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/ 27 December 2007
United Nations officials were on Wednesday night working to prevent the expulsion from Afghanistan of two senior Western diplomats who have been accused of holding illegal talks with Taliban leaders in the British theatre of operations in the southern province of Helmand.
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/ 27 December 2007
Six French aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labour each after a court in Chad found them guilty on Wednesday of trying to kidnap 103 children from the African country. The court in the capital N’Djamena handed down its sentence on the fourth day of the trial of six members of the French humanitarian group Zoe’s Ark.
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/ 27 December 2007
Champions Manchester United begin the second half of their Premier League title defence at the top of the league on Saturday but manager Alex Ferguson will be hoping for better luck at West Ham United. United were imperious in a 4-0 thrashing of Sunderland on Wednesday to move a point above Arsenal.
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/ 27 December 2007
Guarded by police, Kenyans voted on Thursday in a presidential election preceded by violence, tainted by allegations of rigging and likely to be the closest in more than four decades since independence from Britain. President Mwai Kibaki (76) having unseated the country’s 24-year ruling party in 2002, himself faces the possibility of losing power.
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/ 27 December 2007
Investigators were combing San Francisco zoo on Wednesday to find out how a 136kg tiger with a record of attacking humans managed to escape from its cage, kill one man and maul two others. Police were called to the zoo after the animal, a four-year-old female Siberian tiger named Tatiana, went missing from her pen.
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/ 27 December 2007
Indonesian rescuers struggled on Thursday to pull out bodies and reach survivors following Central Java landslides, as floods blocked roads and damaged bridges in the area where over 80 people are feared dead, officials said. Thousands of people have been left homeless after their homes were submerged by heavy floods or buried by landslides caused by days of torrential rains.
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/ 27 December 2007
Russia is to supply Iran with a new and lethal anti-aircraft system capable of shooting down American or Israeli fighter jets in the event of any strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran on Wednesday confirmed that Russia had agreed to deliver the S-300 air defence system, a move that is likely to irk the Bush administration.
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/ 27 December 2007
Egypt is planning to pass a law that would exact royalty payments from anyone found making copies of the country’s ancient monuments or museum pieces, including the pyramids. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said his country wanted to own the copyright to its historic monuments.
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/ 27 December 2007
A century partnership between Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and a whirlwind 66 by Chris Gayle, put the West Indies in a commanding position on 281 for four at the end of the first day of the first Castle Lager Test against South Africa at St George’s Park on Wednesday.
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/ 27 December 2007
Despite the last-minute shopping frenzy, holiday retail sales were sluggish as the United States consumer spent less than expected while internet shopping slowed down. Many shoppers waited until the last moment to buy gifts for Christmas, as only 18% of Americans had finished their holiday shopping in mid-December.