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/ 10 July 2007

US Navy sends third carrier to Gulf waters

The United States navy has sent a third aircraft carrier to its Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes Gulf waters close to Iran, the navy said on Tuesday. ”Enterprise [aircraft carrier] provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries,” a US Navy statement said.

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/ 10 July 2007

Blasts rock Mogadishu market

Several explosions ripped through Mogadishu’s sprawling Bakara Market on Tuesday, killing two people in a fifth straight day of violence in the area. Somalia’s interim government says Bakara, one of the world’s biggest open-air arms markets, is a stronghold of Islamist insurgents it blames for almost daily guerrilla attacks.

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/ 10 July 2007

SA consumer confidence eases, survey shows

Confidence among South Africa’s consumers eased in the second quarter of 2007, but remained high as most expected the benefits of faster economic growth to filter down to them, a survey found. The confidence index compiled by First National Bank and the Bureau for Economic Research was down to +21 from a record high of +23.

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/ 10 July 2007

ICD probes builder’s police-cell death

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is probing the death of builder Pieter Wheeler in a police cell in Grabouw, Western Cape police said on Tuesday. Wheeler (51) was found dead in the cell he shared with three other men at 11pm on Saturday, just over six hours after his detention for alleged drunkenness.

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/ 10 July 2007

F1 ‘spying’ row heads to London court

A bitter row between the Ferrari and McLaren Formula One teams over alleged espionage in Formula One came to London’s High Court on Tuesday. Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney was sacked after being accused of supplying McLaren’s chief designer, Mike Coughlan, with over 500 pages of secret Ferrari technical information in April.

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/ 10 July 2007

‘Hello, is that Paris Hilton?’

The mysterious late-night calls began a few days after Los Angeles student Shira Barlow replaced a cellphone that she had dropped into a toilet in February. Suddenly Barlow began getting calls from strangers wishing "Paris" a happy birthday and requesting access to the most exclusive Hollywood nightclubs.

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/ 10 July 2007

US rednecks belly-flop at festival

Belly-flopping in the mud, tossing toilet seats and guzzling beer, average Joes celebrated the unrefined life of the American "redneck" at a wacky annual event initially held as a counterpart to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. A toothless man who calls himself "Freight Train" kicked off the event on Saturday.

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/ 10 July 2007

It’s hell to be Hell

A boy called Hell has been barred from enrolling in a Catholic school in Australia because his surname jarred with its religious teachings, the child’s father said on Monday. The youngster’s dad, Alex Hell (45), has expressed outrage after the primary school in the southern city of Melbourne allegedly refused to admit his son, Max.

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/ 10 July 2007

The granny, the cop and the lawn scuffle

A 70-year-old woman was left bruised and bleeding following a clash with a police officer in western Utah state. The woman’s offence? Failing to water her front lawn properly. Violence flared when a police officer issued her a ticket for failing to maintain the garden of her home in Orem, 72km south of Salt Lake City.