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/ 31 December 2006
South Africans must use the resources and experience accumulated in 2006 to ensure a better life for every South African in 2007, President Thabo Mbeki said in his new year message on Sunday. ”We must be able to show practically that we have succeeded to realise the hopes of even more of our citizens than we have in 2006.”
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/ 31 December 2006
At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, killing two people, wounding more than 20 and shocking the Thai capital into cancelling New Year countdown celebrations. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombs, which went off within about an hour and included one put under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall which killed one person and wounded 16.
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/ 31 December 2006
Saddam Hussein’s executioners exchanged taunts with the former president as they prepared to hang him, invoking the name of a radical anti-United States Shi’ite cleric whose father was killed by Saddam’s agents. Grainy footage of the execution, apparently shot on a cellphone or other low-quality camera by a witness who was standing below looking up at the gallows, was circulating on the internet on Sunday.
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/ 31 December 2006
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Saturday suspended dialogue with Basque guerrillas ETA after a bomb wrecked a car park at Madrid’s international airport, breaking a nine-month truce. At least 19 people were injured in the attack and rescuers were still searching for two missing people.
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/ 31 December 2006
Indian captain Rahul Dravid said he believed his team could compete with South Africa despite a 174-run defeat on the fifth day of the second Test at Kingsmead on Saturday. Dravid admitted he was disappointed that his team were bowled out for 179 after most of the morning’s play was lost to bad light.
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/ 31 December 2006
Amid all the changes in store for the US PGA Tour in 2007, expect one thing to stay the same: Tiger Woods will again reign supreme. The season starting with the Mercedes-Benz Championships at Kapalua, Hawaii, on Thursday is being touted by US tour officials as a ”new era” in golf.
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/ 31 December 2006
The playing future of Australian opener Justin Langer is attracting fresh speculation after his father hinted his son may be close to retirement. Langer has refused to say whether he will join Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath by quitting Test cricket after next week’s final Ashes Test in Sydney.
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/ 31 December 2006
Pop superstar Michael Jackson headlined a throng of fans, friends and family who paid a final, soulful tribute to James Brown, at a funeral ceremony in the hometown of the late ”Godfather of Soul.” ”James Brown, I shall miss you, and I love you so much,” Jackson said in a brief eulogy, his thin voice cracking with emotion.
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/ 31 December 2006
Somali government forces marched on the last stronghold of the country’s powerful Islamist movement on Saturday, even as Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi called for dialogue with Islamist leaders. Residents said fighter jets, believed to be Ethiopian, were flying over Kismayo, about 500km south of the capital, prompting fears of attacks on the city.
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/ 31 December 2006
Two relatives are among the six suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, reported the newspaper at the weekend. City Press said a suspect arrested on Friday was a relative and was allegedly the ”mastermind, financier and recruiter of Netshisaulu’s killers”.