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/ 31 December 2006
Indian captain Rahul Dravid said he believed his team could compete with South Africa despite a 174-run defeat on the fifth day of the second Test at Kingsmead on Saturday. Dravid admitted he was disappointed that his team were bowled out for 179 after most of the morning’s play was lost to bad light.
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/ 31 December 2006
Crude oil prices could head lower in 2007 from current levels of about per barrel, as global production catches up with demand and geopolitical risks lessen, experts say. Despite hitting record highs in July, oil futures in New York ended the year about 1,5% lower than at the beginning of 2006, with futures in London up just 2%.
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/ 31 December 2006
Pop superstar Michael Jackson headlined a throng of fans, friends and family who paid a final, soulful tribute to James Brown, at a funeral ceremony in the hometown of the late ”Godfather of Soul.” ”James Brown, I shall miss you, and I love you so much,” Jackson said in a brief eulogy, his thin voice cracking with emotion.
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/ 31 December 2006
Somali government forces marched on the last stronghold of the country’s powerful Islamist movement on Saturday, even as Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi called for dialogue with Islamist leaders. Residents said fighter jets, believed to be Ethiopian, were flying over Kismayo, about 500km south of the capital, prompting fears of attacks on the city.
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/ 31 December 2006
Two relatives are among the six suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, reported the newspaper at the weekend. City Press said a suspect arrested on Friday was a relative and was allegedly the ”mastermind, financier and recruiter of Netshisaulu’s killers”.
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/ 31 December 2006
The playing future of Australian opener Justin Langer is attracting fresh speculation after his father hinted his son may be close to retirement. Langer has refused to say whether he will join Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath by quitting Test cricket after next week’s final Ashes Test in Sydney.
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/ 31 December 2006
YouTube was poised on Saturday to ring in 2007 on a sour note by missing a deadline to deploy a system to prevent piracy of copyrighted music on the video-sharing website. Creating and installing an "advanced content identification and royalty reporting system" was at the heart of a precedent-setting agreement between YouTube and Warner Music Group in September.
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/ 31 December 2006
Four foreign oil workers held hostage by armed separatists in Nigeria’s Niger delta region will be allowed no further contact with the outside world, the group holding them said on Saturday. "All four hostages have been relocated and will not be permitted to communicate with the outside world until their eventual release," the Movement for the Emanicipation of the Niger Delta said.
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/ 31 December 2006
A young Australian woman got more than she bargained for during a dinner conversation when she laughed so hard she accidentally swallowed a spoon. The 26-year-old ingested a teaspoon when she was overcome by the giggles while eating spaghetti, the <i>Sunday Telegraph</i> newspaper said.
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/ 31 December 2006
Someone thought they saw fear in his eyes, but it was hard to be sure. Saddam Hussein went quietly to the gallows. Given the momentous nature of the execution, the event was almost an anticlimax. If the great tyrant and mass murderer seemed diminished in the moment of his death, then so were the first architects of his demise.