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/ 14 November 2006

Irish out to raise the roof at Lansdowne Road

Irish football bids farewell to Lansdowne Road, its rickety home stadium of 35 years on Wednesday in what could hardly be less auspicious circumstances. A team in gradual decline since the Charlton era of the 1980s takes on San Marino, the smallest country participating in the Euro 2008 qualifiers — and officially the worst team in the competition.

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/ 14 November 2006

Diamond prices seen moving sideways or up

Lewellyn Delport, chief executive of Trans Hex, says he sees diamond prices moving either sideways or up depending on the demand over Christmas and the perception of the industry created by a Hollywood movie in coming months. "We are mindful of the issues like the <i>Blood Diamond</i> film’s effect on Christmas sales," said Delport.

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/ 14 November 2006

Benin hopes grant will strike blow against poverty

Benin is hoping that a five-year, multimillion-dollar grant from the United States under the auspices of the Millennium Challenge Account will finance development projects to reduce poverty, notably through resolving land ownership and credit problems. The government says these funds will allow it to meet enormous economic challenges.

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/ 14 November 2006

Antibodies destroy HIV-infected cells

Antibodies that are active against HIV proteins may provide a successful strategy against infection, investigators report. In test tube experiments, an antibody that attacks the outer HIV envelope glycoprotein 41, which was labeled with a radioactive isotope so its movement could be detected, killed white blood cells infected with HIV.

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/ 14 November 2006

Thousands raped in DRC wars

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped over the past decade by soldiers, rebels and ethnic militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The scale of the assaults has become increasingly evident over recent months as growing numbers of women have emerged for treatment with the reduction in fighting ahead of presidential elections.

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/ 14 November 2006

Rich countries ‘blocking cheap drugs’

Poor people are needlessly dying because drug companies and the governments of rich countries are blocking the developing world from obtaining affordable medicines, a report says on Tuesday. Five years to the day after the Doha declaration — a groundbreaking deal to give poor countries access to cheap drugs — was signed at the World Trade Organisation, Oxfam says things are worse.