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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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/ 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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/ 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
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
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
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.
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/ 11 February 2008
The Pentagon on Monday sought murder and conspiracy charges against the alleged planner of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and five others and will ask they be executed if convicted. Mohammed, a Pakistani national better known as KSM, has said he planned every aspect of the September 11 attacks.
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/ 11 February 2008
Hillary Clinton shook up her campaign as Democratic rival Barack Obama overtook in the race for delegates to win the party nomination for the White House. Obama is expected to extend his lead in the so-called Potomac Primary on Tuesday after defeating Clinton on the weekend.
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/ 10 February 2008
Democrat Barack Obama is riding a burst of momentum into Tuesday’s United States presidential nominating contests with a string of weekend wins, while Republican John McCain received praise from onetime rival President George Bush as he tries to woo conservatives.
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/ 8 February 2008
The United States expressed ”serious concerns” on Thursday about the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, a country it finds under constant repression from President Robert Mugabe’s regime. Mugabe (83) who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is hoping to secure a sixth term in office.
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/ 8 February 2008
British police have concluded that Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed by the force of a suicide bomb and not by an assassin’s bullet, he New York Times reported in its Friday editions. The findings, if confirmed, would support the Pakistani government’s explanation of Bhutto’s death.
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/ 7 February 2008
Republican frontrunner John McCain on Thursday offered an olive branch to his conservative enemies, as Democrat Hillary Clinton struggled to match Barack Obama’s multimillion-dollar money machine. Clinton faced reports she is stuck in a cash crunch after loaning her campaign -million.
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/ 6 February 2008
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama dug in for a protracted slog for the Democratic White House nomination in the United States after battling to a brutal draw in their Super Tuesday showdown. John McCain, meanwhile, strode closer to the top of the Republican ticket, as Mitt Romney failed to halt his charge and Mike Huckabee picked up the slack.
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/ 6 February 2008
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a draw on Super Tuesday and John McCain took charge of the Republican race in coast-to-coast presidential nominating battles in 24 US states. In their Democratic duel, Obama won 13 states and Clinton took eight, ensuring a protracted battle for the nomination.
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/ 5 February 2008
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugged out a neck-and-neck Democratic feud and John McCain sought a chokehold on the Republican race on Super Tuesday, a coast-to-coast White House nominating clash unique in United States history. Super Tuesday embraces millions of voters from across racial, religious, social and income barriers.
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/ 4 February 2008
President George Bush will acknowledge on Monday that a slowing United States economy will lead to a higher budget deficit this year and next, as he unveils a -trillion fiscal 2009 spending plan that would boost military funding but nearly freeze many domestic programmes.
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/ 1 February 2008
West Virginia is considering a Bill to teach schoolchildren how to handle a gun and hunt safely. Its proponent hopes this will increase state revenues from hunting licences, a state lawmaker said on Thursday. "We will teach a hunting safety course during their physical education class," state Senator and Bill sponsor Billy Wayne Bailey said.
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/ 31 January 2008
The United States Treasury said on Wednesday it had blacklisted the chief of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation and a nephew of President Robert Mugabe. The Treasury identified Zimbabwe’s spy chief as Happyton Bonyongwe in a statement that also announced that Leo Mugabe would be subjected to targeted US financial sanctions.
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/ 30 January 2008
United States growth skidded lower in the fourth quarter and was the weakest in five years for all of 2007, according to a government report on Wednesday that highlighted the toll an enfeebled housing sector has taken on the national economy. The dollar’s value declined against other major currencies on the soft GDP data.
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/ 30 January 2008
Democratic candidate John Edwards abandoned his United States presidential bid on Wednesday, while among Republicans challenger Mitt Romney vowed to keep up his struggle to overtake newly crowned front-runner John McCain. Edwards’s decision effectively narrows both the Democratic and Republican field to two realistic candidates apiece.
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/ 29 January 2008
United States President George Bush on Monday called for Congress to double the money going to a programme combating HIV/Aids and malaria in Africa. Bush proposed a -billion programme over five years to combat the pandemics ahead of a planned trip to the continent next month.
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/ 24 January 2008
The United States said on Thursday it has raised its concerns with Zimbabwe over a political opponent’s arrest which it called a bid to intimidate and muzzle democratic opposition. The US ambassador to Harare, James McGee, spoke on Wednesday to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was released after several hours in custody.
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/ 24 January 2008
The United States on Wednesday welcomed the peace agreement reached in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) strife-torn Kivu provinces and urged all parties to ensure its prompt implementation. ”The US welcomes the signing of a peace,” White House spokesperson Dana Perino said in a statement.
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/ 22 January 2008
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed a key interest rate by a hefty three-quarters of a percentage point, the biggest cut in more than 23 years, after a two-day global stocks rout sparked by fears of a US recession. ”The Fed is very, very, very worried,” said John Tierney, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.
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/ 22 January 2008
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed benchmark US interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in an emergency bid to lend support to a US economy some fear is on the verge of recession. The Fed’s action took the key federal funds rate, which governs overnight lending between banks, down to 3,5%.
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/ 19 January 2008
With notebook and desktop computer prices at an all-time low, you have to think carefully about upgrading them. The cost of a few upgrades may come close to equalling the price of an entirely new system. In general, you’ll probably want to avoid upgrades designed to improve performance.
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/ 17 January 2008
Celebrated United States cancer researcher Judah Folkman, who demonstrated the link between blood-vessel growth and tumours becoming malignant, died on January 14 at 74 of an apparent heart attack, the Boston hospital where he worked said. He died in Denver, Colorado, while en route to Vancouver, Canada, to give a lecture.