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/ 22 August 2005

‘Piano Man’ discharged from British hospital

A mysterious patient at a British hospital who did not speak to doctors and nurses for months but loved to play the piano has been discharged, health officials said on Monday. A spokesperson for the West Kent National Health Service said the condition of the patient dubbed ”Piano Man” had shown a ”marked improvement” and he no longer needed medical treatment.

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/ 22 August 2005

Drogba helps sink Arsenal

Didier Drogba overshadowed debutant Michael Essien to poach a fluke winner for Chelsea’s first league victory over Arsenal in 10 years in Sunday’s Premiership clash at Stamford Bridge. Drogba once again outmuscled Philippe Senderos to latch on to a Frank Lampard free kick and bundle the ball past Jens Lehmann.

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/ 22 August 2005

The $100 barrel?

Western governments heard a faint echo from the 1970s recently as the escalating cost of petrol contributed to higher inflation. And with tension in the Middle East providing another reminder of life three decades ago, the message was that consumers can expect more of the same over the coming months.

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/ 22 August 2005

Veggie tactics humiliate staff

In the spectrum of corporate incentives, the cabbage and the cauliflower don’t figure too prominently. Except in Scotland, where managers at two branches of the Bank of Scotland made staff sit the vegetables on their desks to try to prompt improved performance. The move prompted outrage instead.

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/ 19 August 2005

Meat without the murder

It is the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians who think that meat is murder: a revolution in processed food that will see fresh meat grown from animal cells without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed. Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new technique, which they hailed as the answer to the world’s food shortage.

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/ 19 August 2005

Positive steps

South Africa is often considered to be in the unfortunate position of having some of the world’s best laws and poli-cies to protect women and children but an inability to implement them. Take the roll-out of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rape survivors to prevent HIV infection, a lot of dissatisfaction with the programme has been widespread.

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/ 18 August 2005

Deadly bungle

The Brazilian shot dead by police on a tube train in mistake for a suicide bomber had already been overpowered by a surveillance officer before he was killed, according to secret documents revealed this week. It also emerged in the leaked documents that early allegations that he was running from police at the time of the shooting were untrue.

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/ 17 August 2005

Baghdad morgue receives 1 100 dead in July

The number of dead Iraqi civilians counted at the Baghdad morgue hit 1 100 in July, the highest toll in recent history, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday, blaming the daily violence. The Independent said the figure was just 700 short of the total number of United States soldiers killed in Iraq since April 2003.

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/ 16 August 2005

Look! The Loch Ness monster! Or is it?

Loch out! Hundreds of stunned tourists were duped into thinking they had seen Scotland’s famous Loch Ness monster, the television pranksters behind the stunt revealed on Tuesday. The legendary creature, said to live in the Highland lake’s murky depths, has attracted Nessie-hunters to the shoreline for decades.

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/ 16 August 2005

Lions stalk Smart cars in game park

Lions at a safari park in the north of England are prowling after Smart cars, in the apparent belief that the boxy little two-seat European city cars are worthy prey. Visitors to Knowsley Safari Park in Smart cars have discovered that the lions are paying them particular interest.

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/ 16 August 2005

Thierry Henry looks to make history

New Arsenal skipper Thierry Henry is dreaming of breaking the team’s goal-scoring record at Highbury in the club’s final season at their historic ground. Henry’s penalty against Newcastle moved him within three goals of Ian Wright’s all-time club-scoring record of 185 goals.

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/ 16 August 2005

Cricket frenzy sweeps England

England is going crazy for cricket, with newspapers pushing football coverage off the celebrated back pages on Tuesday to agonise over the country’s dramatic draw against Australia in the third Ashes Test. The centuries-old game is enjoying a massive revival thanks to the heroics of England captain Michael Vaughan and his teammates.

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/ 15 August 2005

Arsenal clinch opening Premiership win

A last-gasp Hernan Crespo goal saved Chelsea’s blushes on Sunday as the champions beat newly promoted Wigan 1-0 to avoid a stuttering start to the defence of their English Premiership title. Earlier on Sunday, late strikes from Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie clinched an opening win for Arsenal over Newcastle.

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/ 14 August 2005

Angola strikes gold with oil investment

The African state of Angola, emerging from 27 years of civil war, is attracting increasing quantities of foreign investment in its oil industry and is on the path to becoming one of the world’s biggest crude exporters. Angola is set to double its production of oil in the next three years to reach two million barrels per day in 2008.

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/ 14 August 2005

Man United start with victory

Wayne Rooney scored against his former Everton teammates as Manchester United launched their latest Premier League challenge with an impressive 2-0 victory at Goodison Park on Saturday. United began with three useful away points against an Everton side that finished fourth last term.

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/ 14 August 2005

Victoria Beckham too posh for books

Former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, wife of England football captain David, confessed she has never read a book, a newspaper said on Sunday. Despite struggling for a hit record for some time, Beckham said she never had a spare moment to leaf through anything more challenging than fashion magazines.

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/ 12 August 2005

Psychic fails to predict crystal-ball fire

A French amateur psychic’s powers of prediction were under sharp scrutiny after his crystal ball started an inferno that burnt out his flat, a British newspaper reported on Friday. The fortune-telling device caused a fire that destroyed two other flats and rendered several more uninhabitable, <i>The Times</i> said.

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/ 12 August 2005

Old adage tested as bull continues its run

Whatever happened to the cast-iron principle that high oil prices are bad for the stock market? A day after oil touched -per-barrel, the FTSE 100 (the index of top 100 British companies) recorded another three-year high on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 index, supposedly a broader measure of the health of corporate Britain, is doing even better, hitting all-time highs.

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/ 11 August 2005

Hollywood in your home

Entertainment on your home computer is about to become more than just gaming and music. Within a year, computer owners should be able to download movies and hit television shows and then watch them on TV. The first steps in cutting out the trip to Blockbuster are already being taken, although the web content is still ”locked” to the PC.

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/ 9 August 2005

Santa starts early in London

With 138 days until Christmas, Father Christmas swapped Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer for Dino the seaside donkey on Tuesday for a mid-summer publicity stunt at London’s famed Harrods department store. Santa Claus presided over the unveiling of Harrods’ special Christmas range.