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/ 16 November 2004

EBay chokes on cheesy miracle

The people at eBay were no believers in this cheesy miracle: half of a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich whose owner claimed it bore the image of the Virgin Mary. Diana Duyser put the sandwich up for sale last week, drawing bids as high as  000 before eBay pulled the item on Sunday night.

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/ 16 November 2004

‘Water is not a privilege, it is a right’

The black working class and the poor and unemployed would suffer through the installation of pre-paid water meters, the Community Initiative Development Forum (CIDF) prepared to tell the Johannesburg City Council on Tuesday. ”Water is not a privilege; it is a right — a right that we are prepared to continue fighting for,” the CIDF said in a memorandum.

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/ 16 November 2004

Thatcher to be tried in absentia

The trial of suspected mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea resumed on Tuesday with a lawyer saying the only defendant to have admitted to a minor role in the alleged putsch will change his testimony. Also, British businessman Mark Thatcher is to be tried in his absence by the court for his alleged role in the coup bid.

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/ 16 November 2004

Foul play ruled out in major Australian train crash

A high-speed passenger train ploughed through trees and dirt ”like a bulldozer” after it mysteriously derailed in north-east Australia on Tuesday, injuring nearly all 163 people on board, rescue workers said. As a major investigation was launched, officials expressed amazement that no one aboard the City of Townsville express was killed.

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/ 16 November 2004

Call for Sudan arms embargo

Amnesty International on Tuesday urged the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Sudan to try to end a 20-month conflict in the country’s western Darfur region, where the UN estimates about 70 000 people have been killed. The Security Council is due to hold a special session on Sudan in Nairobi this week.

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/ 16 November 2004

Two more spymasters quit in CIA crisis

The departure of senior personnel from the CIA continued on Monday with the resignation of two leading spymasters, deepening fears of low morale in the agency, and a backlash against the ambitious reform agenda of its new director. Monday’s departures delivered fresh evidence of a series of bruising battles between the agency’s new director, Porter Goss, and his aides and career intelligence officials.

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/ 16 November 2004

Senate doubles estimate of theft by Saddam

United States senate investigators said on Monday that Saddam Hussein creamed off ,3-billion from the United Nations oil-for-food programme, twice as much as previously estimated. Speaking before the start of a Senate hearing on Monday, Senator Norm Coleman said: ”This is like an onion; we just keep uncovering more layers.”