Staff Reporter
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/ 23 February 2008

Waikato Chiefs scramble to last-minute victory

The Waikato Chiefs scrambled to a 20-17 Super 14 victory over the New South Wales Waratahs in Hamilton on Saturday thanks to a last-gasp penalty from Stephen Donald. In a volatile final eight minutes, the Waratahs fought back from a 5-17 deficit to level the scores — only to see Donald break the deadlock with a minute to spare.

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/ 23 February 2008

Passenger saves lives in Sri Lanka bus bombing

A suspected Tamil Tiger bomb blast destroyed a passenger bus on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital on Saturday, wounding 18 people, but no one was killed. The military said deaths were averted after a female passenger spotted a suspect parcel on the bus and informed the driver and conductor, who then evacuated the bus.

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/ 23 February 2008

Nkunda deals new blow to DRC ceasefire

A shaky peace deal in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took another hit on Friday when renegade general Laurent Nkunda said his group would no longer participate in daily ceasefire meetings. He said he had taken the decision after the United Nations accused forces loyal to him of massacring at least 30 villagers.

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/ 23 February 2008

Cuban doctors in SA rejoice as Castro quits

The doctor was in an operating theatre when the call came through from his wife: ”He’s gone, he’s no longer there.” ”We always call him ‘he’. ‘He who shall not be named.’ Like Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter novels,” Dr Barbaro Monzon-Torres says, grinning across the table in his office at Johannesburg’s South Rand Hospital.

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/ 23 February 2008

Sad homecoming for Bulls

The Crusaders spoilt the Bulls’ homecoming when they thrashed them 54-19 in their Super 14 encounter played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday. The visitors ran in a deluge of seven tries as opposed to the solitary one scored by the Bulls in the dying minutes.

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/ 23 February 2008

Giteau guides Western Force to close win

Matt Giteau scored all his team’s points — including a penalty goal in the fourth minute after the final whistle — to lead the Western Force over the Cheetahs 16-15 on Friday. The Cheetahs could have won with a penalty in the 80th minute, but a miss by replacement flyhalf Conrad Barnard led to a final series of attacks by the Force.

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/ 23 February 2008

Five more SA athletes qualify for Games

Five athletes achieved the ”A” qualifying standard for the Beijing Olympic Games at Germiston on Friday night, and the men’s junior pole-vault record was also broken. Ter de Villiers won the men’s 400m hurdles in a qualifying time of 48,71 seconds, followed by Alwyn Myburgh (48,99) and Ockert Cilliers (49,18).

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/ 23 February 2008

Victorious Eagles earn a bonus point

The Diamond Eagles defeated the Warriors by 91 runs in their MTN domestic championship cricket match played at the De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley, on Friday. They also earned themselves a valuable bonus point. The Warriors were 38 without loss in the 13th over before veteran bowler Roger Telemachus struck.