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/ 13 January 2005

Running with scissors proves fatal

One schoolboy fatally stabbed another while running with a 10cm-long knife in northern Vietnam, a local police officer said on Thursday. Nguyen Van Tuyen (13) was running downstairs holding the knife used for pencil sharpening. He then collided with Dinh Van Son (14), who was running upstairs.

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/ 13 January 2005

Tsunami toll tops 163 000

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that devastated Indian Ocean coastlines last month rose to 163 338 on Thursday as Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka reported new deaths. Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with 110 229 confirmed deaths by Thursday.

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/ 12 January 2005

Blair looks forward to round-the-clock drinking

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended new pub-licensing laws that will allow Britons to drink around the clock and insisted it will not lead to an explosion in booze-fuelled violence. Later this year, licensing laws that require most pubs in England and Wales to close at 11pm from Monday to Saturday and at 10.30pm on Sundays will be lifted.

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/ 12 January 2005

First school day turns into hostage drama

A man frustrated by his inability to have his daughter enrolled at Potchefstroom Girls’ High School took four staff members hostage on Wednesday, North West police said. The man, who had been turned away from the school last week because it was full, took four administrative personnel hostage just after 9am.

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/ 12 January 2005

‘Something we have never seen before’

South African rescue workers said on Wednesday they have never before witnessed such devastation as they saw while performing relief work in Indonesia. Six Global Relief workers arrived back in South Africa from Indonesia on Wednesday. The organisation’s chief executive, Murray Louw, said the devastation the December 26 tsunami had caused was overwhelming.