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/ 28 September 2007

Tonga step up

Even among the big men of Tongan rugby, Finau Maka stands out. It’s not just that he’s 1,9m tall or weighs in at a touch less than 114kg — there are bigger men in the breakfast room at the team’s hotel just outside Montpellier. Perhaps it’s the elaborate coiffure; that lollipop of hair that marks him out in the mayhem of a rugby field. More likely it’s the laugh.

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/ 28 September 2007

US take command at Presidents Cup

Three tense last-hole foursomes triumphs on Thursday sparked the United States to a 5½ to ½ edge over the Internationals at the Presidents Cup, matching the largest first-session lead in its history. The Americans nabbed the biggest first-session edge since they grabbed 5-0 leads on their way to victories over their non-European rivals in 1994 and 2000.

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/ 28 September 2007

Tokyo dreaming

After a long day’s work on a Tokyo building site, all Eddie Tanaka can think about is a cold drink, a cigarette and bed. If he can keep his eyes open long enough, he might just be able to fit in a few pages of his Manga comic book before drifting off. It promises to be an uncomfortable night.

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/ 28 September 2007

Springboks in with a chance

When the draw for Rugby World Cup 2007 was made, certain things were assumed. It seemed a foregone conclusion, for instance, that the big game in Pool A would be South Africa against England and that the only potential giant-killer among the other three teams in the group would be Samoa.

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/ 28 September 2007

Burma crackdown draws outrage, protests

Fuelled by ”revulsion” at Burma’s violent crackdown on popular protests against military rule, South-east Asia rounded on the generals on Friday and critics planned demonstrations at embassies across the region. Burma state media said nine people were killed when soldiers fired on crowds in Yangon on Thursday.

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/ 28 September 2007

Madisha on the carpet over R500 000 donation

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has called for a special meeting next week to ”discuss and finalise” the fate of its president Willie Madisha, a media report said on Friday. Earlier this month, Madisha came under fire from his own executive for the way he handled the matter of a R500 000 ”donation” to the South African Communist Party.

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/ 28 September 2007

Africa’s rolling news channel

The growth of 24-hour news channels across the world is accelerating at a staggering rate when you consider that only a few years ago the genre was dominated by CNN and the BBC. Russia, France and the Arabic world, through alJazeera, now have their own take on the world. If you add news and social networking websites then there is no shortage of global information out there.