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/ 30 September 2004

Lethargic Gunners fire blanks

Arsenal’s capacity for shooting themselves in the foot in Europe surfaced again on Wednesday as the English champions laboured to a 1-1 draw with Rosenborg. Roar Strand’s 52nd-minute strike earned the Norwegian champions, hopelessly out of their depth in the opening period, their first point in group E after Freddie Ljungberg had given Arsenal a sixth-minute lead.

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/ 30 September 2004

Judge ends monitoring of boxing organisation

For the first time in nearly five years, the International Boxing Federation is operating without a court-appointed monitor. United States District Judge John Bissell on Wednesday ended the supervision he had imposed on the sanctioning organisation after federal authorities moved against the group and its founder in 1999, charging that rankings could be bought.

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/ 30 September 2004

Flintoff: ‘Things have got worse in Zimbabwe’

Playing in the one day international series in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe was never an option for England’s cricketing star Andrew Flintoff, he revealed on Wednesday. Flintoff had officially been left out of the squad so he could rest but the indomitable Lancashire all-rounder, and the biggest draw in the England side, refused to lie down and contrary to what the selectors had announced on Tuesday said he wouldn’t have gone anyway.

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/ 30 September 2004

Racism inquiry faces early bouncers

An inquiry probing allegations of racism against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), made by 15 sacked white players, ran into early problems when it got under way in Harare on Wednesday. The first was when three of the players — former captain Heath Streak, batsman Stuart Carlisle and all-rounder Trevor Gripper, who had waited several hours to give evidence — insisted that ZCU directors should not be allowed to listen to their evidence as they would feel inhibited.

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/ 29 September 2004

Earth scientists name that tune

Seismologists believe they have pinpointed the source of a mysterious low-frequency ”hum” that emanates from the Earth, the British science journal Nature reports in Thursday’s issue. The persistent noise — at between two and seven milliHertz, way below the threshold of human hearing — is clearly caused by large emissions of energy near or at the Earth’s surface.

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/ 29 September 2004

Eritrea, Ethiopia pay price for border row

Ethiopia and Eritrea — two of the world’s poorest countries — are paying ”a big price” for failing to resolve a simmering border dispute, a United Nations envoy said on Wednesday. Lloyd Axworthy, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea, said his staff are trying to determine how much the ongoing dispute has cost the two countries.

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/ 29 September 2004

Alleged Cresta mall killer in court

Kanellie Hatzikonstandinou, accused of murdering an 81-year-old shopper at the Cresta shopping centre in Johannesburg on Monday, appeared in the Randburg Regional Court on Wednesday. Her tearful father, Iounno Hatzikonstandinou, entered the dock and before giving her a hug, said in a Greek accent: ”I want to apologise for what happened… I am saying sorry to the family.”

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/ 29 September 2004

‘Angolagate’ follows the money

Switzerland on Wednesday gave French authorities bank documents seized in an investigation of alleged money laundering linked to illicit arms sales to Angola. The Justice Ministry said the handover included information on seven frozen bank accounts and was made possible by a government decision that helping France in its ”Angolagate” inquiry would not compromise Switzerland’s national interests.