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/ 25 October 2006

Microsoft offers Vista upgrade coupons

Microsoft announced on Tuesday a plan to give holiday-season computer buyers discounts on upgrades to its Vista operating system and new-generation Microsoft Office suite due out next year. The software giant’s aim was to overcome reservations of shoppers inclined to strip their year-end gift lists of products based on soon-to-be outdated Microsoft software.

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/ 25 October 2006

Seeds fall in Lyon

Top seeds Marcos Baghdatis and Gaston Gaudio were packing their bags on Tuesday after being ousted in the first round of the €659 000 Lyon ATP tennis tournament. Home hope Arnaud Clement dispatched number one seeded Baghdatis 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 as lowly German Simon Greul hammered Argentine Gaudio.

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/ 25 October 2006

Blatter praises World Cup referees

Fifa president Sepp Blatter praised the performance of officials at this year’s World Cup despite some contentious decisions and a referee showing a player three yellow cards. ”I am very satisfied with the referees’ performances at the 2006 World Cup. They achieved more than their counterparts in Korea/Japan in 2002,” Blatter said.

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/ 25 October 2006

Fifa send Kenya into exile

Kenya have been handed an indefinite ban from all international competitions by football’s world governing body Fifa on Tuesday, according to reports from Nairobi. Fifa’s disciplinary panel are reported to have suspended the country for failing to respect agreements to resolve recurrent problems in their football association.

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/ 25 October 2006

Investec new naming-rights partner of Super 14

South African specialist banker Investec Bank was on Wednesday announced by the Australian Rugby Union as the new naming rights partner for the highly successful Super 14 tournament for the next four years, to the end of the current Sanzar broadcast deal. The tournament, which kicks off on Friday February 2 2007, will be known in Australia as the Investec Super 14.

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/ 25 October 2006

Paris syndrome hits Japanese

Japanese tourists feel so let down by Paris shop assistants that they need treatment for a type of depression known as ”Paris Syndrome”. ”There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several years,” said Miyupi Kusama, an administrator at the Japanese embassy in Paris.

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/ 25 October 2006

Third week in hospital for health minister

Ailing Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang would probably spend the rest of the week in hospital, South African Broadcasting Corporation television news
reported on Tuesday. Although she had shown a remarkable improvement in the past few days, she would probably be discharged only at the end of the week.

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/ 25 October 2006

Niger to expel 150 000 Arabs who fled from Chad

Niger said on Tuesday it planned to expel 150 000 Arabs, who fled conflict in neighbouring Chad two decades ago, because of tensions with indigenous rural communities in the West African nation. The nomadic Arabs sought refuge in Niger during the 1980s from a series of armed conflicts which shook Chad, as Libyan-backed forces tried to conquer the country.