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/ 20 November 2007
Amazon.com is hoping to invigorate a nascent market for electronic books by introducing its own e-book reader with free wireless connectivity. Monday’s long-anticipated announcement comes as e-books remain a sliver of overall book sales, partly because they lack the comfort and intimacy of bound paper.
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/ 20 November 2007
California on Monday launched a lawsuit against 20 companies, accusing them of manufacturing or selling toys with illegal quantities of lead, a statement said. California attorney general Jerry Brown said the firms — including Mattel and Toys ”R” Us — are being sued for knowingly exposing children to potentially dangerous lead levels.
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/ 20 November 2007
A commander and several fighters from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have deserted the movement to escape a treason probe for allegedly collaborating with the government, a spokesperson said on Monday. The group fled in October from the LRA’s hideout along the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border.
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/ 20 November 2007
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has granted amnesty to almost 400 convicts in a bid to decongest his country’s disease-infested prisons, an official announced on Tuesday. Mwanawasa amnestied 14 prisoners who were on life sentences and 379 others who were serving various jail terms, a prisons official, Daniel Chiwela, said.
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/ 20 November 2007
A 5,1-magnitude earthquake jolted Iran’s oil-rich south-west on Tuesday and caused minor damage to buildings, the official Irna news agency said. The quake occurred at 5.20am GMT near the town of Ghaleh-tal in an eastern part of Khuzestan province. About 20 children were hurt as they tried to run out of a school building.
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/ 20 November 2007
Pakistan has freed 3 400 people detained under a state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf and will soon release the remaining 2 000, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. That would leave ”very few” detainees facing criminal charges, a ministry spokesperson said.
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/ 20 November 2007
South Africa and Angola have agreed to sign a declaration that will see ordinary passport holders no longer needing visas to travel between the two countries, government news agency BuaNews reported on Tuesday. It said that the declaration of intent would be signed on Wednesday.
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/ 20 November 2007
London’s metropolitan police have been forced to spend £15 000 creating ”ethnically diverse” mascots after complaints about a model deemed too white and too male, reports said on Tuesday. Critics said the original mascot risked leaving Asian and women officers ”isolated”.
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/ 20 November 2007
Two rainy summers followed by drought have produced a shortage of some Christmas-tree varieties in New York, especially Fraser firs, one of the most popular choices, according to growers. ”Mother Nature can’t seem to get it right,” said Robert Norris, a tree farmer.
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/ 20 November 2007
Volatility in resource stocks, as well as in the mining indices, buried the JSE in the red at midday on Tuesday. At noon, the all-share index gave up 0,69%, led by a 1,69% pull back in the gold-mining index. Resources dipped 1,59% and the platinum-mining index was off 0,42%. Financials eased 0,27% and banks were unchanged (+0,01%), but industrials inched up 0,15%.