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After a long night of negotiations, United States television personality and seven-month host of The Tonight Show Conan O'Brien and his network, NBC, have reached a deal that would buy out the contracts of O'Brien and his staff for US$45 million and reinstate Jay Leno as the show's host starting March 1, O'Brien's manager told media on Thursday. In this agreement, O'Brien will walk away with more than $33 million. The rest will be distributed to his staff of over 200 people as severance payments. His manager went on to say that Friday will b

The Buderim Cricket Club in Queensland, Australia will field a side against local politicians on Australia Day while providing half the team. Not counting local Councillors, there are seven politicians (two in federal parliament, four in state parliament) within a ten kilometre radius of the Buderim Mountain State School, the games venue. The last Australia Day match played was between the Buderim Cricket Club and the local Chamber of Commerce. On that day, the Chamber of Commerce batted first scoring 162 all out off 18.3 overs. The Cricket Cl

The Iraqi government has started collecting signatures from victims of incidents involving the US security company Blackwater. This recent development comes after the Iraqi prime minister publicly vowed to launch lawsuits against the security company approximately two weeks ago. It was a reaction to the dismissal by a US federal judge of all charges held against five security guards, employed by the security company, for their involvement in an incident that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqis in 2007. The security guards opened fire at civil

Rugby union commentator Bill McLaren died yesterday aged 86. The British Broadcasting Corporation made the announcement that he had died at 1030 GMT in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders — his chosen home town. McLaren started rugby commentating on a BBC radio station in 1953 while he was a reporter with The Hawick Express, a newspaper. He later moved to television commentary in 1959. He was awarded an MBE, an OBE and a CBE and retired in 2002. People have now paid tribute to the man who became known as the "voice of rugby". In a video shown on

According to a newly-released report compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), bribes paid to police, military, and public officials over the past year have cost Afghan civilians collectively over US$2.5 billion, nearly the equivalent of a quarter of the country's legitimate GDP. Entitled "Corruption in Afghanistan", the report was based on polling of approximately 7,600 people in cities and villages around the nation. According to the report, 59% of those surveyed said that government sanctioned corruption was a more

The University of Oxford is preventing students from accessing the legal, peer-to-peer online music service Spotify. Officials in the university's Computer Services department (OUCS) say too much of the network's bandwidth is taken up by people using such services, slowing down the network for others. Spotify, which has more than 2.7 million users in the UK, allows users to listen to music stored on other users' computers over the internet, either for free with adverts, or without adverts for a monthly fee. While the university allows studen

A strong earthquake has once again struck Haiti, eight days after a 7.0 magnitude quake left much of the nation in ruins. The US Geological Survey said the latest tremor had a magnitude of 6.1 and was centered 59 kilometres from the capital Port-au-Prince, which was devastated by the initial quake. It occurred at 06.03 local time (11.03 UTC). There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the aftershock, which comes as an international aid effort is underway to help those affected by last week's powerful earthquake. "People are st

Drivers in the Russian capital, Moscow, were given an unexpected show courtesy of a 30-by-20 foot electronic highway billboard when an explicit pornographic video was played for nearly twenty minutes in place of the paid advertisement clips that are usually shown. The incident happened near the entrance into Serpukovskiy tunnel on Sadovoe Ring Road, about 2 kilometers south of the Kremlin. "Within three minutes we found it out, and within fifteen minutes the screen was shut off," the deputy head of the Moscow city advertising committee, Alexan

The US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) has said that Zimbabwe may face famine this year, due to wilting crops caused by poor rains. The organisation added that more than two million Zimbabweans would require food aid between now and March. “Since December, below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures continue to help strengthen seasonal moisture deficits across central Mozambique, southern Malawi, southern Madagascar and southern Zimbabwe,” FEWSNET said. FEWSNET remarked that low amounts and rainfall, couple

A record ransom payment has secured the release of the Maran Centaurus, a massive oil tanker, seized in November by Somali pirates. The Maran Centaurus was the second-largest vessel ever captured and was carrying an estimated two million barrels of oil. The pirates claim they received US$5.5 million for the ship's freedom, but a separate figure places the amount dropped on the ship at $7 million. Both are believed to exceed any previous figure paid to the Somali sea pirates. The vessel was released after the money was dropped aboard the ship

Sebastián Piñera has won recent elections in Chile, becoming the first conservative president in 52 years. Former president and candidate Eduardo Frei, meanwhile, conceded losing the elections. With 99% of votes counted, official returns showed Piñera with 52% of the vote and Frei with 48%. The new president will succeed the outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet. She cannot run for a second consecutive term. Piñera, a Harvard-educated economist, lost to Bachelet in the last presidential vote in 2006. He owns a television station, a soccer t

Officials from France and Germany have warned people against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, citing security holes, and encouraged users to find an alternate browser to surf the Internet. The government agency Certa, which oversees cyber attacks and security, warned against using all versions of Internet Explorer. Officials from Germany had warned last Friday against the browser when malicious code was published on the Internet. "Pending a patch from the publisher, Certa recommends using an alternative browser," Certa said in a statement