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/ 10 October 2005

Encephalitis toll hits 1 058 in north India

The official death toll from Japanese encephalitis in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh reached 1 058 on Monday after 12 more children died from the mosquito-borne disease, officials said. The worst outbreak of the fatal illness in nearly two decades had been expected to peter out with the onset of winter, but about 350 people are still in state-run hospitals.

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/ 10 October 2005

Hot news for insomniacs — eat chilli

Eating chillis regularly could help people get a good night’s sleep and keep their hearts healthy, an Australian university study has found. Researchers at the University of Tasmania spent the past 18 months studying the potential health benefits of chillies on a group of 10 volunteers, national radio reported on Monday.

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/ 10 October 2005

‘Happy ending’ as most AU peacekeepers freed

Most of the 40 African Union (AU) peacekeepers taken hostage by rebels in western Sudan’s troubled Darfur region are believed to have been freed, an AU official said on Monday. The AU mission’s commander in chief Festus Owkonko was heading to Tine, where the abductions took place on Sunday near the border with Chad, to assess the situation.

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/ 10 October 2005

Earthquake death toll rises to 30 000

More than 30 000 people were killed by this weekend’s powerful earthquake centred below the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan, sending shockwaves across south Asia and reducing cities and villages to rubble. The majority of the deaths from the quake, which measured 7,7 on the Richter scale and struck early on Saturday morning, were in Pakistan.

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/ 10 October 2005

Metro cops catch man with 118 warrants

A 77-year-old man is to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court on Monday after Metro police issued him with 118 warrants of arrest at a weekend roadblock. Metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the warrants were linked to unpaid traffic fines to the value of R64 300.

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/ 10 October 2005

Smith to work on his team’s ‘intensity’

Skipper Graeme Smith has shrugged off the World XI’s inglorious showings in the Super Series one-dayers and has promised to lift the players’ commitment for this week’s Test match with Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The world players were booed by sections of the 30 000 crowd at Melbourne’s Docklands stadium on Sunday after they meekly succumbed to a 156-run loss to the Australians.

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/ 10 October 2005

Chinese survey of Mount Everest comes up short

Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, stands 8 844,43m above sea level, about four meters shorter than previously thought, according to the latest Chinese survey. The new height compares with China’s previous measurement of Mount Qomolangma, the Tibetan name of the mountain, of 8 848,13m which was done in 1975.

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/ 10 October 2005

Woods outlasts Daly in titanic battle

In a phenomenal display of power between golf’s two biggest sluggers, Tiger Woods outlasted John Daly in the American Express Championship because of a one metre putt. Woods made up two shots over the final three holes on Sunday to force a playoff, then won on the second extra hole when Daly three-putted for bogey from 4,5-metres on the 16th, badly pulling his short par putt.

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/ 10 October 2005

Darfur gunmen abduct AU personnel, US citizen

Dissident rebels kidnapped a group of African Union (AU) personnel and a monitor from the United States in Sudan’s powder keg western Darfur region, AU and US officials said, but some of the hostages were later released. The abductions near Sudan’s western border with Chad on Sunday came a day after two African Union troops were killed by another rebel group.