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/ 8 February 2005
Somalia’s transitional government has announced plans to relocate in phases to Somalia, giving up the relative safety of neighbouring Kenya for a chaotic land torn apart by war. In Somalia there is no army, no civil service and no buildings, the deputy prime minister said.
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/ 8 February 2005
The Sudanese government has failed to meet the two most important demands of the United Nations Security Council — disarm militias and arrest those responsible for attacks on civilians in Darfur, which have recently intensified, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a report.
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/ 8 February 2005
Pirate attacks on maritime shipping were much more deadly in 2004 despite a reduction in the total number of reported incidents, the International Maritime Bureau disclosed on Monday. Pirates killed 30 seafarers last year compared with 21 in 2003, with 30 going missing and 148 taken hostage.
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/ 8 February 2005
As a frail Pope John Paul II marked his seventh day in hospital on Tuesday, with no news yet on his eventual release, comments by the Vatican’s top official brought the question of the 84-year-old’s possible resignation — an old Vatican taboo — into the open.
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/ 8 February 2005
British energy giant BP reported on Tuesday a 26% rise in pro-forma net annual profit to ,21-billion in the wake of record high oil prices and strong demand. Alongside its results, BP said it will return up to -billion in excess cash to investors in 2005 and 2006 via share buybacks and dividends.
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/ 8 February 2005
A 65-year-old woman who was raped in a ward in the Pretoria Academic hospital has died, police said on Tuesday. The woman was attacked, allegedly by a 30-year-old Mozambican national, as she slept in an otherwise empty ward on the fourth floor at 4am on Monday, police said. Two nurses on duty were doing their rounds at the time.
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/ 8 February 2005
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party called South African cleric Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a ”sellout” on Tuesday, for saying that Zimbabwe made a mockery of African democracy. The Nobel Peace laureate made the remarks in a weekend newspaper article, prompting senior Zanu-PF officials to respond with a stinging rebuke.
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/ 8 February 2005
”Please thank the world for me, for their prayers, and for being with me through this ordeal,” said a relieved Mapeu Leshilo on Tuesday after her seven-year-old son was found after a massive search. Little Ofentse, who has autism, an illness which makes communication difficult, disappeared from his Berario home on Sunday, sparking a massive search.
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/ 8 February 2005
Setting up a battle for the future of computing, engineers from IBM, Sony and Toshiba unveiled details of a microprocessor they claim has the muscle of a supercomputer and can power everything from video game consoles to business computers.
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/ 8 February 2005
A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating world champions England at rugby in Cardiff for the first time in 12 years, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Geoff Huish (26) told drinkers at a social club: ”If Wales win, I’ll cut my balls off,” the Daily Mirror and The Sun reported.