Laurent Thomet
AFP China deputy bureau chief.
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/ 16 July 2006

Astronauts await green light to return to Earth

Discovery‘s six astronauts will learn on Sunday whether they have the final all-clear to fly home as analysts examined the space shuttle’s heat shield for potential micro-meteorite impacts. Nasa declared Discovery‘s left wing free of damage on Saturday, hours after the shuttle undocked from the International Space Station.

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/ 11 July 2006

Astronauts complete repair on space station

Two spacewalking astronauts on Monday replaced broken hardware deemed crucial for the completion of the International Space Station, a new success for Nasa in the six-day-old Discovery shuttle mission. Astronauts Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers replaced a broken cable reel of the orbiting laboratory’s construction equipment transporter.

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/ 16 February 2006

How to meet your soul mate in the air

The French businessman flying in China wants his airplane seat mate to be a woman who will escort him during his ”lonely after-work evening”. An American woman wouldn’t mind meeting her ”soul mate” on her plane trip. Thanks to the internet, these travellers might get to choose their ideal travel partners in their next voyage.

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/ 21 November 2005

Post watchdog says Woodward committed ‘sin’

The Washington Post‘s editorial watchdog slammed legendary reporter Bob Woodward on Sunday for committing a journalistic ”sin” by keeping from his paper what he knew in a CIA leak case that has rocked the White House. The newspaper’s ombudsman, Deborah Howell, said Woodward should follow the same rules as other Post journalists despite the fame he has garnered since his prize-winning work in the Watergate scandal.

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/ 20 September 2005

New Orleans warned over new tropical storm

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin on Monday suspended the return of the stricken city’s population as a new storm bore down on the coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. At the same time, authorities in Florida ordered the evacuation of several islands in the Keys chain off the south coast because of Tropical Storm Rita.

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/ 15 September 2005

Bush in Louisiana as toll rises and popularity plummets

United States President George Bush was to head back to storm-wracked New Orleans on Thursday as his popularity plumbed new lows and the death toll from Hurricane Katrina rose further. Bush was to make a prime time speech to spell out long-term plans for rebuilding the three Gulf of Mexico states — Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — that were pummelled by the hurricane.