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/ 26 December 2007

London swimmers take an icy plunge

Call me strange, but plunging headfirst into the near-freezing, muddy waters of a London pond for a traditional Christmas-morning swim with dozens of other thrillseekers was high on my holiday wish list. However, nothing can prepare you for the shock of diving into the cold, dank water for the first time.

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/ 26 December 2007

Arsenal hope that history repeats itself

Arsenal have enjoyed Christmas Day at the top of the Premier League standings — and are hoping that history repeats itself and keeps them top at the end of the season. The club at the top at Christmas have won the league for the past three years — Manchester United last season and Chelsea in 2005 and 2006.

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/ 25 December 2007

Villa out to ruin Chelsea’s Christmas

Chelsea have been warned by Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill that his side are out to do the double over them on Wednesday and dent their English Premier League title hopes. The third-placed Blues could fall nine points behind leaders Arsenal if Villa beat them for the second time this season in the Boxing Day holiday clash.

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/ 25 December 2007

Wenger starts title countdown

Arsene Wenger is already counting down the days until the end of the season as Arsenal try to hold onto their position on top of the Premier League. Wenger’s side lead Manchester United by one point and the Gunners boss knows that the last four teams to be in pole position on Christmas Day went on to win the title.

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/ 24 December 2007

Pienaar’s ‘moment of madness’

Cristiano Ronaldo scored an 88th-minute penalty to give Manchester United a 2-1 victory over Everton at Old Trafford on Sunday. A lazy trip by Steven Pienaar on Ryan Giggs allowed Ronaldo to score his second of the day from the spot and extend United’s home league winning streak to nine games.

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/ 23 December 2007

Wenger hails Almunia as Gunners saviour

Arsene Wenger hailed Manuel Almunia for keeping Arsenal’s English Premier League title challenge on track after a fortunate 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. The Spanish goalkeeper brilliantly saved Robbie Keane’s 71st-minute penalty with the game still delicately poised at 1-1.

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/ 21 December 2007

Citigroup sees microfinance growth

Microfinance services for the world’s very poor will likely continue to grow despite any global downturn, Citigroup says, but said the sector must diversify beyond small loans to saving and insurance schemes. Citigroup is seen as one of the leaders in the microfinance sector amongst major global banks.

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/ 18 December 2007

Microcredit helps half a billion, problems remain

Microcredit, tiny loans to the world’s poorest, is booming and now benefits more than half a billion people but Africa and Latin America lag behind Asia and unscrupulous lenders are cashing in. The Microcredit Summit Campaign surveyed more than 3 000 microcredit bodies around the world and found they reported reaching 133-million people by the end of 2006.

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/ 18 December 2007

Federer eyes Sampras’s grand-slam record

Roger Federer again came close to winning the Grand Slam in 2007, reaching the final at all four major tournaments and winning three of them. This year, however, the top-ranked Swiss also came close to losing his record 54-match winning streak on grass at Wimbledon, and then struggled a bit after winning the United States Open.

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/ 17 December 2007

Stocks slide as US rate-cut hopes fade

World stock markets slumped on Monday on worries that resurgent United States inflation would reduce the chances of further US interest rate cuts to shield the economy from a credit crunch, dealers said. European and Asian shares sank into the red with losses of up to 3,5% as investors took their cue from Wall Street’s sell-off on Friday.

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/ 17 December 2007

Wenger expects four-horse race

Arsene Wenger has the destiny of the Premier League in his control but the Arsenal manager expects a four-way battle before he gets his hands on the title. Wenger’s side remain one point clear of Manchester United at the top of the table after William Gallas clinched a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium.

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/ 14 December 2007

McLaren ‘greatly regrets’ spy scandal

Formula One team McLaren on Thursday issued a public apology over their role in the spying saga that rocked the world championship this year. ”As a result of the investigations carried out by the FIA it has become clear that Ferrari information was more widely disseminated within McLaren than was previously communicated,” said a statement.

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/ 14 December 2007

Capello handed England job until 2012

Italian Fabio Capello was named as the new England head coach until 2012 by the Football Association on Friday. The FA confirmed his appointment on a four-and-a-half year contract in a statement on its website. The 61-year-old succeeds Steve McClaren who was sacked last month after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

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/ 11 December 2007

George Bush gets pipped to Foot in Mouth award

Former England soccer manager Steve McClaren fought off tough competition from United States President George Bush to win a dreaded Foot in Mouth award on Tuesday from the Plain English campaign. He was hailed for a supreme example of gobbledegook in talking about star player Wayne Rooney: ”He is inexperienced but he’s experienced in terms of what he’s been through.”

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/ 11 December 2007

England search continues after Mourinho snub

Jose Mourinho’s decision to turn his back on the job of England manager after talks with the Football Association has left Italy’s Fabio Capello as the new favourite to replace Steve McClaren. But having been widely criticised for rushing the appointment of McClaren in August last year, the FA may take their time in finding someone else to take on the job.

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/ 10 December 2007

Els: Leopard Creek blunder an all-time low

World number five Ernie Els is still in a daze after gifting victory to Briton John Bickerton at the Dunhill Championship on Sunday. The three-time Major winner arrived at the par-five 18th at Leopard Creek on Sunday with a two-shot lead over Bickerton, who had already completed his round. But Els twice found the water surrounding the final green to slump to a triple-bogey eight.

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/ 10 December 2007

Middlesbrough end Arsenal’s victory run

Middlesbrough inflicted Arsenal’s first Premier League defeat of the season with a 2-1 win on Sunday to cut the Gunners’ lead over Manchester United at the top of the table to just one point. Also, Bolton heaped more misery on second-from-bottom Wigan, and Tottenham secured a win against Manchester City.

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/ 9 December 2007

Giggs leads United pursuit of Arsenal

Ryan Giggs’s 100th league goal saw Manchester United on the way to a 4-1 win against bottom-of-the-table Derby County to keep up the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal on Saturday. Victory at Old Trafford, where Carlos Tevez scored either side of halftime, left second-placed United a point behind the Gunners

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/ 5 December 2007

British police arrest ‘dead’ canoeist

British detectives said on Wednesday they had arrested a man who reappeared more than five years after he was presumed drowned in a canoeing accident. John Darwin was held on suspicion of fraud four days after he walked into a London police station and told officers he believed they might be looking for him.

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/ 5 December 2007

New Ebola strain in Uganda may be milder

A new type of Ebola fever in Uganda might be less deadly than others — but that’s not necessarily good news. The World Health Organisation said last week that an ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda was caused by a new subtype, the fifth to be detected since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and the Congo.

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/ 5 December 2007

Oil up as Opec agrees no output change

Oil rose on Wednesday after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) decided to keep output levels unchanged, rebuffing consumer-country calls for more crude to rein in prices now near a barrel. Opec also agreed to meet again at the end of January to review its decision ahead of a regular March gathering.