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/ 9 March 2005

Just when you thought it was safe…

The chilly waters off northeastern England are rarely that inviting for bathers, but at least those who do venture in for a dip have been able to do so in the knowledge they are safe from sharks. Until now, that is. British maritime agencies have warned surfers and divers thinking of braving the North Sea to be on the alert for a shortfin mako shark.

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/ 9 March 2005

Man vs machine

A girl described as a 17-year-old weakling has beaten three robotic arms powered with plastic muscles in the first arm-wrestling competition of its kind, The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday. ”I was hoping we could have a win, but that didn’t happen,” said Yoseph Bar-Cohen, an expert on responsive plastics with the United States space agency.

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/ 9 March 2005

Amnesty: SA companies involved in arms trafficking

South African companies are involved in dumping illegal weapons in conflict-ridden areas in Africa, an Amnesty International researcher said on Tuesday. ”In one recent example, an air-freight company operating from Johannesburg International airport helped fly several hundred tonnes of weapons into the Great Lakes region,” said Brian Wood, the organisation’s research manager.

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/ 9 March 2005

CBS ‘voice of God’ goes with a whimper

During the headier days of his 24 years as CBS news anchor, Dan Rather was called the ”voice of God” of American prime-time television. But when he makes his final send-off on Wednesday night, his exit will be rather less exalted. His departure is the result of a flawed report last September on United State President George Bush’s service in the Texas air national guard.

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/ 9 March 2005

Chechen rebel leader killed

Aslan Maskhadov, the leader of the Chechen separatist movement, was killed on Tuesday during a raid by Russian special forces. In a well coordinated media operation, his corpse was shown on the Russian TV channel NTV lying in a pool of blood in the courtyard of the house in whose basement he had been hiding.

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/ 9 March 2005

Defender turned limousine

To date, there are just seven Land Rover Defender 147s on our roads, and one is owned by Kian Barker of Shakabarker tours in St Lucia. With a zoology degree and honours in ichthyology, Barker is nobody’s monkey and he soon realised that to provide his guests with the ultimate turtle egg laying/ hatching experience, he needed a very different vehicle.