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/ 12 November 2006

Ireland try to keep their feet on the ground

Ireland’s talismanic captain Brian O’Driscoll pleaded for a reality check on Saturday after his team inflicted a record 32-15 defeat of 1995 world champions South Africa at Lansdowne Road. The 27-year-old centre said people needed to keep their feet on the ground with a testing match to come against two-time world champions Australia next Sunday.

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/ 12 November 2006

Nomads to be first people wiped out by climate change

They are dubbed the ”climate canaries” — the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at this weekend’s United Nations Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations.

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/ 12 November 2006

Gates heralds the next revolution

You can tell Bill Gates is a man used to counting in billions. Asked about Microsoft’s new multimillion-dollar deal with Universal Music for downloads to play on its new MP3 player, the company founder and chairperson looks blank, then says: ”I have to admit I don’t know our deal with Universal at all. It wasn’t even in the newspapers I read.”

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/ 12 November 2006

Thousands evacuated as Chebi leaves Philippines

More than 8 000 people were evacuated from their homes as Typhoon Chebi departed from the Philippines on Sunday, moving further west into the South China Sea. The typhoon left two people injured and forced about 8 280 people in San Jose City in the northern Philippines to flee to evacuation centres due to flooding, the civil defence office said.

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/ 12 November 2006

Ahly retain African title

Mohamed Aboutraika scored two minutes into stoppage time to give al-Ahly of Egypt a record-equalling fifth African Champions League title on Saturday. The dramatic 1-0 triumph before a sell-out 52 000 crowd at the November 7 Stadium left Ahly 2-1 winners on aggregate and they became only the third club to successfully the title.

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/ 12 November 2006

Bush and Blair discuss new policy for Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and beleaguered United States President George Bush have had a long discussion on how to push forward ”change” in the coalition’s policy in Iraq. Blair, who will give evidence to the Bush-appointed Iraq Study Group on Tuesday, has insisted on the need to regionalise the peace effort and draw Iran and Syria into any solution.

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/ 12 November 2006

Boks rue 30 missed tackles

South Africa were let down by their tackling on Saturday, captain John Smit said after his side’s 32-15 defeat to Ireland in Dublin. The inexperienced Springbok team, without stalwarts like Os du Randt and Victor Matfield who were left at home to test new players ahead of next year’s World Cup, missed a remarkable 30 tackles against the composed Irish.

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/ 11 November 2006

A brutal taste of the future

The initiation of Avigdor Lieberman — widely regarded as an outright racist — into Ehud Olmert’s Israeli government seems to have already brought a taste of things to come. For the past week, the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun has been made a ground zero by the Israeli army. By Tuesday, more than 260 Palestinians lay dead and injured, with 53 fatalities — women, children and ambulance drivers among them.