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/ 25 December 2006
James Brown, the legendary singer known as the ”Godfather of Soul”, has died in Atlanta, his agent said early on Monday. He was 73. Brown was seen as a crucial figure in the evolution of gospel and R&B into soul and funk. His music also spanned genres such as rock, jazz, reggae and hip-hop.
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/ 25 December 2006
The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, a Palestinian, called on Monday on Middle East leaders to become ”peacemakers” and condemned inter-Palestinian fighting, as the pope used his Christmas message to appeal for respect of the ”dignity of children”. In Asia, there were no immediate reports of violence that had been feared for the religious holiday.
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/ 25 December 2006
Floods and landslides in Indonesia’s Aceh and North Sumatra provinces have killed at least 80 people and forced tens of thousands to flee to higher ground, authorities in the region said on Monday. Aceh, still feeling the devastating effects of the 2004 tsunami, was hardest hit.
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/ 25 December 2006
Residents in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, spent several hours on Sunday, Christmas Eve, in front of filling stations as a petrol scarcity bites harder and queues of motorists became longer. Long and unruly queues formed at petrol stations on Sunday in many parts of the city as the scarcity grew worse.
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/ 25 December 2006
Ethiopian warplanes bombed the main airport in Mogadishu on Monday, wounding one person in Somalia’s capital where Islamists have their stronghold, an airport official said. Somalia’s encircled interim government closed all land, air and sea borders. On Sunday, Ethiopia’s prime minister declared that Ethiopia was at war with Somalia’s Islamic movement.
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/ 25 December 2006
Kevin Pietersen has admitted he thought Shane Warne was an ”arrogant Australian idiot of a cricketer” after the pair clashed during the first Brisbane Test of the ongoing Ashes series. Last month at the Gabba, Warne almost hit Pietersen when throwing the ball to Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.
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/ 25 December 2006
”He’s very quiet,” says one of Roman Abramovich’s closest aides. ”Shy would be a word to describe him.” There have been many others: ruthless, generous, audacious, calculating, visionary. But shy? A strange adjective to describe one of the world’s most powerful men — the Russian oligarch who dared to seize English football by the throat.
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/ 25 December 2006
"Ho ho ho!" may become "Ouch ouch ouch!" for Santa Claus impersonators seeking to wing it with a fake beard, Swedish experts have warned. Sweden’s national testing institute tested six models of beard and found that two of them turned into a raging inferno when coming into contact with a naked flame.
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/ 25 December 2006
A feisty great-grandmother held four builders hostage after they told her improvement work on her home would not be finished by Christmas, several British newspapers reported on Saturday. Josie Medlock snapped when she was told the modernisation of her home would not be completed until the new year.
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/ 25 December 2006
Wannabe cannabis growers in Greece have received an early Christmas gift from a Greek police report on narcotics that gives a wealth of information on the drug, from price tips to processing. Readers learn that cannabis is sown between February and March and is harvested three months later, and are given details on how to dry, sift and press the leaves.