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/ 26 January 2007

Boy’s screaming kills chickens?

Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in east China — and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog. The sequence of events began when the boy arrived at a village home in Jiangsu with his father who was delivering bottles of gas.

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/ 26 January 2007

Malaysia: Truly Asia or truly bizarre?

Malaysia has launched its biggest tourism drive since independence under its famous slogan ”Malaysia: Truly Asia”, but it may as well read ”truly bizarre”. Recent visitors to the South-East Asian nation have read serious newspaper articles about miracle healers and a mysterious giant ape in the country’s southern jungles.

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/ 26 January 2007

Last colour barrier falls in gridiron

After a wait of 41 years for a black coach to reach the Super Bowl, suddenly there are two. With their teams’ victories over the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots, the Chicago Bears’ Lovie Smith and the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy finally broke through the sport’s last colour barrier.

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/ 26 January 2007

Madness of the Anglo transfer duty

The ability to win gracefully ought to be less troublesome a skill than losing with dignity. Recently, however, we witnessed an act of spectacular smugness from the Birmingham City chairperson, David Gold. The morning after his team’s outstanding demolition of Newcastle United in the FA Cup he thumped himself on the back so hard it was a surprise he didn’t knock himself over.

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/ 26 January 2007

UK soccer: Have-nots want a share option

Members of the Football League’s board have held meetings with the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Scudamore, to seek a fairer distribution of the Premiership’s booming TV money which, following the £625-million secured last week for overseas rights, will total £2,7-billion over three years from next season.

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/ 26 January 2007

Aussies crush dismal England

Australia heaped more humiliation on England with a nine-wicket victory in their tri-series one-day international at Adelaide Oval on Friday, as the tourists produced their worst batting display of the disastrous tour. Australia cruised to an easy victory with more than half of their 50 overs to spare, booking their place in the finals after England crumbled to be all out for 110.

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/ 26 January 2007

Zim doctors threaten to leave en masse

Zimbabwe’s striking doctors on Thursday threatened to quit and leave the country en masse if the government did not urgently move to end a six-week strike that has paralysed state hospitals. Hospital Doctors Association president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa said that locally trained doctors were in demand in neighbouring countries.

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/ 26 January 2007

Norway tells Apple to change iTunes or face court

Norway stepped up its battle with Apple Computer’s iTunes on Thursday when its consumer ombudsman said the software giant must open access to its music download system by October 1 or face legal action. Last June, Norway’s powerful ombudsman said iTunes violated Norwegian law by forcing consumers to play their downloaded music on Apple’s iPod music player.