Paul Majendie
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/ 10 January 2007

Final ‘Scott of Antarctic’ letters go on display

The last letters written by Antarctic explorer Robert Scott to his wife and young son before the adventurer died on his South Pole expedition are to go on display for the first time.Addressing his final letter home to ”my widow” Kathleen, the doomed British explorer wrote: ”I shall not see you again — the inevitable must be faced.”

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/ 22 December 2006

Fog paralyses London’s Heathrow airport again

Thousands of travellers struggling to get home for Christmas faced another day of chaos and frustration on Friday as London’s Heathrow airport was blanketed in fog. ”The weather across much of the UK is regrettably showing little sign of improvement,” said Geoff Want, director of ground operations for British Airways which has cancelled all domestic flights.

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/ 14 December 2006

Princess Diana’s death ‘a tragic accident’

A British police inquiry ruled on Thursday that Princess Diana was not the victim of a murder plot when she died in a tragic car accident in 1997. Diana’s death triggered a string of conspiracy theories that British spies, or even her ex-husband, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had plotted the accident because her relationship with Dodi al-Fayed was embarrassing the royal household.

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/ 30 November 2006

UK radiation probe widens

Britain said on Thursday it was monitoring five planes for radiation and pledged to contact every country they had visited in a widening investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy. Home Secretary John Reid told Parliament radioactive traces had been found at 12 of 24 locations being investigated and promised there would be no political barriers to the probe.

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/ 8 November 2006

Feeling Kate Mossed? Try new rhyming slang guide

Feeling Kate Mossed? Fancy a Britney down at the Battle? For those wondering why Brits have suddenly become as baffling as Martians speaking in tongues, help is at hand. A new book reveals all and Duncan Black, who helped to compile Shame About the Boat Race — Modern Guide to Rhyming Slang steers readers through a baffling conversational code.

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/ 24 October 2006

UK royals banished to ghetto in new satire

In a new satire on Britain’s royal family, they are banished to a rundown housing estate to eke out tawdry lives in a republican land that has spurned them. Best-selling author Sue Townsend, poking gentle fun at a dysfunctionally chaotic House of Windsor, has Queen Elizabeth and her rowdy brood living in exile in a specially fenced off exclusion zone for social misfits.

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/ 11 October 2006

Dancing Barbie meets Cyberman

Dancing Barbie met Cyberman on Wednesday as British toy retailers listed their top dozen must-have presents for tech-savvy kids this Christmas. Hollywood also featured prominently with toy spin-offs from the hit movies Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean joining such perennial classics as the Trivial Pursuit board game.

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/ 7 September 2006

Blair to quit within a year

British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged on Thursday to quit within a year, but declined to give an exact date to mutineers in his Labour Party who want a speedy change of leader to revive its fortunes. Blair’s statement came in a tumultuous week that saw his authority crumbling in the face of party revolts after nearly a decade in power.