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The United States dollar fell to an unprecedented $1.26 to the euro. The scandal of Parmalat, the Italian food group, grew, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission accusing it of ‘one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history’. India and Pakistan are to start formal talks next month on disputed matters, including Kashmir. Iranian officials estimated that 50,000 had died in the earthquake around Bam last month; a woman in her nineties was rescued after eight days trapped in the rubble. A message said to be in the voice of Osama bin Laden was broadcast by al-Jazeera, the satellite channel, urging Muslims to ‘continue the jihad to check the conspiracies that are hatched against the Islamic nation’. A Boeing 737 charter jet operated by a Cairo company crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheik, killing all 148 on board, 133 of whom were French. In Afghanistan 502 delegates to a loya jirga approved a new constitution; presidential elections are planned for June. Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, who in November led popular demonstrations in Georgia against the regime of Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, won presidential elections by a large margin, although many in the autonomous region of Adjara boycotted the poll. The Chinese slaughtered 10,000 civet cats and related species in markets after a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome was diagnosed in Guangdong province; the creatures are suspected of harbouring the virus. Spirit, an American wheeled vehicle, sent back photographs from the surface of Mars.
CSH
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