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/ 31 March 2008

Els withdraws from Houston Open

Ernie Els withdrew from the Houston Open on Sunday because of a virus, giving him an unexpected two weeks off before going to the US Masters. ”I am very disappointed to have been forced to make this decision because I was really looking forward to playing this week,” Els said in a statement.

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/ 23 March 2008

Astronauts breeze through final spacewalk

Spacewalking astronauts stashed an inspection boom to the outside of the International Space Station on Saturday to assure the next shuttle crew can scrutinise their ship for damage. Latching the boom to the outside of the station was the primary task of the fifth and final spacewalk conducted by the Endeavour crew.

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/ 21 March 2008

Astronauts test repair technique on spacewalk

A pair of astronauts ended a spacewalk late on Thursday in which they tested a repair procedure for the heat shields on the space-shuttle fleet — a technique Nasa hopes it never needs to use. During the over six-hour outing the pair also replaced a faulty circuit breaker and removed a thermal sock from the station’s new Canadian-built handyman robot.

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/ 31 October 2007

Nasa crew ready to tackle station problems

Nasa scrambled on Wednesday to deal with two power problems at the International Space Station that could delay future missions and make it even harder to finish building the orbiting outpost before the space shuttles must be retired. Both issues competed for the precious little spacewalking time that’s left in Discovery‘s mission.

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/ 19 June 2007

Shuttle crew closes door on space shuttle mission

Astronauts on the International Space Station and visiting space shuttle Atlantis said goodbye on Monday as they closed the hatch between their two ships in preparation for the shuttle’s departure on Tuesday. The space travellers spoke warm words of friendship and shook hands before the seven Atlantis crewmembers floated into their spacecraft.

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/ 16 June 2007

Computer concerns on space station fade

Nasa reported major progress on glitches in a critical computer system on the International Space Station on Friday as astronauts repaired insulation damage to the space shuttle Atlantis during a spacewalk. Four of the six boxes or ”lanes” that comprise the computer were up and running.

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/ 16 April 2007

Agassi inadvertently smashes Graf with racket

Steffi Graf required three stitches after husband Andre Agassi inadvertently hit her in the face with his racket during a fundraiser that followed the final of the United States Clay Court Championships on Sunday. Graf and Agassi were holding hands — her left to his right — while rallying with a couple of youngsters when Agassi’s follow-through struck his wife in the face.

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/ 7 February 2007

Space community shocked by love-struck astronaut

Astronaut Lisa Nowak’s attack on a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut sent shockwaves on Tuesday through a tightly-knit Nasa community accustomed to its crewmembers showing the ”right stuff,” and not getting involved in love triangles. Johnson Space Centre director Michael Coats said in a statement the space agency was ”deeply saddened by this tragic event”.

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/ 17 December 2006

Astronauts fail to fix stuck solar array

Astronauts failed late on Saturday to dislodge a stuck solar array on the International Space Station, setting the stage for a likely fourth space walk just to solve the problem. Robert Curbeam and Sunita Williams ended their space walk at 2.56am GMT on Sunday, after seven-and-a-half hours of working as electricians in space.

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/ 24 October 2006

Enron’s Skilling gets 24 years behind bars

Former Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling was sentenced on Monday to more than 24 years in prison for leading a financial fraud that destroyed the company and came to symbolise a dark era for corporate America. US District Judge Sim Lake said Skilling’s crimes ”have imposed on hundreds if not thousands of people a lifetime of poverty”.

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/ 5 October 2006

Ex-Enron CEO Skilling pays public drunk fine

Ex-Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, facing sentencing later this month for his role in the energy trading giant’s collapse, paid a fine to a Dallas court for public drunkenness, according a report on Wednesday on the Houston Chronicle website. Skilling did not appear in the Dallas court, but pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge and mailed in a fine.

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/ 27 September 2006

Enron CFO Fastow sentenced to six years in jail

Andrew Fastow, who helped engineer the financial trickery that sank Enron and then helped convict his former bosses in the scandal, on Tuesday got four years knocked off the plea deal he had made, receiving a six-year sentence instead. United States District Judge Ken Hoyt said the 44-year-old former Enron chief financial officer (CFO) had given ”exceptional” assistance to prosecutors.