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/ 16 December 2004

Google victory in trademark lawsuit

Google won a major legal victory when a federal judge ruled that the search engine’s advertising policy does not violate federal trademark laws. Auto insurance giant Geico argued that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that appear whenever Geico’s name is typed into the Google search box.

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/ 16 December 2004

Crunch time for Africa’s peace deals

The coming year puts peace deals to the test in Africa’s longest and deadliest wars — as entrenched enemies from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo face tension-raising deadlines to put peace pledges into practice. Perversely, the peace accords of 2004, 2003 and 2002 make 2005 a year of enhanced risk as well as enhanced hope.

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/ 16 December 2004

EU set for historic decision on Turkey

European Union leaders gather on Thursday to make a long-awaited decision on launching entry talks with Turkey. They are widely expected to give the green light despite last-ditch haggling over the exact terms of the offer. Turkey cautioned on the eve of the two-day EU summit that it will not agree to start negotiations ”at any price”.

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/ 16 December 2004

British wildlife artist killed by buffalo

A British wildlife artist who made a career of depicting Africa’s fauna has been gored to death by a buffalo in Kenya, his family said on Wednesday. Simon Combes (64) was out on an evening walk in a reserve of the Great Rift Valley with his wife, Kat, and a friend, cheetah expert Mary Wykstra, when attacked.

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/ 16 December 2004

Oh, what a lovely jail

Al-Qaeda supporters detained in Saudi Arabia have appeared in a television documentary about al-Haer jail, 40km south of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and delivered rave reviews of life inside. ”I swear to God, they [the jailers] are nicer than our parents,” said Othman al-Amri, once number 21 on the kingdom’s list of most-wanted terror suspects.

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/ 16 December 2004

Teeth on edge over Italian dentist scam

Going to the dentist can be a stressful enough experience. But patients in Italy now have to contend with a new concern: wondering if the dentist knows enough to tell a molar from a macaroon. The police have uncovered a ring selling dental qualifications. A degree cost 200 000 euros (about R1,5-million).

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/ 16 December 2004

Payment dispute ends medical waste contract

A dispute over non-payment of the rental of a refrigerated container with medical waste inside on Wednesday caused a hospital group in East London, Afrox Healthcare, to end its medical waste-removal contract with a nationally based company. Last Friday, an electrician cut the power supply to a container in which medical waste had been stored.

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/ 16 December 2004

‘The truck ran over the vehicle and me’

Survivors of this week’s horror smash in Flagstaff were still in shock on Wednesday after a runaway truck cut a swathe of destruction through the town, killing five and injuring at least 13 people. Speaking from his bed in the St Elizabeth hospital in Lusikisiki, Mphikelwa Mgoduka, a father of four, said he still cannot believe that he survived.