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/ 1 December 2007
United States Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton vowed on Friday there would be no change to her campaign, despite a man taking several people hostage at one of her offices. ”I don’t see any changes in my campaign or my schedule,” Clinton told reporters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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/ 30 November 2007
Seeking to keep the peace in its popular online hangout, Facebook has overhauled a new advertising system that sparked privacy complaints by turning its users into marketing tools for other companies. Users will have greater control over whether they want to participate in a programme that circulates information about their online purchases.
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/ 30 November 2007
Suited executives, grungy teens and even some savvy grannies are already using Wi-Fi to link their laptops wirelessly to the internet. It may not be long before the short-range high-speed technology is just as popular for those looking to connect music players, phones, cameras, game consoles and more.
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/ 30 November 2007
Time spent watching television will rise faster than leisure time spent on the web until 2012, while a major audience for internet video could take even longer to develop, consultancy Bain & Co said on Thursday. The data could be sobering to TV networks and web media companies, which are investing heavily in internet video sites.
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/ 30 November 2007
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Ethiopia next week for meetings on the conflicts in the volatile African Great Lakes region and Sudan and Somalia, said the State Department on Thursday. Rice, a rare visitor to the African continent, will make her third trip to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming Secretary of State in 2005.
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/ 29 November 2007
Overtaken as the largest funder of global HIV/Aids programmes, the World Bank is now focusing on easing the economic damage inflicted by the syndrome in Africa and finding ways of controlling its spread through better prevention, care and treatment. Global funding for HIV/Aids reached -billion in 2007 compared to ,6-billion available in 2001.
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/ 28 November 2007
United States President George Bush invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the White House to renew long-stalled peace talks on Wednesday but faced deep scepticism over chances for a deal. Finally embracing a hands-on approach, Bush will ceremonially inaugurate the first formal Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in seven years.
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/ 28 November 2007
Ten-year-olds in Russia, China’s Hong Kong and Singapore show the greatest reading ability among their peers, according to a global literacy study released on Wednesday. The worst performances came from South Africa, Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Iran, Trinidad and Tobago, Macedonia, Georgia and Romania.
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/ 28 November 2007
The RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, which has been under intense pressure from anti-smoking groups and members of the United States Congress over print ads for its cigarettes, said it would not advertise its brands in newspapers or consumer magazines next year.
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/ 28 November 2007
The Sudanese government is putting up obstacles to the deployment of a 26 000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur that could destroy the effectiveness of the joint United Nations-African Union mission, the United Nations peacekeeping chief warned on Tuesday.
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/ 28 November 2007
Google said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal. The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing.
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/ 28 November 2007
United States President George Bush has set himself the herculean task of shepherding an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of next year, but doubts remain about his commitment. Talks on borders, settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees — are to begin on December 12.
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/ 27 November 2007
The information superhighway could become clogged with data by 2010, forcing broadband users to revert to dial-up modems, according to a new study. The report predicts that unless more than -billion is invested in the global internet infrastructure, a level of gridlock will develop that will make it almost impossible to use rich-media sites.
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/ 27 November 2007
If the experience of the world’s largest software vendor is any guide, the industry’s best hope for reducing piracy rests with anti-copying technologies rather than in policing the legalistic user agreements that restrict how software can be used. Microsoft is locking software down through a programme it calls its Genuine Software Initiative.
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/ 27 November 2007
The National Football League’s (NFL) Sean Taylor, a star defensive player for the Washington Redskins, died on Tuesday after being shot at his home near Miami, local television stations in Washington reported. Taylor (24), who was the Redskins first pick in the 2004 draft, was shot in the leg, severing his femoral artery, during an apparent home robbery on Monday.
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/ 27 November 2007
The wife of American adventurer Steve Fossett has asked a court to declare him legally dead, nearly three months after his small plane vanished over the Nevada wilderness, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Peggy Fossett filed a court petition in Cook County, Illinois, on Monday asking that the millionaire aviator’s assets be distributed according to his will.
