Eurotunnel, which runs the undersea rail link between Britain and France, has won a historic arbitration decision against both countries’ governments over the security breach that saw thousands of asylum seekers invade the tunnel crossing the English Channel.

The decision, which heralds the company’s first injection of public money, could be worth millions of pounds in damages to the tunnel’s operator, which had claimed £30m (€45m, $59m) in damages from Paris and London.

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Male spectators, except family members, will be banned when Pakistan hosts the eight-team International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s World Cup qualifiers in November, officials said Wednesday.

However, officials have hailed the decision to stage the matches in the conservative Islamic republic as a sign that the country is becoming more moderate and is making efforts to allow women to play sport.

“The decision proves that women’s cricket is progressing in our country and through this event we would promote a softer and moderate image of Pakistan,” said Shamsa Hashmi, secretary of the Pakistan Cricket Board women’s wing.

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Immigration to Sweden in 2006 reached its highest level since records began. At the same time emigration also soared to a level not seen in over 100 years, according to official figures published by Statistics Sweden.

Swedish citizenship was granted to more people than ever before in 2006, a year in which the country’s population increased by 65,505. The total population recorded on 31st December was 9,113,257.

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A woman erroneously detained in a male cell at Volksrust police station was raped repeatedly by her fellow cellmates, said Mpumalanga police Captain Leonard Hlathi on Saturday.

He said police would investigate why she was placed in the cell after her arrest for being drunk in public on Friday.

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f gullibility was a crime, then 2 500 people who handed over money for a “magic pen” in a bid to win the Lotto would have been guilty without a shred of doubt.

The “magic-pen” scam emerged in court papers in the Durban High Court recently during an application to seize the assets of the four men who devised it and ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud charges.

Sipho Shange, Lungisani Shange, Vusimuzi Kheswa and Bongani Kheswa, all from the Pinetown area, admitted receiving thousands of rands after placing advertisements in the local press for the pens and special herbs “which would enable persons to become wealthy by winning competitions such as the Lotto”.

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A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando’s black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization.

That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.

The FBI would not comment on what it knew about the involvement of its informant, 39-year-old David Gletty of Orlando, in the neo-Nazi event. In court Wednesday, an FBI agent said the bureau has paid its informant at least $20,000 during the past two years.

Gletty’s secret life became public Wednesday in a federal court hearing resulting from the arrest last week of two suspected white supremacists on charges of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.

Last Thursday, the FBI arrested Tom Martin, 23, and John Rock, 35, after Gletty wore a wire to a meeting and agreed to help them rob a drug dealer in Casselberry, according to testimony.

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A German Holocaust denier who regularly lavished praise on Adolf Hitler has been sentenced to five years in jail by a German court.

Ernst Zuendel was convicted of 14 counts of inciting racial hatred and for denying that the Nazis killed six million Jews during World War II.

He received the maximum sentence under German law which bans Holocaust denial.

Zuendel moved to Canada in 1958 but was judged a national security threat and deported back to Germany in 2005.

The 67-year-old once published a book called The Hitler We Loved and Why, and described the former Nazi leader as “a decent and very peaceful man”.

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[Why he not living in Iraq? Some Iraqi Nationalist he is-ed]

Berlin: Germany authorities have charged a 37-year-old Iraqi with supporting an Al Qaida-linked group in Iraq, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Burhan B. was arrested at Frankfurt airport in June 2006. He is accused of transferring 22,000 euros to the Ansar Al Islam group between November 2003 and May 2004.

The man has been formally charged with supporting a terrorist organisation and violating German foreign trade regulations, the Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

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[When will they learn not to bite the hand that feeds them? When will they start to starve-ed]

Johannesburg: South Africa, under pressure to redress land ownership imbalances left by apartheid, has expropriated its first farm in a reform drive aimed at returning land to the black majority, officials said yesterday.

The state-ordered sale of a farm in Northern Cape province marks a new phase in the contentious issue in South Africa, where the government has come under fire for moving too slowly to put land in black hands.

More than a decade after the end of apartheid, over 90 per cent of farmland is still owned by the white elite. Until now, the government has moved cautiously, careful not to rattle investor nerves given the chaos that accompanied a similar land redistribution process in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

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Bhopal: With right wing groups opposing Valentine’s Day celebrations and women’s organisations vowing to protect young lovers, police yesterday warned trouble makers of stringent action.

The Madhya Pradesh police issued notices to leaders of the Hindu right-wing Bajrang Dal, National Students Union of India, Savarna Samaj Party and the women’s wing of the Nationalist Congress Party.

The hard-line Hindu groups have threatened to marry off young couples meeting in public places.

Meanwhile, two women’s groups, belonging to the Sawarna Samaj Party (SSP) and the Rashtriya Secular Manch (RSM), have decided to take on those threatening the couples who are celebrating Valentine’s Day in the state, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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