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/ 13 October 2004
A furious Michael Jackson hit out on Tuesday at United States rapper Eminem over what he branded a ”demeaning and disrespectful” video that mocks the ”king of pop” and shows him cavorting with children. The rapper’s Just Lose It video shows a Jackson lookalike on a bed surrounded by children.
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/ 13 October 2004
The United States government has moved for the first time to block unsolicited circulation on the internet of spyware, a type of software that can inundate web users with pop-up ads, secretly take control of their computers and spy on their online activities.
A former in-house Enron accountant who signed off on a year-end 1999 alleged sham sale of several barges to Merrill Lynch told prosecutors he thought the deal was wrong from the beginning. Now he awaits questioning from the lawyer representing his former boss, Sheila Kahanek, who is one of six defendants on trial for fraud and conspiracy stemming from the deal.
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/ 23 September 2004
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, thanked the United States on Thursday for liberating his country and said Iraq is on the path to success. ”We are succeeding in Iraq,” he told a joint session of Congress. The US has made ”enormous sacrifices” in Iraq, Allawi said, vowing that those ”sacrifices are not in vein”.
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/ 22 September 2004
The United States tobacco industry on Wednesday fired its first shots in a bid to undermine a government claim for -billion to punish firms it accuses of plotting to cover up the harm of smoking. Lawyers for the major industry firms said the companies no longer seek to hide the fact that cigarettes are ”a dangerous product”.
Tobacco giants deny fraud
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/ 22 September 2004
A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was rerouted to Bangor, Maine, late on Tuesday to prevent Yusuf Islam, the British pop musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, from entering the United States. Islam is believed to be a financial supporter of groups believed to be linked to terrorism, US officials said.
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/ 21 September 2004
Passwords alone won’t be enough to get onto America Online under a new, optional log on service that makes AOL the first major United States online business to offer customers a second layer of security. The so-called two-factor authentication scheme, being unveiled on Tuesday, will cost ,95 a month in addition to a one-time ,95 fee.
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/ 21 September 2004
The United States east coast’s leading newspaper group, the New York Times, on Monday warned on profits after weaker than expected advertising sales so far this month. The news increased fears that the autumn is shaping up to be weaker than US publishers had hoped and sent shares in the company to their lowest level for two years.
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/ 20 September 2004
Saddam Hussein spends his days tending plants and playing board games as he waits to be put on trial for his life, according to Iraq’s United States-backed leadership in interviews on Monday offering a glimpse into the spartan routine of the once-all-powerful dictator. Their portraits included at least three descriptions of Saddam.
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/ 20 September 2004
<i>The Sopranos</i> finally whacked its competitors in the best-drama category at the Emmy Awards, but it was HBO and its record-breaking <i>Angels in America</i> that fluttered away with the most trophies. <i>Frasier</i> and <i>Sex and the City</i>, which have both ended their runs, also collected some trophies.
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/ 19 September 2004
Pornography and erotica have made their way into mainstream United States bookstores with guides to a better sex life written by adult film stars, seven months after Americans expressed shock over briefly seeing Janet Jackson’s breast on television. Porn queen Jenna Jameson has penned How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale.
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/ 19 September 2004
Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions, one of up to 12 such measures on the ballot around the country this year. Only in New Orleans, home to a politically strong gay community, was the race relatively close.
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/ 18 September 2004
Zimbabwe is falling deeper into economic and social misery as a result of poor governance and corruption in the African nation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday. In its annual review of the country’s economy, the IMF notes that conditions in Zimbabwe ”have continued to deteriorate”.
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/ 18 September 2004
Talk about a scrapbook! He’s only two years old, but Jeremy Zorek has already been photographed with dozens of celebrities as he and his stay-at-home dad wander New York with a camera. ”This just started as a lark and I was content with that,” said Michael Zorek, who chronicles their adventures on a website. But then ”it took on a life of its own”.
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/ 18 September 2004
Actor Macaulay Culkin was jailed on Friday on charges of possessing marijuana and a dangerous controlled substance without a prescription, police said. Culkin (24) was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for speeding on Friday in Oklahoma, Captain Jeffrey Becker of the Oklahoma City police department said in a statement.
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/ 17 September 2004
A new system of sign language developed by deaf children in Nicaragua may hold clues about the evolution of languages. When the country’s first school for the deaf was established in 1977, children were not taught sign language but developed a system of signs to communicate.
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/ 15 September 2004
Microsoft announced on Tuesday it has found a new security flaw with its Windows XP operating system and warned that an attacker could infiltrate other computers by persuading their owners to open a specialised graphics file. The company released a patch to fix the flaw as well as a tool that allows users to scan their systems to see if they need it.
