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/ 24 December 2007
Uzbekistan’s autocratic ruler Islam Karimov on Sunday tightened his grip on power, when he was re-elected president in an election condemned by opposition activists as illegal and a ”farce”. Karimov won an overwhelming victory despite being ineligible to stand as a candidate.
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/ 16 December 2007
After four years, eight months and 11 days, after the deaths of unknown thousands of Iraqis, after 174 British fallen, and billions expended on reconstruction and the cost of a military mission, on Sunday the British mission in Iraq takes a large step towards being wound up.
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/ 16 December 2007
British-born science fiction author Arthur C Clarke, who turns 90 on Sunday, says all he wishes for is peace in his adopted home Sri Lanka where he has lived for the past five decades. Sri Lanka’s most celebrated guest resident since 1956, Clarke said he had sadly watched a bitter ethnic conflict dividing his adopted country.
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/ 7 December 2007
Outgoing International Rugby Board (IRB) chairperson Syd Millar believes foreign invasions will have a damaging effect on European domestic rugby. Several World Cup stars — including All Blacks Chris Jack, Aaron Mauger, Carl Hayman and Luke McAlister, plus Springbok flyhalf Butch James — have arrived in the Premiership.
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/ 5 December 2007
What does President Thabo Mbeki like to do in his spare time? Ballroom dancing? Playing the piano? No, the man likes to work during leisure hours, says his spokesperson. As the ruling party’s national conference in Polokwane approaches members of the South African Cabinet certainly need ways to unwind.
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/ 5 December 2007
A suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan army personnel in Kabul on Wednesday, killing six military staff and seven civilians, a defence ministry source said. The bomber used a car in the attack, which happened during the morning rush hour on a road in the south-western part of the city.
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/ 4 December 2007
A suicide bomber rammed a car into a convoy of Nato forces close to the airport in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, wounding 10 Afghan civilians, a police official said. A spokesperson for the Taliban said the militant Islamic group carried out the attack to ”welcome” United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
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/ 29 November 2007
A British teacher accused of insulting Muslims after her class called a teddy bear Mohammad spent more than five hours behind closed doors in a Khartoum courtroom on Thursday as a judge heard the case against her. She was arrested and charged after one of the school staff reported her to the authorities.
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/ 28 November 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a grilling in Parliament on Wednesday over the funding row that has engulfed the Labour party. Despite pledging to return the donations, Brown will face calls to explain what he knew about the £600 000 that property developer David Abrahams donated through intermediaries.
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/ 23 November 2007
Rescue teams are working to save 154 passengers and crew from a cruiseliner sinking in the Antarctic Ocean, a British coastguard spokesperson said. ”This morning the Argentine and American coastguards are coordinating the rescue of 154 passengers from the Explorer, which is holed and taking water down in the Antarctic near the south Shetland Islands,” said Andy Catrell.
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/ 21 November 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced angry questions from lawmakers on Wednesday after confidential records containing nearly half the population’s bank details went missing in the post. The disappearance of about 25-million people’s personal data vanished in the biggest-ever loss of personal information by any government.
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/ 19 November 2007
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on Monday with a moving thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey, the church where they married 60 years ago. The pomp and splendour of the traditional ceremony came a day before the anniversary itself.
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/ 18 November 2007
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has slammed the church for being ”obsessed” with homosexuality, in a BBC radio programme to be broadcast
Tuesday. The South African 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, 76, said he felt ashamed of his church for its attitude towards gays.
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/ 16 November 2007
A police website has tracked down nine of Britain’s 13 most wanted paedophiles in the past year, the specialist crime team in charge said on Friday. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said the men had been missing for a combined 20 years.
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/ 15 November 2007
Troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse kicked off her 17-date British tour with a shambolic performance that saw fuming fans booing and marching out, reports said on Thursday. The concert at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, Britain’s second city, was a chance for the 24-year-old to get back to singing and put her woes behind her.
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/ 15 November 2007
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is expected to appoint a caretaker government on Thursday to oversee elections he has promised for January but which the opposition say will be a sham under emergency rule. ”We don’t expect fair and free elections under General Musharraf and his mini martial law,” said Farhatullah Babar, an opposition spokesperson.
