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/ 4 November 2005

Robot rescues Tweety from crumbling building

A robot designed to disarm bombs was sent on Friday to rescue a pet bird from a Sydney apartment building crumbling because of a tunnel collapse. The cockatiel, Tweety, was stranded in an apartment directly above a section of the building that partially collapsed when a giant hole opened up near the site of a new tunnel earlier this week.

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/ 4 November 2005

Paris gripped by serious new riots

Further serious rioting broke out on the outskirts of Paris early on Friday as gangs of youths challenged authorities’ vow to crack down on urban violence that has plagued the French capital for more than a week. Police said about 400 cars were torched, mostly in the Paris region, while 27 buses went up in flames at a depot.

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/ 4 November 2005

Cosatu questions jobs claim

Claims that South Africa’s economy could be creating 1 000 jobs a day should be met with scepticism, Congress of South African Trade Unions economist Neva Makgetla said on Thursday. Makgetla was reacting to findings by independent economist Mike Schussler in the second South African Employment Report, commissioned by the Union Association of South Africa.

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/ 4 November 2005

PSL dragging its feet on security

The appointment of Mfanano Majola as the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) national safety and security head earlier this year was supposed to waft a breeze of change through professional football. This week he lashed out at his bosses for failing to implement his suggestions and lacking vision in tackling and curbing crowd violence.

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/ 4 November 2005

New netball boss on the ball

Enthusiasm is something Mimi Mthethwa, newly elected president of Netball South Africa, has in plentiful supply. The Empangeni-based deputy chief education specialist is still working on getting things in order. Julia Beffon speaks to the new boss of South Africa’s biggest women’s sport.

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/ 4 November 2005

Wenger and Mourinho: Battle of the handbags

Like two small girls in a playground suffering from prepubescent bitchiness, they trade verbal blows day after day. In the red Alice band, Arsene Wenger; in the blue ribbons, Jose Mourinho. And the battle of the handbags remains in the balance. This week, Mourinho kicked off by accusing Wenger of voyeurism.

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/ 4 November 2005

George Best: A hero for our times

Football follows the Lazarus principle. One-nil down and we Arsenal fans start to despair in the North Bank at Highbury. But it’s never over until it’s over and salvation can arrive seconds before the final whistle. George Best, not for the first time, has tested resurrection theory to its limits.

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/ 4 November 2005

Pumas set to play, not party

There have been strong links between the Springboks and the Pumas since 1965, when Danie Craven took it upon himself to give the South American game a leg up. Forty years later, Jake White’s Springboks can boast a massive pack of forwards, but no one is kidding himself that Saturday’s Test match will be a pushover.

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/ 4 November 2005

Japanese space tourist to wear cartoon costume

A self-confessed Japanese cartoon geek said on Friday he will become the world’s fourth space tourist late next year — and he wants to gaze down at the Earth dressed as an ace pilot from a hit animation series. The -million trip will take into space Daisuke Enomoto, a 34-year-old former board director of the Livedoor internet firm.

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/ 4 November 2005

Heil history

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Oliver Hirschbiegel’s film has been criticised for ”humanising” Hitler. Downfall does precisely this — and makes him seem far more grotesque and sulphurous than any picturesque newsreel documentaries, writes Peter Bradshaw.