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/ 6 February 2006
British motorists made claims last year for everything from a frozen squirrel crashing through a car windshield to a cow jumping on a quad bike, an insurance company said on Monday. Freak accidents involving animals topped the list of odd excuses for motor insurance claims with food-related mishaps in second place.
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/ 6 February 2006
Got the winter blues? British people wanting to take a "sickie" — a day off work — are more than likely to choose the first Monday in February, according to a study by television channel Sky Travel. Barbara Gibbon, general manager of Sky Travel, said: "It is clear that an increasing number of employees feel completely justified in taking a cheeky day off sick."
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/ 5 February 2006
Coach Andy Robinson hailed England’s strength in depth as they overpowered defending champions Wales 47-13 in their opening Six Nations match in London at Twickenham on Saturday. Lawrence Dallaglio, back after 17 months in self-imposed international exile, was one of six England try scorers as the hosts gained revenge for Wales’ 11-9 win in Cardiff last year.
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/ 5 February 2006
Thierry Henry’s 200th goal for Arsenal helped the Gunners end a difficult week on a high with a 2-0 win at Birmingham on Saturday. Alan Shearer also celebrated a landmark day, his 201st goal for managerless Newcastle sealing a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth as well as making the former England forward the highest scorer in the club’s history.
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/ 3 February 2006
A comparison of cells from the lining of the colon shows that people who eat a diet high in red meat have a ”significant”increase in levels of DNA damage compared with vegetarians. This damage can increase the risk of developing cancer, say researchers at the Medical Research Council’s Dunn human nutrition unit in Cambridge, south-east England.
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/ 3 February 2006
In this new landscape, everyone is in the dark. After Hamas won an enormous victory that shocked even them, all the players in the Middle East conflict are stumbling around, unsure how to negotiate the new terrain. No one knows quite what to do.
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/ 2 February 2006
Royal Dutch Shell posted on Thursday net profit of $22,94-billion for 2005, the highest full-year profit figure in British corporate history, as the Anglo-Dutch energy group benefited from record oil prices. Net profit, excluding gains from the value of its crude oil inventories, soared by 30% last year compared with a profit of $17,595-billion in 2004.
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/ 2 February 2006
Dan Catt grabbed his digital camera, went for a walk in the country near where he lives in Stoke on Trent, and ended up being hired by Yahoo. Well, quite a lot happened in between. Such as Catt launching a website called Geobloggers.com to display his pictures, which also enabled other people to put Flickr photos on Google Maps.
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/ 2 February 2006
Moira Shearer, a British ballerina who rose to worldwide prominence with the lead role in the 1948 film The Red Shoes, has died, her husband said on Wednesday. She was 80. Shearer died on Tuesday at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, southern England, said her husband.
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/ 1 February 2006
World commentators have characterised United States President George Bush’s State of the Union speech as an obstinate bid to regain popularity with unrealistic promises, suggesting on Wednesday that his pledge to break the US’s dependence on Mideast oil offered the only surprise in an otherwise bland speech.
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/ 31 January 2006
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced on Tuesday plans to sell seven European hotels, continuing its policy of asset disposal to concentrate on management and franchising. The group said it also intended to sell some mid-range European hotels which it expected to remain under the IHG brand.
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/ 31 January 2006
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council reached surprising agreement on Tuesday that Iran should be hauled before that powerful body over its disputed nuclear programme. China and Russia signed on to a statement that calls on the UN nuclear watchdog to transfer the Iran dossier to the Security Council.
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/ 30 January 2006
Europe and the United States warned Iran over its nuclear ambitions on Monday and called on Russia and China to join in seeking United Nations action later this week, as Tehran asked for more time for a compromise. In Brussels, top officials from Britain, France and Germany met an Iranian delegation.
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/ 30 January 2006
Critics tore into a British police force that erected placards in "trendy" SMS-style patois in what was slammed as a "bizarre" attempt to get hip with the kids, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Avon and Somerset Police plastered baffling messages across rough estates in Bristol, south-west England.
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/ 30 January 2006
Crude oil prices fell on Monday ahead of a closely watched Opec meeting, despite persistent supply fears tied to Iran’s diplomatic stand-off with the West over its nuclear ambitions and militant attacks in Nigeria. Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 14 cents to ,62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.
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/ 30 January 2006
Global unemployment rose to record highs last year in spite of continued strong economic growth, meaning efforts to reduce poverty in a year of increased debt relief and development aid achieved very little. A global employment trends survey shows that half of the world’s 2,85-billion workers are existing on less than the -a-day poverty line — the same as a decade ago.
