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/ 29 December 2005
China’s coldest restaurant is doing a roaring trade as deep winter sets in, with customers flocking to the all-ice building and its steaming "hot pot" meals, state press reported on Thursday. The restaurant can accommodate 100 patrons, who reportedly love the novelty of even the bar, tables and chairs being made from ice.
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/ 29 December 2005
Australia set South Africa a historically-challenging 366 runs to win the second cricket Test after extraordinary batting fireworks by Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday. The two Queenslanders hammered a rapid-fire 124-run partnership in 66 minutes off 93 balls to set up a declaration at 321 for seven 40 minutes before tea on the fourth day.
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/ 29 December 2005
The shock of seeing his brother murdered caused evil spirits to enter the body of alleged housebreaker Nkululeko Tuntubele, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The evil spirits had a major impact on his client’s physical condition, defence lawyer Asghar Mia told the court.
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/ 29 December 2005
Distinguishing fine wine from plonk is usually left to connoisseurs and winemakers, who rely on their senses, rough chemical measurements and the whims of nature to produce an exceptional tipple. But a professor, working with industry scientists in Chile, is hoping that computer models will identify the traits of good wine — eventually helping vintners produce more of it.
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/ 29 December 2005
A key defendant in the Enron prosecution on Wednesday agreed a last-minute plea deal, potentially worsening the outlook for his former bosses Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling who are due to face criminal trial next month. Richard Causey, the former chief accountant at the bankrupt energy group, pleaded guilty to a single charge of securities fraud in exchange for a seven-year sentence.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa has deported about 200 illegal Zimbabweans by chartered plane this week, an official said, in a move believed to have been prompted by the unavailability of bus and rail transport over the festive season. South Africa deports between 600 and 6Â 000 Zimbabweans every week from the Lindela repatriation centre west of Johannesburg.
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/ 29 December 2005
Britain is preparing to launch a crackdown on prostitution in the New Year because the trade harms communities and supports drug dealers and abusers, the Home Office said on Wednesday. A prostitutes’ group warned, however, that the new zero-tolerance campaign would put the girls and women involved in even greater danger by pushing the industry further underground.
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/ 29 December 2005
British diplomats secretly discussed the idea of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussen undergoing a back operation in Britain 30 years ago, official files released on Thursday showed. When the notion was floated in 1975, Saddam was considered a key figure in the Arab world worth courting and not the international pariah he later became.
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/ 29 December 2005
Business was booming, said Hassan Saidzada, the manager of a watch shop in Kabul’s glitziest shopping centre. Cabinet ministers, jihadi commanders and newly made tycoons were flocking in again, he boasted, waving a hand across a softly lit display of sparkling Swiss watches.
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/ 29 December 2005
War-divided Côte d’Ivoire announced a 32-member unity government that includes rebel, opposition party and ruling party ministers and represents a rare firm step toward reconciliation. Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, named earlier this month after mediators persuaded both warring sides to accept him, chose the Cabinet, which was announced by President Laurent Gbagbo’s office.