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/ 22 December 2007
The technology group Apple has come in for criticism after forcing a website dedicated to reporting on the company’s activities to close down. The ThinkSecret site, which published news and rumours about Apple’s forthcoming products, had been locked in a two-year legal battle with the company.
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/ 22 December 2007
President Thabo Mbeki was on Friday accused of double standards after he said he would not interfere with any prosecution for corruption of Jacob Zuma, who defeated the president in the race for the leadership of the African National Congress this week. Mbeki was speaking at his official residence in Pretoria.
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/ 22 December 2007
Côte d’Ivoire on Friday announced the launch of a national civic service programme to help former rebels and fighters train for jobs in the West African country emerging from a low-level civil war. The service was a key part of a peace accord signed in March this year.
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/ 22 December 2007
One woman’s kindness to a fellow Starbucks patron resulted in more than a thousand others spreading holiday generosity in one north-west Washington town in the United States. Many coffee-shop patrons tacked on an extra or , which shift manager Sarah Nix said Starbucks will donate to its holiday toy drive.
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/ 22 December 2007
Wits University moved to the top of the Premier Soccer League log following a bruising 1-0 victory over Moroka Swallows on Friday — also due to a stroke of apparent good fortune when referee Daniel Bennett turned down a concerted injury-time penalty appeal by the Birds.
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/ 22 December 2007
Venezuelan authorities are standing by to receive three hostages Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels have said could be released as early as this weekend after spending years of captivity in the jungle. ”The mobilisation for the operation has begun,” one source close to the government said.
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/ 22 December 2007
The Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to extend the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a year and demanded that all militias and armed groups in the volatile east lay down their weapons and start disarming. The council asked the UN force ”to attach the highest priority to addressing the crisis”.
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/ 22 December 2007
An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off in French Guiana on Friday to put into orbit the first African telecommunications satellite as well as another made by a United States-Japanese joint venture, Arianespace said. The rocket, the 36th launch of an Ariane 5 and the sixth this year, lifted off at 9.42pm GMT.
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/ 22 December 2007
The Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to wrap up the United Nations peacebuilding mission in Sierra Leone in September next year, praising this year’s peaceful and democratic elections in the West African nation and efforts to professionalise its armed forces.
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/ 22 December 2007
Representatives of Nepal’s gay community on Saturday welcomed a decision by the country’s Supreme Court that directed the government to formulate laws for legal recognition of sexual minorities. The laws are to stop discrimination against them, according to the court ruling made on Friday.