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/ 27 January 2006
Brazilians are choosing to pump ethanol into their cars, reducing the country’s dependency on petrol and setting a worldwide example on how to reduce greenhouse emissions from transport. More than 183 600 ””lexi-fuel” cars, which run on petrol or ethanol made from sugar cane, were sold in December in Brazil.
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/ 27 January 2006
Singletons in the United Kingdom complain of bias in the workplace with pressure to attend after-hours dos and work weekends, a survey revealed this week. Most single people are happy being single but many feel picked on at work, left out of couple-dominated social occasions and penalised financially.
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/ 26 January 2006
The race for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, Britain’s second opposition party, was buffeted on Thursday by news reports of gay sex, lies and alcohol. Simon Hughes, the leadership contender for Britain’s second opposition Liberal Democrats, admitted on Thursday having had gay relationships and lying about it when asked.
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/ 26 January 2006
Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha scored to overcome a stand-out effort by goalkeeper Brad Friedel on Wednesday, enabling Manchester United to beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 and reach the English League Cup final against upstart Wigan Athletic. Van Nistelrooy and Saha’s goals advanced the Reds on a 3-2 aggregate score.
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/ 25 January 2006
Sven-Goran Eriksson on Wednesday hit back at those who claim he has not been worth his money. The England head coach will step down after the World Cup in Germany, two years before his contract is due to expire. But the Swede warned that the Football Association will have to pay his successor a similar salary to his own earnings.
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/ 25 January 2006
The Football Association (FA) Premier League, which represents the 20 clubs in England’s top-flight division, said on Tuesday it is to launch an inquiry into financial procedures in player transfers since January 2004. The decision comes soon after allegations of transfer bungs from Luton boss Mike Newell and QPR coach Ian Holloway.
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/ 24 January 2006
Scotland’s national dish, haggis, has become the latest foodstuff to be targeted as part of a drive to combat growing levels of obesity among British children, prompting outrage among producers. According to health officials in Scotland, the delicacy contains too much fat and salt and should only be given to youngsters once a week.
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/ 24 January 2006
Sven-Goran Eriksson is to leave his post as England coach after the World Cup finals in Germany later this year, the Football Association announced. The Swede’s contract does not expire until 2008, but he has recently been at the centre of a series of embarrassing newspaper revelations.
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/ 24 January 2006
Anton Ferdinand and Yossi Benayoun scored first-half goals and West Ham beat Fulham 2-1 on Monday night, ending a four-match home losing streak. The victory moved West Ham past Manchester City into ninth place in the English Premier League with 32 points, two behind eighth-place Blackburn Rovers.
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/ 23 January 2006
World oil prices on Monday soared above per barrel for the first time in more than four months, owing to global supply concerns, before easing on profit-taking, analysts and dealers said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, hit an intraday peak of ,20 — the highest level since September 1 last year.
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/ 22 January 2006
It captivated onlookers with an unprecedented appearance in the shallow waters of London’s River Thames, but the whale spotted swimming past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben died while rescue crews tried to ferry it to sea.
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/ 22 January 2006
James Beattie scored in the 13th minute on Saturday, and Everton won their fourth straight English Premier League match by defeating Arsenal 1-0. Also, Neil Mellor scored in second-half injury time to give Wigan a 3-2 victory at Middlesbrough. ‘Boro drew level after trailing 2-0, only to let a valuable point slip away.
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/ 21 January 2006
Rescue workers tried on Saturday to save a northern bottle-nosed whale that swam up the River Thames past Big Ben and other London landmarks, the first such sighting of the endangered species since records began nearly a century ago. Amazed onlookers crowded the Thames riverbanks on Friday.
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/ 20 January 2006
No one is particularly surprised that a stressful day at work raises blood pressure, but a new study in Britain suggests that on-the-job tension also can lead to heart disease and diabetes. A study of more than 10 000 British civil servants over a 14-year period has found a possible biological explanation for why workplace stress adversely effects health.
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/ 20 January 2006
Geraldine McCaughrean’s sequel to the Peter Pan classic will be published this autumn, but the only information available about it now is its title — Peter Pan in Scarlet. The book by the award-winning children’s author promises readers ”high adventure, dramatic tensions and all the swashbuckling, danger and derring-do they can handle”.
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/ 19 January 2006
British opposition parties demanded answers from the government on Thursday after a leaked memo suggested uncertainty about the exact number of United States ”rendition” flights allowed to use British airspace. A Foreign Office memo to Downing Street suggests the US Central Intelligence Agency may have operated more flights than the two already confirmed by London.