jacob Zuma will be waiting to see whether the National Prosecuting Authority will recharge him for corruption. Court rulings on Thursday clarified the status of searches and documents related to the investigation against him concerning alleged corruption in the arms deal.
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/ 8 November 2007
Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, after Western allies and opponents had demanded polls be held on time and emergency rule scrapped. Pakistan had been scheduled to hold elections by mid-January until the general imposed emergency powers on Saturday.
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/ 8 November 2007
A court ruling on Thursday could allow the revival of corruption charges against former deputy president Jacob Zuma. The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a lower court ruling that prevented them from using documents seized from Zuma, who was accused of bribery and fraud in connection with the arms deal.
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/ 8 November 2007
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma will approach the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal two of Thursday’s Supreme Court of Appeal judgements, said his lawyer. They would also ”observe with keen interest” whether the rulings emboldened the National Prosecuting Authority to again indict Zuma on any charges.
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/ 8 November 2007
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Thursday expressed its satisfaction after it won all its appeals in the Supreme Court of Appeal in its legal battle with African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. ”It brings certainty and finality at least up to this point on the contested issues,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
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/ 7 November 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the Constitution. Bhutto, the politician most capable of mobilising street power, gave Musharraf until Friday to comply.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistan’s opposition grappled for a united response on Tuesday to President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, leaving lawyers to protest alone for a second day and bear the brunt of a police crackdown. Ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said ”the people should rise up and restore the Constitution”.
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/ 6 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, regarded as a handpicked ally of President Robert Mugabe, has backed controversial legislation that allows the government to take farm equipment belonging to white farmers, in the name of the regime’s often-violent campaign to seize white-owned land.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistani police beat and arrested lawyers protesting for a second day on Tuesday against President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, while officials under United States pressure said an election would be held in early 2008. Opposition politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, have spoken out but there has been no real action on their part so far.
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/ 6 November 2007
They challenge your newspaper literacy, interrupt otherwise intelligible conversations, and add to the difficulty of finding your way. The culprits: India’s endemic acronyms, abbreviations and initials. Bureaucrats across the world pack official reports with them, but India distinguishes itself by relishing in their everyday use.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistani police used tear gas and batons to crush protests by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, despite world outrage at the imposition of a state of emergency. The White House said it was ”deeply disturbed” by the crisis, urging Musharraf, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, to quit his military post.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistan police used tear gas and batons on Monday against lawyers protesting at President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule and detentions mounted, prompting Washington to postpone defence talks. Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify Saturday’s action, and slapped reporting curbs on the media.
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/ 5 November 2007
Pakistan police baton-charged lawyers protesting against President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule on Monday, as police continued to detain his opponents in the face of United States pressure to hold elections in January. Declaring an emergency on Saturday, General Musharraf cited spiralling militancy and hostile judges to justify his action.
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/ 5 November 2007
The United States and Britain are on Monday expected to demand that Pakistan’s President, Pervez Musharraf, honour pledges to hold elections in the next two months and step down as the army chief, or face a cut in Western support. The diplomatic showdown will come in the form of a meeting in Islamabad between the Pakistani leader and a group of ambassadors.
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/ 4 November 2007
Police detained Pakistani opposition figures and lawyers on Sunday as military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tried to stifle the outcry over the imposition of emergency powers. The United States and other Western allies condemned General Musharraf’s decision to announce emergency rule on Saturday.
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/ 4 November 2007
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has imposed a state of emergency in a bid to end an eight-month crisis over his rule stoked by challenges from a hostile judiciary, Islamist militants and political rivals. General Musharraf said he decided to act on Saturday in response to a rise in extremism and what he called the paralysis of government by judicial interference.
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/ 1 November 2007
A suicide bomber rammed an air force bus in Pakistan on Thursday killing eight people while troops killed up to 70 militants in the north-west, as rumours swirled that President Pervez Musharraf could invoke emergency rule. Nearly 800 people have been killed in militant-linked violence and there have been more than 22 suicide attacks in the last four months.
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/ 31 October 2007
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a Pakistan Air Force bus — killing at least eight people and wounding 40 — near the central city of Sargodha on Thursday, the military said. The security situation in Pakistan has deteriorated sharply in the past few months at a time of political uncertainty.
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/ 31 October 2007
A Spanish court on Wednesday convicted 21 people of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, but acquitted a man accused of helping mastermind the al-Qaeda-inspired attack that claimed nearly 200 lives. The heaviest sentences were handed out to two Moroccans and a Spaniard, Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras.
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/ 31 October 2007
Zimbabwean authorities are to consider an application by a daily newspaper to resume publication four years after it was banned. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the Media and Information Commission would consider an application by the Daily News and its sister paper the Daily News on Sunday.
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/ 30 October 2007
A suicide attack killed at least seven people, including the bomber, less than a kilometre from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s army residence in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The attacker blew himself up next to a police checkpoint metres away from the gates to the residence of one of Musharraf’s most senior officers, General Tariq Majid.
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/ 24 October 2007
Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said on Wednesday he wanted to consider more ‘tranquil’ methods of execution. ”I am fully aware that ‘death by hanging’ is written in the criminal code,” Hatoyama said after a parliamentary committee meeting. It was not clear what other methods he was considering.
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/ 23 October 2007
Earlier this month the Constitutional Court ruled in a case with tremendous consequences for ordinary South Africans and our system of labour relations. The appeal involved the dismissal, more than seven years ago, of Zingisile Sidumo by Rustenburg Platinum Mines. Sidumo was employed to patrol the mine’s high-security facility, where precious metals are separated from lower-grade concentrate.
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/ 19 October 2007
Children’s rights activists on Friday urged MPs to push through a Bill that will ban corporal punishment of children, saying it was vital that children be protected from violence. The social development portfolio committee on Thursday postponed deliberations on the measure after members of the African National Congress’s parliamentary caucus reportedly objected.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto ended eight years of self-exile on Thursday, returning to Karachi where more than 200Â 000 supporters poured on to the streets to welcome her home. ”I am thankful to God, I am very happy that I’m back in my country and I was dreaming of this day,” said Bhutto.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ended eight years of self-exile on Thursday, making a comeback that could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf. ”I am thankful to God, I am very happy that I’m back in my country and I was dreaming of this day,” said a sobbing Bhutto.
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/ 18 October 2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto set out on Thursday on a journey home to end eight years of self-exile, under threat of assassination from militants linked to al-Qaeda once she reaches Karachi. For years Bhutto had promised to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for President Pervez Musharraf.
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/ 17 October 2007
A ruling by a full bench of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday put another nail in the coffin of Afrikaans-only education in state schools. The court dismissed with costs a review application by Hoërskool Ermelo to set aside a decision forcing it to admit English-speaking pupils and become a parallel-medium school.
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/ 17 October 2007
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said she would return to Pakistan on Thursday to end eight years of self-exile and lead her party into national elections despite threats of al-Qaeda inspired suicide attacks. Despite being out of power since 1996, the charismatic Bhutto (54) remains one of the most recognisable women politicians in the world.
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/ 13 October 2007
Pakistan’s Supreme Court threw a spanner into Benazir Bhutto’s plans for a smooth homecoming on Friday by declaring that the former prime minister could still face prosecution on long-standing corruption charges. An amnesty signed into law by President Pervez Musharraf last week could yet be overturned at a hearing three weeks from now.