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/ 22 September 2004

Heavy downpours kill 36 in India

Torrential rain killed at least 36 people and washed away houses and farms in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Wednesday. Thirty-five of the people, including a number of women and children, died when flash floods submerged homes on Tuesday in Sitapur district.

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/ 22 September 2004

Heads may roll after gruesome TV footage

The executive producer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Xhosa news has been suspended pending the outcome of a probe into video footage showing the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq on Tuesday night. ”We don’t show gruesome pictures of people being killed,” an SABC spokesperson said.

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/ 22 September 2004

‘Terrorist’ pop star barred from US

A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was rerouted to Bangor, Maine, late on Tuesday to prevent Yusuf Islam, the British pop musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, from entering the United States. Islam is believed to be a financial supporter of groups believed to be linked to terrorism, US officials said.

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/ 22 September 2004

Website claims second US hostage killed in Iraq

An Islamic website has claimed that militants killed a second American hostage in Iraq and has threatened that a Briton kidnapped with him will also die if his government does not act. A decapitated body was handed over to American authorities in Baghdad on Wednesday, the United States embassy said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=122654">Baghdad hit by two car bombs</a>

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/ 22 September 2004

Scientists see end to peril of farting sheep

Belching and farting sheep and cattle, blamed by doomsters for driving the planet towards climate catastrophe, may have met their match. Eructations from farm animals account for a fifth of all global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is less plentiful but far more potent than the most notorious culprit, carbon dioxide.

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/ 22 September 2004

Tobacco giants deny fraud in $280bn trial

The United States government opened a -billion civil trial against the giants of the tobacco industry on Tuesday, arguing that the firms conspired for decades to hide the dangers of smoking, and illegally marketed cigarettes to children. The landmark case, five years in the making, could also lead to tighter tobacco legislation, including a ban on such descriptions as ”low tar” and ”light” cigarettes.