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/ 16 February 2005
They are a familiar sight in New York, Dublin and Rome. But it seems groups of smokers puffing away outside restaurants stand little chance of appearing on the streets of Paris. The city council has admited that a scheme aimed at encouraging Paris’s 12 452 cafes, bistros and brasseries to declare themselves smoke-free zones had been adopted by barely 30.
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/ 16 February 2005
An Islamic Sharia court in Kano, northern Nigeria, on Wednesday sentenced Abubakar Hamza to six months imprisonment and a fine equivalent to for living as a woman. Handing down the sentence, the court deplored 19-year-old Hamza’s use of female identity to sell aphrodisiacs and advised him to stop his ”immoral behaviour”.
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/ 16 February 2005
At least 40 members of Somalia’s interim government left Kenya on Wednesday for various regions of Somalia to explain the new government’s policies to the public, an official in Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi’s office said. The trip is the latest indicator that momentum is building up for the Kenya-based Somali government to return home.
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/ 16 February 2005
A Spanish scientist who went blind discovered the cause of his retinal disease, making it possible to treat up to two million sufferers worldwide, the daily El Pais reported on Wednesday. Luis Carrasco (55) microbiology professor at Madrid’s Autonomous University, began losing his eyesight in 1994.
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/ 16 February 2005
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, faced with blistering criticism for not doing enough to fight rampant government corruption, on Wednesday renewed pledges to battle graft vigorously and in a transparent manner. ”We want everything known because there should be nothing secretive in the way we manage government affairs,” Kibaki said.
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/ 16 February 2005
North Korea marked the 63rd birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday with feasts of pheasant and venison for the capital’s elite — and a healthy side order of propaganda — amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula over the communist state’s nuclear weapons programme.
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/ 16 February 2005
Screaming and weeping mourners clambered around the coffin carrying the Lebanese flag-draped body of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri as hundreds of thousands of people attended an emotion-charged funeral service on Wednesday at a mosque, two days after Hariri was killed by a huge bomb.
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/ 16 February 2005
South Africa faces a looming health crisis as increased wealth, poor eating habits and sedentary behaviour point to an ”epidemic” of heart disease, especially among the black population. ”We are sitting on a time bomb,” said professor Anthony MBewu, interim president of the Medical Research Council.
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/ 16 February 2005
A British supermarket chain said on Tuesday it will start selling £19 (R210) replicas of Camilla Parker Bowles’s royal engagement ring when she marries Prince Charles on April 8. "Camilla’s ring is a timeless classic, and we want our customers to have a taste of royalty for a fraction of the price," said Justine Reid, who purchases jewellery for Asda.
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/ 16 February 2005
The South African housing market is expected to be supported by strong economic growth in 2005 and the momentum in house-price growth established last year is set to continue into 2005, with nominal growth of between 15% and 20% projected for the year, Absa senior economist Jacques du Toit said on Wednesday.