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/ 29 January 2008
Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more "heartache leave" on offer as they get older. Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed.
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/ 29 January 2008
India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been cleared of racial-abuse charges at a hearing in Australia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Tuesday. ”He has been cleared — the racial charge has been dropped against him,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.
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/ 29 January 2008
United States President George Bush on Monday called for Congress to double the money going to a programme combating HIV/Aids and malaria in Africa. Bush proposed a -billion programme over five years to combat the pandemics ahead of a planned trip to the continent next month.
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/ 29 January 2008
An international rights group on Monday urged Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, who is struggling to gain control over his nation, to ensure reporters rights are protected in the increasingly volatile Horn of Africa state. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the premier to ”end the ongoing pattern of countrywide arbitrary arrests”.
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/ 29 January 2008
Sir Alex Ferguson believes experienced midfielder Paul Scholes could play an important part in Manchester United’s bid this season to match their treble achievement of 1999. The 33-year-old former England midfielder is expected to feature in Wednesday’s league match at home to Portsmouth.
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/ 29 January 2008
A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate. ”Understandably, he lost his appetite,” said Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Northern Karelia Central Hospital. The health of the patient in Joensuu, eastern Finland, had not been compromised by the dead rodent, Kela said on Saturday.
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/ 29 January 2008
Now that it’s official that Eskom will be regularly switching off our power for some time to come, we need to look at measures to prevent loss or damage caused by an interrupted power supply. Plan A, of course, says Gari Dombo, MD of Alexander Forbes Insurance, is to buy a generator.
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/ 29 January 2008
Twelve suspected militants were killed by a missile strike in Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt, hours after gunmen held 300 children hostage at a nearby school, officials said on Tuesday. Separately, a Pakistani soldier was killed and five others injured in the latest clashes between security forces and Islamist insurgents in the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan.
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/ 29 January 2008
India will abandon the tour of Australia if spinner Harbhajan Singh is not cleared of racial abuse charges, a top Indian official said on Tuesday. Harbhajan was handed a three-Test ban by match referee Mike Procter after being found guilty of racially abusing Australia’s Andrew Symonds during the acrimonious Sydney Test earlier this month.
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/ 29 January 2008
Hosts Ghana beat Morocco 2-0 to reach the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals on Monday as the tournament claimed its first coaching victim with Henryk Kasperczak quitting Senegal. Guinea also went into the last eight, following Ghana through from Group A despite managing only a 1-1 draw against rank outsiders Namibia.