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/ 2 September 2004

Rooney: ‘I know how to handle myself’

Alex Ferguson has moved quickly to put a protective shield around teenage striker Wayne Rooney — and Manchester United’s new record signing insists he is mature enough to evade the pitfalls that could derail his emerging career. Ferguson, who has a formidable reputation as a disciplinarian, has no fears for his new acquisition.

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/ 2 September 2004

Els sets new goals after near misses

Ernie Els is setting new goals to get over his near misses at this year’s major golf championships. ”I just want to try and be happy again,” he said on Wednesday. ”I want to get myself in better shape physically.” Els is in Switzerland to defend his European Masters title, starting on Thursday.

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/ 1 September 2004

Robots set to rule world of table football

Human pride, based on the notion that man is the planet’s alpha animal, was dealt a crushing blow seven years ago when the computer Deep Blue humiliated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Be afraid, be very afraid, for another towering bastion of human achievement — table football — is about to fall to machines.

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/ 1 September 2004

DA welcomes Ngcuka’s successor

The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the appointment of Silas Ramaite as the new acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, saying he has a tough crime-busting profile. Ramaite was formerly deputy to Bulelani Ngcuka, who vacated the national director post on Tuesday.

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/ 1 September 2004

Roodefontein: Director felt ‘blackmailed’

Unjustified complaints about delays in the approval process of the controversial Roodefontein golf estate development made former Western Cape environmental director Ingrid Coetzee feel like she was being blackmailed, she told the Bellville Regional Court on Wednesday where she was under cross-examination for a second day.

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/ 1 September 2004

Chinese man sets off explosives in bus

Three people were killed and 34 others, many of them children attending the first day of school, injured when a man set fire to explosive materials inside a minibus in central China on Wednesday, state media said. The man committed suicide after carrying out the attack, the Xinhua news agency said.