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/ 23 February 2005

New steps to love’s old tune

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have agreed a pact that they hope will prevent their relationship from being destroyed. Either can have sex with a third party so long as the other gives permission. They would appear to be trying for a third way between monogamy and infidelity — being faithful to one’s partner while allowing a kind of extramarital sexual licence that will not destroy the relationship.

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/ 22 February 2005

Bush: Thanks for Iraq, but watch out for China

United States President George Bush on Tuesday thanked Nato leaders for helping to train Iraqi security forces, but made clear that plans to lift a European arms embargo on China still trouble transatlantic ties. Bush is in Belgium on a whirlwind campaign to repair US-Europe relations ripped apart by the Iraq war

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/ 22 February 2005

Fight against crime pays off in Gauteng

Gauteng is becoming the safest province in the country, figures from the provincial government and some independent organisations have confirmed, the South African government news agency said on Wednesday. Gauteng community safety minister Firoz Cachalia attributed all this to the increased number of police officers in the province.

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/ 22 February 2005

Pneumonic plague kills 43 in DRC

Forty-three people have died and 13 others have been infected following an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the mining area of Zobia, in the region of Bas-Uele in Oriental province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an official in the ministry of health said on Monday.

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/ 22 February 2005

Dawa leader poised to become Iraq premier

Ibrahim Jaafari, leader of the Dawa religious party that has links to Iran, was on Tuesday poised to become Iraq’s next prime minister after winning the support of Shi’ite leaders. The news came as Australia pledged another 450 troops to help stabilise Iraq after January elections that saw the rise to power of the long-oppressed Shi’ite majority.

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/ 22 February 2005

Toll rises in Iran quake

More than 270 people were killed when a huge earthquake struck Iran before dawn on Tuesday, leaving distraught villagers to claw through the rubble of their homes in search of missing family and friends. Officials warned that the casualty toll could rise further as rain and blocked roads made it difficult to reach stricken mountain villages in the south-eastern province of Kerman.