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/ 8 September 2004
Six people were killed and about 50 injured on Wednesday in an unexplained explosion in north-west Yemen near an area where there have been clashes between the army and followers of a rebel Muslim preacher, witnesses and medical sources said. The blast occurred in a market in Kataf, east of Saada province.
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/ 8 September 2004
A fire that raged through a copper mine in northern Turkey killed 19 workers and injured 17 others on Wednesday. Rescuers were searching the smoke-clogged shafts to make sure that no one was left inside. The fire broke out inside the mine in the town of Kure in Kastamonu province, trapping about 30 workers.
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/ 8 September 2004
The European Union, the Arab League, the pope, Muslim and pacifist groups in Italy appealed on Wednesday for the release of two Italian women abducted in Iraq while working for a humanitarian group. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta were kidnapped by an armed commando that stormed into their offices in central Baghdad.
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/ 8 September 2004
The United States military in Iraq on Wednesday intensified air strikes against the insurgent strongpoint of Fallujah as clashes between militants and security forces in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City eased overnight. Meanwhile, unidentified militants continued to target Iraqi politicians.
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/ 8 September 2004
In a freak chain of events, a burning wasp triggered a fire in the attic of a house in an eastern German town, police reported on Wednesday. Police in the town of Drebach said a roofing worker was set on by a swarm of wasps. To protect himself, he used his blow torch against the insects, setting one of the wasps on fire.
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/ 8 September 2004
Police and army stormed a Ugandan government office where three gunmen had taken a Cabinet minister’s secretary and an unidentified man hostage on Wednesday. An Associated Press photographer heard shooting in the building and saw several bodies being taken out, but could not tell whether the people were injured or dead.
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/ 8 September 2004
The president of the southern Russian republic of North Ossestia promised on Wednesday that his government will step down amid criticism for its handling of the Beslan school hostage siege, an AFP correspondent said. More than 1 000 angry demonstrators gathered outside the Parliament building in the republic’s capital.
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/ 8 September 2004
Hollywood stunt pilots hired by Nasa to catch a capsule carrying samples of the sun were gearing up for a blockbuster ending to their mission on Wednesday over Utah in the western United States. When the Genesis spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, the helicopter pilots are to intercept a capsule from the vessel in midair.
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/ 8 September 2004
A planned sale by British Airways of its stake in Australia’s Qantas has reignited talk of further consolidation in the European airline industry, but analysts played down prospects of an imminent deal. The British carrier said on Wednesday it expects to net about £425-million from a sale of the 18,25% stake in Qantas.
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/ 8 September 2004
France circulated a resolution on Tuesday calling for the emergency deployment of about 1 700 troops to reinforce the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). France’s UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said the resolution is in response to a letter from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.