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/ 29 October 2005

Surgeon reattaches man’s severed hand

Peering through a microscope, a Durban plastic surgeon worked for seven-and-a-half hours to reattach a severed hand at the city’s St Augustine’s hospital on Friday morning. A 25-year-old employee of a paper company had his left hand severed across the palm by a paper-cutting guillotine on Thursday evening.

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/ 29 October 2005

Spate of petrol bombings hits Swaziland

A police officer was critically injured in one of three petrol bombings in Swaziland on Friday, the latest in a series of arson attacks that Africa’s last absolute monarchy blames on banned political groups. There have been at least six explosions targeting police, government officials and court houses since last month.

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/ 29 October 2005

Singaporeans asked to shower a minute less

Singaporeans were urged on Saturday to shower a minute less as part of a national water conservation effort in the hot and humid city-state. If the entire population of 4,2-million people takes the advice to heart, environmental officials said the savings would fill nearly 16 Olympic-size swimming pools daily.

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/ 29 October 2005

Star treatment for transatlantic feline

Emily the stowaway cat is getting star treatment after disappearing a month ago, only to turn up in a cargo container that was shipped across the ocean to France. By Friday afternoon, the McElhineys had heard from a number of news media, including The Times of London and CBS’s Inside Edition.

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/ 29 October 2005

Rosa Parks given unprecedented honour

The late civil rights activist Rosa Parks will be the first woman to lie in honour in the United States Capitol Rotunda — a tribute formerly reserved for presidents, soldiers and prominent politicians. Parks, who died on Monday, aged 92, will be only the second African-American to receive this distinction.

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/ 29 October 2005

Saudi boy (14) faces execution

A 14-year-old boy is facing execution in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty in a flawed trial of murdering a three-year-old girl, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. The girl, Wala abd al-Badi, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a park in the eastern city of Dammam last year.

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/ 29 October 2005

Israel launches UN offensive against Iran

Israel is to seek an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in the wake of a remark by Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel should be ”wiped off the map”. ”We have decided to open a broad diplomatic offensive,” Silvan Shalom, Israel’s Foreign Minister, told Israel radio on Friday.

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/ 29 October 2005

Top White House aide charged

The Bush presidency was profoundly damaged on Friday when Lewis Libby, a top White House official who helped push for the Iraq invasion, was charged with obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI and committing perjury before a grand jury. Libby immediately resigned his post as chief of staff to the United States Vice-President, Dick Cheney.