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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
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
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
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.
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/ 22 December 2007
A magnitude-4,8 earthquake rattled a New Zealand city on Saturday after it was hit by a powerful temblor earlier this week that resulted in millions of dollars in damage. Thursday’s 6,8-magnitude quake wrecked an apartment building and two shops in the port city of Gisborne, 50km from the quake’s epicentre.
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/ 22 December 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday condemned the National Electricity Regulator for giving permission to Eskom to increase electricity prices by 14,2%. ”Poor households continue to face massive challenges in access to energy for basic household activities,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
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/ 22 December 2007
A 40-year-old man killed his wife and then handed himself over to police in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga police said on Friday. ”He took out a knife and stabbed her four times all over her body, and then he took a hammer and hit her on the back of her head,” said Superintendent Abie Khoabane.