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/ 20 December 2004
Yukos’s jailed founder accused the Russian government of ”destroying” the nation’s top oil group on Monday as mystery surrounded the new owner of its crown jewel, widely seen as linked to state-run gas giant Gazprom. In an auction cloaked in secrecy on Sunday, the Russian authorities sold Yukos’s main subsidiary to an unknown entity.
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/ 20 December 2004
Gifts not distributed during former president Nelson Mandela’s annual Christmas party will be handed out to pre-schools early in 2005, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund announced on Monday. The party was called off in the Eastern Cape on Sunday after ”shuffling and pushing” among the 76 000-strong crowd.
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/ 20 December 2004
Gambia’s lively independent media fell silent on Monday to open a weeklong news blackout to honour Deida Hydara, the dean of the press corps who was slain last week in what his colleagues believe was a politically motivated act. Hydara (58) was felled by three bullets in what colleagues said appeared to be a drive-by shooting.
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/ 20 December 2004
A man convicted on a rape charge walked out of custody in Durban on Monday on bail of R50, after serving three years of a 10-year sentence. This followed the admission by his 19-year-old step-niece, who was the alleged rape victim, that her evidence had been a lie, his lawyer, Vassist Sewpal, said.
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/ 20 December 2004
A butcher from suburban Bordeaux in south-western France is the sole winner of Europe’s latest lottery jackpot and is to pocket the hefty sum of €26,2-million (about R200-million), French lottery officials said on Sunday. It was the second-highest EuroMillions jackpot in France following May’s record of €33,8-million.
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/ 20 December 2004
At speeds reaching 50 000kph, even the smallest bits of space debris, such as flakes of paint, can cause serious harm to spacecraft. At the end of 2003, there were about 10 000 catalogued objects in orbit around Earth. There are many thousands more uncatalogued objects larger than 1cm, perhaps more than 500 000.
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/ 20 December 2004
A jilted Malaysian bride was left waiting on her wedding dais after her groom called off the engagement via a cellphone text message, a report said on Monday. But Norlida Abdul Rahman (23) put on a brave face and her wedding dress on Friday night and carried on with the wedding feast for 1 000 guests at her family home.
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/ 20 December 2004
Iraqi Shi’ite leaders braced on Monday for greater violence but vowed to push ahead with elections in January after twin car bombs claimed the lives of 66 people in the pilgrimage cities of Najaf and Karbala. The bombings were a stark reminder of the violence that could lie ahead in the six weeks before the January 30 elections.
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/ 20 December 2004
A puritanical member of the congregation in the small southern English village of Wiston is thought to be behind the smashing of an 800-year-old pagan symbol that warns against lust, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. The erotic stone carving with its genitalia exposed had long been a talking point.
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/ 20 December 2004
New fighting was reported on Sunday between the army and mutineers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the military said clashes in the area had killed at least 14 earlier in the week. United Nations and rebel sources said new battles took place after three days of calm north of Kanyabayonga.