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/ 25 December 2003
United States fast-food giants will have to act quickly to head off public fears over mad cow disease and convince consumers to keep eating hamburgers. World fast-food leader McDonald’s and its rivals such as Wendy’s and Burger King risk being among the main losers.
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/ 25 December 2003
The collapse of Italian food giant Parmalat, which has rocked the business world and is being compared to the massive accounting scandal that brought down United States energy trader Enron, is the result of 11 months of deepening financial problems.
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/ 25 December 2003
Pope John Paul II used the traditional Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Vatican on Wednesday to reiterate a call for world peace, saying ”too much blood” continues to be shed in conflicts around the globe. ”Too much violence and too many conflicts trouble the peaceful coexistence of nations!” the pope said
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/ 25 December 2003
Federal officials scrambled to trace the life of the first United States cow believed infected with mad cow disease while trying to contain the growing economic damage from a now-suspect food supply. On Wednesday country after country slapped import bans on American beef.
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/ 25 December 2003
A bomb blast destroyed the wall of a United Nations compound close to the presidential palace in Kabul early on Thursday but there were no casualties, the Afghan security service and international peacekeepers said. The bomb had been placed near the wall of the compound, which is close to the presidential palace.
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/ 25 December 2003
Air France cancelled several passenger flights to the United States over Christmas after US officials passed on ”credible” security threats involving passengers scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on flights from Paris. US officials have repeatedly warned that al-Qaeda terrorists may be eyeing Los Angeles International airport.
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/ 25 December 2003
Three or four loud explosions shook central Baghdad early on Thursday morning in the area around the United States-led coalition’s main headquarters in the capital, but there were no reported casualties, the US military said. AFP reporters had heard powerful blasts laced with a barrage of automatic gunfire.
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/ 25 December 2003
The Presidency has hit back at religious leaders for criticising the South African government’s stance on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Their ”attack” on the government had been based on untested information, Director General Frank Chikane said in a statement published on Wednesday.
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/ 25 December 2003
A bronze statue of Martin Luther King in the North Carolina town of Rocky Mount was meant to honour a little-known but much cherished connection between a big moment in history and a small southern United States town. But then everything started to go wrong.
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/ 25 December 2003
Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati III was on Wednesday ensconced in a sacred location for an annual ritual to prove he is fit to rule over the landlocked Southern African nation for another year. The king has been widely criticised for refusing to introduce democratic reforms.