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/ 17 July 2006

Tourism threatens the jewel of Tibet

Forty years ago during the Cultural Revolution, it took an edict from China’s then premier Zhou Enlai to protect the Potala Palace from the destruction of the infamous Red Guards. Now a new menace — tourism — threatens the jewel of Tibetan Buddhism, which has come to be the symbol of Tibet.

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/ 17 July 2006

Airbus to reveal new A350 plane design

European group Airbus will on Monday unveil new design plans for its troubled long-haul A350 plane, Thomas Enders, co-chief executive of Airbus’s parent company EADS, told reporters. The cost of developing the mid-sized jet could meanwhile more than double to about $10-billion, added the German boss.

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/ 17 July 2006

Blogs vs bombs

The lights aren’t completely out in Lebanon yet. The bloggers in Beirut are still typing furiously away in front of their computer screens. Although Israeli air strikes have taken out much of the country’s infrastructure and cut electricity to parts of the capital, people are turning to the internet as one of their information sources — and to get their views out.

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/ 17 July 2006

SA sets up Lebanon crisis line

The number of requests to a helpline on Lebanon for South Africans have been ”manageable”, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The department set up a hotline for South Africans with Lebanese links, and by Sunday 20 South Africans trapped in that country had been helped by the department.

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/ 17 July 2006

Here comes the judge, with a gun

They have the flowing black robes to lend them dignity and gravitas. They have gavels to command attention from the wise guys in court. Now judges in New York have been given permission to carry guns while carrying out their duties. The ruling was prompted by a query from one of New York state’s 3 400 judges, who asked whether it was ”ethically permissible” to carry a firearm in court.