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/ 13 November 2007
A series of successes by recent mothers has prompted questions whether childbirth, far from spelling the end of a sporting career, can actually boost an athlete’s performance. Paula Radcliffe has a sensational New York Marathon win this month, after having her first child in January.
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/ 10 November 2007
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto described Pakistan on Saturday as a pressure cooker about to explode, as President Pervez Musharraf’s government tightened screws on media by ordering out three British journalists. Having invoked emergency powers a week ago, Musharraf has sacked most of the country’s judges and ordered police to round up most of the opposition leadership.
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/ 5 November 2007
Fear and mistrust gripped Wall Street on Monday after Citigroup’s CEO quit in the wake of mounting credit losses and an influential money manager called the subprime mortgage market a ”-trillion problem”. US stocks followed European shares lower, while safe-haven bonds rallied and even the downtrodden dollar ticked up.
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/ 2 November 2007
The sight of frightened, bewildered children torn from their homes by wars or poverty is one of the most recurring and haunting faces of Africa. But the case of 103 African children who were to be flown out of Chad to Europe by a French group has touched raw nerves on the continent, where trafficking of minors is still widespread.
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/ 1 November 2007
Ernie Els has told Colin Montgomerie to stop ”shooting his mouth off” after the Scottish star hit out at the South African for skipping the European Tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain. ”I know where he’s coming from so it’s no surprise,” said Els in response to Montgomerie’s comments.
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/ 29 October 2007
Helicopter gunships went into action against rebel Kurds in eastern Turkey on Monday while the government flexed its military muscle with massive national day parades and flypasts in major cities. Turkey has massed up to 100 000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, war planes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border.
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/ 26 October 2007
It is interesting why so few of us use one of the breakthroughs of recent years: the ability to search the web from wherever we are with a cellphone. This ought to be hugely empowering. There are a number of reasons why this hasn’t happened and why it may be about to change.
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/ 25 October 2007
South African theatre icon Patrick Mynhardt, famous for portraying the Herman Charles Bosman character Oom Schalk Lourens on stage, has died at the age of 75, it was announced on Thursday. Mynhardt passed away of natural causes in London where he was performing his biographical one-man show Boy from Bethulie.
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/ 18 October 2007
An American scientist who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering the molecular structure of DNA has caused an uproar in Britain by reportedly saying tests have indicated that Africans are not as intelligent as whites. A government minister, scientists and a human rights activist condemned James Watson’s comments as racist.
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/ 14 October 2007
October 15 marks the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso — a stark reminder that we are still in the state Odinga Oginga called Not Yet Uhuru. We will be remembering that if Africa suffers today, it is because yesterday its best political minds, and its most fiery and committed sons and daughters, were assassinated.
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/ 12 October 2007
The women’s 100m in Sydney was the first Olympic final I commentated on for the BBC. Marion Jones streaked to a victory so emphatic that the words that came out were an athlete’s reaction to what I’d witnessed: ”Wow! This is the Olympic Games. You’re not supposed to win by that much.”
Sudan’s army bombed Muhajiriya, the main Darfur town held by the only rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal with Khartoum, injuring at least two dozen people, the African Union force commander said on Tuesday. Martin Luther Agwai said it was not yet clear why the fighting began on Monday.
All tennis players are aware that some men’s matches are fixed, British star Andy Murray said amid rising concern from tennis officials and betting companies. ”It is pretty disappointing for all the players, but everyone knows that it goes on,” Murray told BBC radio in a report made available ahead of Tuesday night’s broadcast.
A Sudanese army air and ground assault killed at least 45 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings, rebels who control the area said on Tuesday. ”Until now the number of dead civilians are at least 40, with 80 missing and a large number of injured,” the Sudan Liberation Army said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ruled out an early election on Saturday in what the opposition Conservatives called a humiliating retreat after polls showed his lead over them had evaporated. Brown, who took over from Tony Blair three months ago, had allowed his Labour Party to fan speculation in recent weeks that he would hold an early election.
A mystery over the unexplained appearance of a string of gargoyle-style stone faces in northern England was solved on Tuesday, when the artist behind them was named. The sculptures, which all have a carved symbol that apparently spells ”paradox” and a riddle, have been left outside homes and businesses.