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/ 21 February 2008
A magnitude-6,3 earthquake struck north-eastern Nevada on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of damage in the nearest large city, Salt Lake City, Utah, although some residents were shaken by the morning quake, local radio said.
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/ 21 February 2008
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Sudanese government and all rebel groups to agree to a ceasefire in Darfur, saying deteriorating security is undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting.
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/ 21 February 2008
Microsoft says it will make Xbox 360 video games developed by players available for download through the console’s online service. The new service will double the size of the Xbox 360 game library, to 1 000 games within a year of its launch, scheduled for this holiday season, the company said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 February 2008
South Africa criticised the United Nations on Wednesday for lack of action to support the peace process in Somalia even though the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of an African peacekeeping mission there for another six months.
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/ 21 February 2008
A missile from a United States navy warship hit a defunct US spy satellite 247km above the Earth in an attempt to blow apart its tank of toxic fuel, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. It was too soon to tell if the fuel tank had been shattered in the operation over the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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/ 20 February 2008
The United States Defence Department said on Wednesday that the window of opportunity is now open for it to try to shoot down a failing spy satellite. The navy is planning to hit the satellite with a heat-seeking missile as early as Wednesday night. ”We’re now into the window,” a senior defence official said.
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/ 20 February 2008
United States Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, staggered by 10 voting losses in a row, ridiculed surging rival Barack Obama on Wednesday as all talk and little substance as she tried to slow his momentum. The former first lady is in the fight of her political life after losing the Democratic votes in Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday to Obama.
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/ 20 February 2008
The publisher of three of the San Francisco Bay area’s largest daily newspapers is offering employees buyouts and bracing them for layoffs in another blow to the struggling newspaper industry. The Bay Area News Group publishes the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and other daily and weekly newspapers in the region.
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/ 20 February 2008
Democrat Barack Obama easily beat rival Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin on Tuesday, extending his winning streak and putting pressure on Clinton to win next month in Ohio and Texas to salvage her campaign. The Obama win in Wisconsin pushed his hot streak to nine straight victories in Democratic nominating contests.
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/ 19 February 2008
United Nations peacekeepers resupplied their food but were running low on fuel on Tuesday after being forced to withdraw all personnel to the Eritrean capital, unable to get permission to cross into Ethiopia. Eritrean authorities ordered the peacekeeping mission patrolling the border to ”regroup” at Asmara.
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/ 19 February 2008
Microsoft unveiled a new initiative on Monday that will give college and high school students around the world free access to technology tools used to develop and design software. The development and design tools are available immediately to college students in the United States, Western Europe and China.
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/ 19 February 2008
The Spice Girls would love to perform for former South African president Nelson Mandela, but said on Monday they had not yet been formally asked to be part of his planned 90th birthday celebrations in June. The Spice Girls met Mandela in 1997 when he invited them to his Pretoria residence for a chat and photos.
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/ 18 February 2008
United States. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama slipped away for a private meeting with former rival John Edwards on Sunday to seek his endorsement as the Illinois senator and Hillary Clinton battle for Wisconsin. After Tuesday’s voting, Democrats have an eye on March 4, when the big states of Texas and Ohio hold primaries.
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/ 16 February 2008
Paparazzi are getting a lot of bad press these days, so it takes some chutzpah to launch a photography exhibit called Paparazzi as an Art Form in the heart of celebrityville. Buzz Foto hopes its 26 shots will show that paparazzi photography, despite its reputation for intrusiveness and bad manners, can be a form of art.
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/ 16 February 2008
President George Bush set off on Friday on a five-nation tour of Africa, touting American compassion for the poor on a continent where he already basks in high approval ratings. Bush aims to use the week-long Africa voyage, likely his last as US president, to bolster his legacy and highlight efforts to resolve regional disputes.
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/ 15 February 2008
Democrat Barack Obama is the ”Yes We Can” candidate of the 2008 presidential race, an Elvis-like presence riding a wave of popular enthusiasm unseen in United States politics in many years. By contrast, rival Hillary Clinton is the policy wonk who says she has the solutions to what ails America, and she frequently lists them.
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/ 15 February 2008
President George Bush, ahead of a trip to Africa, said on Thursday he asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to go to Kenya with a message that there must be a full return to democracy. Kenya’s feuding political parties adjourned talks for the weekend, dashing chief mediator Kofi Annan’s hopes to have a final political settlement this week.