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/ 27 November 2007
President George Bush launched a United States drive to create a Palestinian state on Monday, with Israelis and Palestinians nearing an agreement to address the toughest issues of their decades-old conflict. His legacy dominated by war in Iraq, Bush began three days of Middle East diplomacy in separate Oval Office meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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/ 26 November 2007
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators neared an agreement on Monday on a peace agenda ahead of a new drive by United States President George Bush to restart long-dormant talks to create a Palestinian state. Expectations were low for three days of meetings in Washington and nearby Annapolis, Maryland.
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/ 26 November 2007
A 6,2-magnitude earthquake hit near the city of Iwaki in Japan on Monday, the United States Geological Survey said, revising it to a slightly stronger quake than it initially reported. Strong earthquakes have also hit Indonesia and India since Sunday, killing at least three people in central Indonesia.
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/ 26 November 2007
United States President George Bush meets Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Monday in a last-ditch push for Palestinian statehood before he leaves office in 14 months. Expectations are low for three days of talks because Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all face political challenges at home.
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/ 25 November 2007
Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama once electrified the United States by preaching a ”politics of hope”. Unfortunately Obama then found himself outsmarted and outfought by his chief rival, Senator Hillary Clinton. Now Obama has, in effect, relaunched his campaign, coming out fighting against Clinton.
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/ 22 November 2007
”If the United States wants to win a war, it ought to be the war on malaria,” says one of Africa’s best-known singing stars, Youssou N’Dour. The Senegalese superstar, who played at the Kennedy Centre in Washington on Monday, takes time to throw the spotlight over to malaria, which in Africa kills almost a million children a year.
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/ 21 November 2007
A masterpiece by a Mexican artist that was found in the trash by a woman who knew little about modern art has been sold for more than -million. The painting Tres Personajes, by Rufino Tamayo, was discovered in 2003 by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted it on her morning walk on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
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/ 21 November 2007
A breakthrough in stem-cell research could give United States President George Bush and his anti-abortion allies a political benefit in a debate Democrats have long been planning to use in next year’s elections. Stem cells extracted from embryos a few days old can morph into any type of tissue.
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/ 21 November 2007
England’s Ricky Hatton is in the best shape of his career for his showdown with fellow unbeaten Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas on December 8 for the World Boxing Council welterweight crown. ”He is stronger than he has ever been. I think a lot of guys are going to be shocked at Ricky’s strength,” said Hatton conditioning coach Kerry Kayes.
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/ 21 November 2007
A former child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war was named an ambassador for the United Nations children’s agency on Tuesday, vowing to be an advocate for children worldwide, not just in African war zones. Ishmael Beah lost his family in a rebel attack at about age 12 and and was forced to fight a deadly war.
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/ 21 November 2007
Condoleezza Rice taught crisis management at Stanford University but experts say the top United States diplomat will need more than academic prowess to mediate an end to six decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ”The question is, will she have that diplomatic skill to pull it off?” asked Daniel Levy, a former Israeli mediator.
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/ 20 November 2007
Neil Diamond held on to the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President John Kennedy’s daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit Sweet Caroline. ”I’ve never discussed it with anybody before — intentionally,” the 66-year-old singer-songwriter said on Monday during a break from recording.
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/ 20 November 2007
United States banking titan Citigroup may have to write off -billion in soured investments including mortgage losses in coming months, a report by Goldman Sachs predicted on Monday. Citigroup, the US’s second-largest bank by market worth, is already reeling from its exposure to the US housing downturn and tighter credit markets.
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/ 20 November 2007
Amazon.com is hoping to invigorate a nascent market for electronic books by introducing its own e-book reader with free wireless connectivity. Monday’s long-anticipated announcement comes as e-books remain a sliver of overall book sales, partly because they lack the comfort and intimacy of bound paper.
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/ 20 November 2007
California on Monday launched a lawsuit against 20 companies, accusing them of manufacturing or selling toys with illegal quantities of lead, a statement said. California attorney general Jerry Brown said the firms — including Mattel and Toys ”R” Us — are being sued for knowingly exposing children to potentially dangerous lead levels.
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/ 20 November 2007
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was sentenced to one day in jail and three years’ probation on Monday for cocaine possession and driving under the influence of alcohol. Tyson (41) pleaded guilty in September to a single felony count of cocaine possession,