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/ 23 February 2005
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has acknowledged his team need to defend much better if they are to have any chance of overcoming Bayern Munich to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Arsenal fell to a 3-1 defeat in the last 16 encounter in Munich on Tuesday as their brittle defence was torn apart by Bayern.
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/ 23 February 2005
As the formula-one season is about to start, Michael Schumacher is once again the overwhelming favourite and few would bet against him adding yet another title to his already impressive array of trophies. He is confident that he can add another. ”I am feeling even stronger now than I did at the beginning of my career,” he says.
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/ 23 February 2005
South African teams have yet to break the Australasian lock on the Super 12, and 2005 offers a final chance before the southern hemisphere’s premier provincial rugby championship expands. A year before a fifth African franchise and a fourth from Australia join the competition, South Africa’s outlook on this Super 12 campaign is tinged with optimism.
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/ 23 February 2005
South Africa’s CPIX inflation (headline inflation excluding mortgage costs) was up 3,6% year-on-year (y/y) for metro and other areas in January compared with 4,3% y/y in December, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday. Nico Kelder, economist at Efficient Group, said: "It is a good number — in line with what we expected."
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/ 23 February 2005
The trade union Solidarity on Wednesday said it is to ask mining group Kumba Resources to impose a two-year moratorium on retrenchments. The trade union claimed that Kumba is persisting with the retrenchment of 400 workers in spite of a very profitable financial year. The request will form part of Solidarity’s Save the Workers campaign.
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/ 23 February 2005
The United States State Department on Tuesday accused Zimbabwe of a ”pattern of intimidation” of journalists amid reports some foreign newsmen had fled the country after being questioned by the authorities. Spokesperson Richard Boucher also said the the forthcoming parliamentary elections needed to be ”free and fair”.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>When Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel unveils the 2005/06 Budget on Wednesday, he will be closely watched by South African financial markets. However, with major surprises unlikely, market analysts are divided on how much effect the Budget is likely to have.
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/ 23 February 2005
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Businessman Schabir Shaik is still bankrolling Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. ”I continue to do so till this day,” Shaik told the court at his fraud and corruption trial. Shaik began testifying in his defence on Monday and for the past two days he has detailed payments made to and on behalf of Zuma.
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/ 23 February 2005
Iraq took a big step towards appointing its first elected prime minister since the fall of Saddam Hussein on Tuesday when the main Shia alliance chose a self-effacing man, who used to be a family doctor in Britain, as its candidate. Ibrahim al-Jaafari (58) is almost certain to head the new government after winning the unanimous approval of the Shia bloc.
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/ 23 February 2005
French prosecutors are taking action against the youngest son of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, who is alleged to have beaten a pregnant woman during a rampage in a Paris hotel. Motassim Bilal Gadaffi, known as Hannibal, will be summonsed for questioning about the alleged attack, during which he is also said to have scuffled with police and brandished a gun.