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/ 12 December 2004
Rival factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) post-war army fought gunbattles in the vast nation’s restive east on Saturday, killing several people, a top military official said. ”There have been several deaths, but the number has not yet been established,” army Colonel Etienne Bindu said
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/ 12 December 2004
It is the busiest time of year in the Santa Claus’s Village post office in Finnish Lapland, as postal clerks dressed as elves handle more than 500 000 letters sent to Santa Claus this Christmas. More than 10-million wishes and greetings have ended up at this post office since it opened 20 years ago.
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/ 12 December 2004
Life is anything but easy in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slum, which has been labelled one of the biggest and worst on the African continent, with HIV/Aids and unemployment hitting dwellers hard and indiscriminately. But when walking through the slum a little before Christmas, hardly anyone encountered complains.
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/ 12 December 2004
The only McDonald’s with a licence to serve beer in Hong Kong is closing down because the sailors who patronise it are getting fewer in number, a news report said on Sunday. The harbour-side restaurant at Hong Kong’s Fleet Arcade had a special licence to serve beer because its customers included many thirsty, newly arrived sailors.
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/ 12 December 2004
Three people burnt to death in a shack fire that broke out in Nyanga, Cape Town, shortly after midnight on Saturday. Western Cape police spokesperson Inspector Elliot Sinyangana said 68 shacks burnt down before emergency services workers put out the fire.
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/ 12 December 2004
The brother of Laura Walker, the South African found dead in a Thailand hotel this week, said his sister was ”a highly talented, intelligent, compassionate and loyal person”. Walker was working for the World Bank at the time of her death, and the bank’s security team is working with Thai authorities in the investigation.
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/ 12 December 2004
A new Guinness world record was set when an electrical-engineering student solved the most Rubik’s cubes to date in one hour in Johannesburg on Saturday. Mitchell Brom (21) solved 42 cubes at Sandton City Camera Land, his sponsor, Prima Toys, said in a statement.
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/ 12 December 2004
Nine occupants of a minibus taxi burnt to death when the vehicle rolled and caught fire on the M1 South near the Corlett drive offramp on Saturday. Six other occupants of the vehicle were critically injured, another four seriously, Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said.
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/ 12 December 2004
For more than a decade, the Fifth Avenue hawks have brought a touch of the wild to Manhattan’s concrete canyons. The raptors that captured the hearts of a city inspired a documentary, a book and reams of newsprint. But now the residents who shared their building with the red-tailed hawks have destroyed their nest.