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/ 14 April 2008

From big oil to big wind

T Boone Pickens is famous for thinking big. He founded his Texan oil company, Mesa Petroleum, in 1956 with just 500 in the bank. After a string of audacious takeovers he turned it into an independent empire that challenged the big oil companies, and today he is worth -billion. Now this straight-talking Southerner is launching the biggest and most audacious project of his career.

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/ 2 April 2008

It ain’t necessarily so

"This much I know is true: don’t trust those who say things with absolute certainty. Back in primary school, they told me I couldn’t subtract a big number from a little number. ‘Don’t even try,’ said crow-faced Mrs Pillay, leaning in, breath smelling of cough drops and decay," writes Lev David.

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/ 30 March 2008

Mann fingers Thatcher in E Guinea plot

A British mercenary awaiting trial in Equatorial Guinea for leading a failed 2004 coup has said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was involved in the plot, the public prosecutor said on Sunday. Jose Olo said former British special forces officer Simon Mann had testified that Mark Thatcher knew all about the scheme to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

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/ 29 March 2008

Thatcher shrugs off E Guinea’s bid to arrest him

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s son shrugged off Equatorial Guinea’s attempts to have him arrested for his alleged role in a plot to overthrow the country, according to a newspaper report on Saturday. The West African country has issued a warrant for Mark Thatcher’s arrest for his role in helping to finance and organise a coup plot.

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/ 31 January 2008

Simon Mann loses extradition appeal

A court in Zimbabwe dismissed an appeal against the extradition of Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer accused of leading a coup plot to topple the government in the oil-rich West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, his lawyers said on Thursday. Mann’s lawyers had argued he would face torture and a likely death sentence if extradited Equatorial Guinea.

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/ 25 December 2007

Stormy end to Kenyan election campaigns

Kenyan police fired teargas to disperse stone-throwing supporters of the country’s main presidential contenders on Monday after the candidates made a final push to win votes in a race deemed too close to call. Scuffles briefly flared shortly after President Mwai Kibaki and his opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, addressed huge rallies in the capital.

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/ 21 December 2007

Dangerous, covert liaisons

What a country. Both our president-in-waiting and our police chief separately face the prospect of corruption and racketeering charges; our previous national director of public prosecutions was accused of once being an apartheid-era spy and all but hounded out of office for pursuing the first investigation; our current national director was suspended by the president for pursuing the second, writes Sam Sole.

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/ 11 September 2007

Number 10 has its first cat since Humphrey

Nearly a decade since Humphrey was shown the door to 10 Downing Street, the prime ministerial house has a cat in residence again. Sybil, named after Basil’s wife in the 1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers, has moved down from Edinburgh with Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling and his family who are living in the three-bedroomed flat above number 10.