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/ 15 September 2004
Yahoo is buying online jukebox provider Musicmatch for -million in a deal designed to broaden the internet giant’s appeal with the growing audience of consumers who buy songs off the web. The all-cash acquisition, announced on Tuesday, gives Sunnyvale-based Yahoo a major drawing card as it competes against the likes of Apple Computer, RealNetworks and Napster in the rapidly growing field of digital music management.
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/ 14 September 2004
Authorities in southern states of the United States on Tuesday urged residents to evacuate low-lying coastal areas, including New Orleans, as ferocious Hurricane Ivan barrelled across the Gulf of Mexico towards land. Tens of thousands of people were told to leave their homes for safer ground ahead of Ivan’s anticipated US landfall.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=122135">Ivan hits Cuba, moves towards US</a>
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/ 13 September 2004
For the second time in less than two years, US Airways Group announced on Sunday it had filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to resolve a dispute over wages and benefits with its key unions. ”Since we still lack the new labour agreements that are needed for the transformation plan to succeed, we must preserve the company’s cash resources that are required to implement the plan,” US Airways chief executive Bruce Lakefield said in a statement.
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/ 12 September 2004
Early one morning this week, when the police have yet to set up too many checkpoints, Abu Mujahed will strap a mortar underneath a car, drive to a friend’s in central Baghdad and bury the weapon in his garden. In the evening he will return with the rest of his group, sleep for a few hours and then take the weapon from its hiding place.
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/ 8 September 2004
Hollywood stunt pilots hired by Nasa to catch a capsule carrying samples of the sun were gearing up for a blockbuster ending to their mission on Wednesday over Utah in the western United States. When the Genesis spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, the helicopter pilots are to intercept a capsule from the vessel in midair.
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/ 6 September 2004
In a harrowing feat high over the Utah desert on Wednesday, two helicopter stunt pilots will try to snatch a floating space capsule that holds ”a piece of the sun” and bring it safely down. Their biggest fear: what if they flub it on live television? And that’s entirely possible. The pilots rate it eight or nine on a difficulty scale of 10.
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/ 3 September 2004
Former United States president Bill Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital on Friday to undergo bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack, media reports said.
The New York Times reported the 58-year-old Clinton suffered a heart attack. Clinton is now at the Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York.
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/ 3 September 2004
The long avenues in West Palm Beach are deserted, stores are closed and shuttered, here and there a man struggles in the damp wind to board up his windows against the impending menace of Hurricane Frances, the worst storm to hit the state of Florida in 10 years. Frances should make landfall in Florida at 8pm local time on Saturday.
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/ 3 September 2004
Though Microsoft’s new security update package is all about protecting systems from worms, viruses and spyware, it can’t do much about what’s already on computers — and that could pose a problem. The company is warning users of the Windows XP operating system to check for spyware before downloading the free massive security update, called Service Pack 2.
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/ 2 September 2004
On the face of things, Microsoft’s online music service looks a lot like the market leader, Apple Computer’s iTunes. When the service launches on Thursday, songs will cost 99 cents — the same as Apple. The catalogue will initially include about 500 000 songs, but the company plans to scale up to more than one million songs over the next few weeks
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/ 2 September 2004
Hurricane Frances lashed the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas as it barrelled toward Florida, where authorities have declared a state of emergency, ordered evacuations and closed schools. In Palm Beach county, 300 000 residents were told to evacuate their homes by Thursday afternoon.
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/ 1 September 2004
The Sudanese government has failed to implement fully commitments to improve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday in the first 30-day assessment of the conflict in that region. Annan’s report was submitted to the UN Security Council for discussion on Thursday.
War of words delays Darfur deal
A ”dangerous” Hurricane Frances gathered strength on Tuesday, putting the Bahamas on alert and prompting some Florida residents to stock up on basic goods. A hurricane watch was in effect for the south-eastern Bahamas and for the Turks and Caicos islands as Frances moved closer, packing sustained winds of about 215kph.
Microsoft, hoping to take a bite out of Apple Computer’s highly popular online music service, is gearing up to launch its own website for selling songs over the internet. With Thursday’s planned debut, the software maker will become the latest competitor in a market experts say is still in its infancy — but one that is expected to grow considerably more popular in the coming years.
Laura Branigan, a Grammy-nominated pop singer best known for her 1982 platinum hit Gloria, has died. She was 47. Branigan died of a brain aneurysm on Thursday in her sleep at her home in East Quogue. Branigan released seven albums after her debut, including Solitaire and Self Control.