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/ 15 February 2008
Art collectors opened their wallets on Thursday and shelled out ,6-million at a Valentine’s Day charity auction spearheaded by rocker Bono and British artist Damien Hirst to benefit the fight against HIV/Aids in Africa. Spirited bidding and prices far in excess of pre-sale estimates marked ”The (Red) Auction” at Sotheby’s, where all but one of the 83 contemporary works found buyers.
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/ 14 February 2008
United States President George Bush travels this week to Africa, one of the few regions where he can claim globally recognised successes for efforts on Aids and development in a foreign-policy legacy dominated by the Iraq war. But conflicts in Kenya and Darfur will intrude on a trip intended to show the positive impact from US investment.
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/ 14 February 2008
Burning public health issues, cloned animals and the dangers of climate change will top the agenda at a conference drawing about 10 000 eminent scientists from around the world. The annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science opens on Thursday and will gather participants from 56 countries.
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/ 14 February 2008
For Hillary Clinton, once viewed as the almost certain Democratic presidential nominee, it has come to this: win in Ohio and Texas in three weeks, and again the next month in Pennsylvania, or go home. The growing strength of rival Barack Obama leaves Clinton few options in a gruelling fight for convention delegates who select the nominee.
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/ 13 February 2008
Barack Obama was riding high on Wednesday after a string of wins gave him a clear edge in the Democratic White House race, leaving Hillary Clinton desperately seeking victories in Texas and Ohio to keep her campaign alive. Obama coasted to crushing victories in Virginia, Maryland and the United Sates capital on Tuesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
Verita Bouvaire Thompson, the reputed long-time mistress and confidante of Humphrey Bogart, has died. She was 89. In 1982, Thompson wrote a revelatory book called Bogie and Me: A Love Story in which she described a 14-year secret love affair with Bogart that overlapped his marriage to Lauren Bacall.
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/ 13 February 2008
Aviation pioneer Frank Piasecki, inventor of the tandem-rotor helicopter used in troop-transport missions and land and sea rescue flights, has died. He was 88. Igor Sikorsky became the first American to build and fly a helicopter, in 1941, and Piasecki became the second, in 1943.
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/ 13 February 2008
Allan Grant, a Life magazine staff photographer who captured such historic moments as the atomic bomb tests in the Nevada desert to some of the last photos of Marilyn Monroe before her suicide, has died. He was 88. Grant died at his home in Brentwood on February 1, said his wife, Karin Grant.
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/ 13 February 2008
Film director Steven Spielberg and actress Mia Farrow joined activists worldwide on Tuesday in using the Olympics as a backdrop to address human rights concerns, urging Beijing to exert political leverage on Sudan’s government to help end the crisis in Darfur.
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/ 13 February 2008
Barack Obama easily won three more Democratic nominating contests on Tuesday, extending his winning streak over rival Hillary Clinton and building momentum in a hard-fought United States presidential race. Obama rolled to decisive victories in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, running his hot streak to eight consecutive wins.
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/ 12 February 2008
The Russian Federation is now a "superpower" of spam email, becoming the second-most-prolific country after the United States in producing junk emails, a computer security firm said on Monday. It accounts for "one in 12 junk mails seen in inboxes", according to security firm Sophos in its quarterly update on spam email.
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/ 12 February 2008
Yahoo!’s rejection on Monday of Microsoft’s buyout offer sets the stage for the United States software giant to up the ante or attempt a coup by ousting the internet firm’s board of directors. Yahoo!’s board of directors spurned Microsoft’s takeover bid, saying the $44,6-billion offer is too low.
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/ 12 February 2008
Dolly Parton’s breasts may be two of the wonders of the entertainment world, but the country music icon says they are a pain in her back. Parton (62) said on Monday she would postpone her upcoming North American tour after doctors told her to take it easy for six to eight weeks to rest her sore back.
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/ 12 February 2008
A group of Nobel Peace laureates sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urging the Beijing Games host to uphold Olympic ideals by pressing its ally, Sudan, to stop atrocities in Darfur. In more than four years of conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, 200 000 people have died and 2,5-million have been driven from their homes.
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/ 12 February 2008
Hillary Clinton’s stuttering White House campaign faces the prospect of three new hammer blows on Tuesday, with Democratic rival Barack Obama tipped to sweep a trio of Washington-area nominating contests. Clinton insisted her historic quest was in good shape, despite opinion polls that suggest she will tumble to defeat.