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/ 16 September 2005

Blair a blur for drunken Pietersen

Meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Downing Street reception the day after his heroic innings helped win the Ashes back for England will be a highlight of cricket hero Kevin Pietersen’s career — if only he could remember it, the South African-born batsman revealed on Thursday.

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/ 16 September 2005

Master imposter (31) passes himself off as a schoolboy

He is balding, bespectacled and 31. Strangely, that that did not prevent Frédéric Bourdin spending most of last May in a children’s home in Pau, where he successfully passed himself off as a destitute orphaned teenager. A court in the southern French city heard on Thursday that Bourdin, charged with possessing and using a false identity, had convinced staff and pupils at the home and a local school that he was 15.

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/ 16 September 2005

Global warming could end Sahara droughts, says study

Global warming could significantly increase rainfall in Saharan Africa within a few decades, potentially ending the severe droughts that have devastated the region, a new study suggests. The discovery was made by climate experts at the Royal Meteorological Institute in De Bilt, The Netherlands, who used a computer model to predict changes in the Sahel region.

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/ 16 September 2005

US takes the war on drugs to Canada’s Prince of Pot

One of the world’s leading cannabis legalisation campaigners, a magazine publisher known as the ”Prince of Pot”, faces an extradition hearing on Friday in Vancouver as United States drugs agencies seek to put him on trial in the US. His supporters claim the move is a first step by US authorities to prosecute foreigners who challenge the US laws on cannabis.

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/ 16 September 2005

Supa8: Young talent set to shine

This weekend’s SAA Supa8 final between Supersport United and Bloemfontein Celtic at Olen Park in Potchefstroom provides a glimpse of both what is right and what is pitiful about youth development in South African soccer. Saturday’s match is set to provide much more than on-the-pitch excitement for the fans.

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/ 16 September 2005

Fear and loathing at Old Trafford

”Up close to Ryan Giggs, perched on a sofa that seems small and lost in a vast five-star suite, it’s strangely riveting to watch the unsettling emotions ripple across his familiar billboard face.” Ryan Giggs tells Donald McRae what the Manchester United players are saying about the Chelsea juggernaut.

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/ 16 September 2005

Benni and the dreads

Benedict McCarthy’s life, like that of all world class footballers these days, is a fairy tale. Sadly, it’s turning in to one of those grim — Grimm — continental stories where the kids get their hands burned and the wolf has big teeth. But at 27, with years of goal nabbing to come, he finds himself at a bit of a crossroads, with the emphasis on cross.

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/ 16 September 2005

Angolan families threatened with famine

About 2 000 families in five Angolan provinces are facing famine with malnutrition affecting up to 60% of the population, according to a recent study by the United Nations World Food Programme. In some remote areas, Angolans are living on one meal a day, while babies aged six to 20 months are suffering the most from malnutrition as drinking water is not available, said the study.