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/ 1 February 2007
The former president of the European court of human rights on Wednesday claimed he was poisoned during a visit to Russia in late October — three days before the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned in London. Luzius Wildhaber told a Swiss newspaper that he had fallen violently ill after a three-day trip to Moscow.
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/ 1 February 2007
Michael Dell on Wednesday resumed command of the United States computer company he founded in 1984, taking back control of the struggling firm from a successor he anointed. Dell’s return to the chief-executive position at the company that bears his name caused its stock to rise more than 4% in after-hours trading.
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/ 1 February 2007
Swedes earning tax-free money on internet games such as <i>World of Warcraft</i> and <i>Second Life</i> may have to think again after Swedish authorities said on Wednesday they are planning a clampdown. "We’re not interested in ordinary gamers; 99% of them play for the sake of playing," a tax official said.
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/ 1 February 2007
Ichimame’s life is already an endless blur of parties, visits to the hairdresser, kimono fittings, lessons in traditional dance, music and tea ceremony. Even so, the Japanese 18-year-old still manages to find the time to keep what is probably the first internet blog by an apprentice geisha.
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/ 1 February 2007
While Microsoft trumpeted Vista worldwide on Tuesday, the internet abounded with postings from people unimpressed or downright disappointed with the new operating system. Headlines on web logs and news websites included "Think whisper, not bang" and "Why you don’t need Vista now".
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/ 1 February 2007
Fiat on Wednesday unveiled its new Bravo saloon car, a week after announcing a bumper 2006 during which car sales were in the black for the first time in six years. "In 2007 we are turning the page, and Bravo is the car that embodies this change," CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the launch.
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/ 1 February 2007
Adelaide Frances Tambo (77), widow of former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo, died on Wednesday night, the party confirmed. ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said Ma Tambo, as she was affectionately known, collapsed at her home in Johannesburg. Early media reports said that Tambo died as a result of a heart condition.
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/ 1 February 2007
United States officials in Baghdad and Washington are expected to unveil a secret intelligence "dossier" this week detailing evidence of Iran’s alleged complicity in attacks on American troops in Iraq. The move, uncomfortably echoing Downing Street’s dossier debacle in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, is one more sign that the Bush administration is building a case for war.
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/ 1 February 2007
More than 1 500 people converged on the Michaelhouse school in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Thursday for the funeral of renowned historian David Rattray. The school’s chapel was packed to capacity and more than a thousand people had to watch the funeral service on big-screen television under a marquee in the school grounds.
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/ 1 February 2007
A new study has revealed that more than 80 000 people were infected with HIV in the Eastern Cape last year and almost 40 000 died as a result of the disease. The 73-page report says that of the estimated 6,67-million people in the Eastern Cape, about 10% (667 000) were living with HIV last year.