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/ 26 November 2004

Drawn, but not hanged or quartered

The selection of only one fast bowler by India ahead of this week’s first Test in Kanpur was a neon-lit hint of what was to come. Not that hints were needed, of course. Green Park is one of those Test venues on the frontier of respectability, where corporatised cricket still rubs shoulders with old-school skullduggery.

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/ 26 November 2004

Money a priority: UK cricket boss

England cricket boss David Morgan repeated on Friday, the day the England team were due to fly to Zimbabwe, that financial concerns had to have priority over moral questions about Robert Mugabe’s regime. In the huge market that is world sport, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Morgan said money was a prime factor in their thinking.

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/ 26 November 2004

New big man for Big Mac

McDonald’s has announced another change of leadership after CE Charlie Bell stood down to battle cancer seven months into the job. Bell was diagnosed shortly after being appointed. The fast food chain named another company veteran, vice-chairman Jim Skinner, as his replacement. Bell (44) had taken the top job in May after the death from an apparent heart attack of former CE Jim Cantalupo.

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/ 25 November 2004

Missionary murdered in Ngong

An Irish Catholic priest was found murdered on Thursday at his parish in Ngong, southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, police and church sources said. ”Last night around midnight, a group of 10 to 20 gangsters armed with crude weapons invaded the residence of Father John Francis Hannon at Upper Matasia in Ngong and murdered him,” a police statement said.

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/ 25 November 2004

And now — the real da Vinci code?

A mysterious carved code at a British manor house, which has defied understanding for hundreds of years, is thought to be a cryptic message from an 18th century Christian sect, the Priory of Sion, experts said on Thursday. The marble tablet, commissioned in 1748, features a carved image with the letters ”DOUOSVAVVM” underneath.

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/ 25 November 2004

Run-up to Moz poll is ‘peaceful’

Fewer than 10 people have died and 50 injured in pre-election violence in Mozambique, according to an election official who said on Thursday that the toll showed a ”more peaceful” climate than in previous elections. Voters in Mozambique will go to the polls on December 1 and 2 to choose a successor to President Joaquim Chissano, who is stepping down after 18 years in power.

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/ 25 November 2004

Sixteen Days goes cyber

On Thursday the 16 Days of Action Against Violence campaign was launched — a. campaign aimed at raising awareness about violence against women and children. This year it is campaigning in cyberspace by holding daily online chat sessions that can joined nationwide.

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/ 25 November 2004

Ukraine splits, threatens civil war

Ukraine split into two geographic camps on Thursday as the nationalist west backed the pro-Western opposition leader as president, while the Russian-speaking east supported the disputed victory of the prime minister. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has warned that the sudden polarisation has put the country ”on the verge of civil conflict”.