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/ 18 September 2007

SA tobacco producers urged to plant more

South African tobacco farmers should plant more in the coming season to benefit from soaring cigarette prices and fulfil expected orders from China. Louis Smit, CEO of agribusiness group Afgri’s producer services division, said farmers could increase the size of their crop from 12-million kilograms to at least 20-million kilograms.

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/ 18 September 2007

King of the road

Kawasaki’s brand-new 1400 GTR has arrived, and the bike’s as good as they get. Despite weighing in at a hefty 279kg dry — that’s 64 more than the ZX14 on which it is based — Team Green’s transcontinental hypercruiser feels surprisingly nimble once you’ve reached lift-off speed and retracted your undercarriage.

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/ 18 September 2007

A good, honest little car

Ford has introduced a new entry-level family sedan into the local market. Apart from the name, the new Ford Ikon shares little with its predecessor. It’s been almost two years since Ford dropped the Ikon from its South African line-up. At the time it was discontinued, the car came in six derivatives, using locally produced Rocam petrol engines of 1,3- and 1,6-litre capacities.

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/ 18 September 2007

Somali cops surround radio station

Somali security forces surrounded the independent Shabelle radio station in Mogadishu on Tuesday after firing shots on the building, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported. The incident came three days after police stormed the radio station, accusing one of its journalists of hurling a grenade at a police patrol and detaining 14 members of staff.

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/ 18 September 2007

All-share recovers as FTSE gains ground

The JSE’s all-share index came out of the morose state it was in earlier, edging up into positive territory by midday on Tuesday driven by the turnaround in the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100. Shortly before midday, the FTSE 100 was at 6 224,10 points, 0,67% better than Monday’s close as the Bank of England added liquidity to the United Kingdom market,

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/ 18 September 2007

Wilkinson ready to return from injury

Jonny Wilkinson, who kicked the extra-time drop goal in 2003 to win the Rugby World Cup, could be England’s saviour again after declaring himself fit to play against Samoa on Saturday. Writing in his weekly column on Monday in the Times, Wilkinson said he is ready to test his right ankle with England needing to win in Nantes and then beat Tonga in Paris .

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/ 18 September 2007

Rooney return perfectly timed for United

Sir Alex Ferguson will let Wayne Rooney off the leash as Manchester United start their Champions League challenge at Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday. Rooney has been sidelined since breaking a metatarsal bone in United’s first match of the season against Reading, but he is set to feature at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.

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/ 18 September 2007

Hatton and Mayweather begin verbal jabs

Unbeaten fighters Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton began the build-up to their December 8 duel in Las Vegas with some verbal sparring on Monday. At a press conference in the Hollywood tourist haven of Universal City England’s Hatton and American Mayweather took turns taking pot-shots at each other as they launched a promotional tour.

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/ 18 September 2007

Derby grab first win of the season

Kenny Miller scored the only goal of the game to earn Derby their first Premiership win of the season on Monday to put Newcastle’s Euro 2008 qualifying star Michael Owen out of the spotlight. Miller’s 39th-minute goal, from fully 33m, meant Derby had their first win in six matches to lift them off the bottom of the table ahead of Bolton.