“A pirate called Hassan told the Reuters news agency: ‘The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean.’

The two captives were healthy and ransom demands would follow, he added.”

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“The hi-tech cameras will be bad news for truckers. Lorries often have a lower speed limit imposed on them than cars but get away with going above this as long as they remain under the overall limit.

The new cameras are programmed to tell the difference between a car doing more than 70mph and a lorry exceeding a 50mph limit, even if both are in the same lane,” a Daily Mail article reveals.

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“The state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to hand out record bonuses of up to £5m each in a snub to struggling taxpayers.

The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff in line for payments of between £1m and £5m.”

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David Edgar

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Xinhua reports, “Even more important is the Iraqi Cabinet’s approval of the bid by Britain’s BP Plc and its Chinese partner CNPC to develop the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field near the southern city of Basra. The deal was approved late on Friday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, without providing further details.”

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Nestor Galina

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“According to IceNews sources and local news, changes have been made to the changes originally made by the Icelandic parliament last month. These changes are mainly such that Iceland takes on more responsibilities; but some middle ground has been found.”

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“In a move that stunned union leaders and raised tensions between management and workers to new levels, Royal Mail said it had ordered the biggest recruitment drive in its history “to help keep the mail moving during the strikes called by the Communication Workers Union (CWU)”. Sources inside the CWU, which has called national strikes for Thursday and Friday, questioned whether the move was legal and suggested that it could be challenged in the courts.”

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Kaihsu at en.wikipedia

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News24 reports:  “A suicide bomber blew himself up, killing seven commanders and 23 other people.

The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on ‘terrorists’ backed by ‘the Great Satan America and its ally Britain’.”

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The Press Secretary Office of the President of Indonesia

Source:   Presiden Republik Indonesia

But the timing of his request and the increasingly intense rhetoric surrounding Lisbon is magnifying how political divisions, long plaguing the country internally, are damaging the Czech Republic’s image on the European stage. At the same time, Klaus’ request raises questions about the performance of Czech Lisbon negotiators in past years – as the United Kingdom and Poland both received the exemption Klaus now seeks.

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Petr Novák, Wikipedia

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Goldman’s profits of $35m a day for the three months to September were more than three times as much as the bank made during the same period in 2008. Under its policy of setting aside almost half of its revenue to pay its staff, the firm has built up a compensation fund of $16.7bn for the year to date – including $5.35bn set aside in the last quarter.

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Picture taken by BigMac on September 9, 2005

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Brown, facing a potential election wipeout next year at the hands of the main opposition Conservatives, wants to halve Britain’s deficit in four years after it ballooned amid a deep recession.

The planned disposals include the 33 percent stake in European uranium consortium URENCO, the Student Loan Company and the Tote bookmakers.

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