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/ 22 September 2004

‘Terrorist’ pop star barred from US

A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was rerouted to Bangor, Maine, late on Tuesday to prevent Yusuf Islam, the British pop musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, from entering the United States. Islam is believed to be a financial supporter of groups believed to be linked to terrorism, US officials said.

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/ 22 September 2004

Website claims second US hostage killed in Iraq

An Islamic website has claimed that militants killed a second American hostage in Iraq and has threatened that a Briton kidnapped with him will also die if his government does not act. A decapitated body was handed over to American authorities in Baghdad on Wednesday, the United States embassy said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=122654">Baghdad hit by two car bombs</a>

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/ 22 September 2004

Scientists see end to peril of farting sheep

Belching and farting sheep and cattle, blamed by doomsters for driving the planet towards climate catastrophe, may have met their match. Eructations from farm animals account for a fifth of all global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is less plentiful but far more potent than the most notorious culprit, carbon dioxide.

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/ 22 September 2004

Japan’s pioneer gay magazine to fold

Japan’s pioneer gay magazine Barazoku (Rose Tribe) is to close down after helping homosexual males come out of the closet over three decades, its editor said on Wednesday. ”With the spread of internet sites, they don’t need printed magazines like ours any longer,” said Bungaku Ito, who launched the country’s first magazine for gay men in 1971 when homosexuality was a taboo subject.

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/ 22 September 2004

Denel gains R14m export business

Global defence company BAE Systems has awarded Denel, the South African arms manufacturer, an export contract worth about R14-million to supply artillery electronics, the two firms said on Wednesday. Under the contract, Denel would supply ”layers display and control units” for incorporation onto a BAE Systems new light field artillery gun being marketed worldwide.

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/ 22 September 2004

Rescue rats spell hope for earthquake victims

Rats fitted with radio backpacks may soon help rescue teams locate earthquake survivors who are buried under rubble, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday’s issue. Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville and the State University of New York in Brooklyn have fitted rats with electrode implants in their brains, hooked up to a tiny radio transmitter that transmits a signal of their cerebral activity.

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/ 22 September 2004

Tobacco giants deny fraud in $280bn trial

The United States government opened a -billion civil trial against the giants of the tobacco industry on Tuesday, arguing that the firms conspired for decades to hide the dangers of smoking, and illegally marketed cigarettes to children. The landmark case, five years in the making, could also lead to tighter tobacco legislation, including a ban on such descriptions as ”low tar” and ”light” cigarettes.