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/ 4 December 2007

British ‘teddy’ teacher arrives home from Sudan

A British teacher jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad voiced relief at her release on Tuesday, as she arrived back home after a presidential pardon. ”I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure and got a lot more adventure than what I was looking for,” said Gillian Gibbons.

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/ 2 December 2007

Adebayor sends Arsenal five points clear

Emmanuel Adebayor sent Arsenal five points clear at the top of the Premier League as Arsene Wenger’s side won 2-1 against Aston Villa on Saturday. Adebayor headed the winner to extend Arsenal’s lead over second placed Chelsea after Mathieu Flamini had cancelled out Craig Gardner’s opener at Villa Park.

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/ 1 December 2007

Barbarians too strong for South Africa

Jake White’s last match as coach of world champions South Africa ended with a defeat as the invitational Barbarians beat the Springboks 22-5 in a non-cap international at Twickenham on Saturday. The Barbarians outscored South Africa three tries to one with Australia’s Matt Giteau, Wales flanker Martyn Williams and Wallaby forward Rocky Elsom all crossing the line.

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/ 30 November 2007

Oil prices slump below $90 a barrel

The price of oil fell back below a barrel on Friday as the market speculated about the chances of an increase in Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries output at the cartel’s meeting next week, dealers said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was down ,75 to ,35 per barrel.

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/ 30 November 2007

Rugby World Cup 2011 to stick with 20 teams

The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will remain a 20-team competition, the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced on Friday. Before this year’s World Cup, where South Africa beat England in October’s final in Paris, plans for a reduction from 20 teams to 16 were being considered because of the numerous mismatches that had taken place in the previous five editions.

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/ 29 November 2007

SMS ‘toilet’ to find relief

A new service promises Londoners they’ll never have to spend much time looking for the loo. Westminster city council, which covers London’s bustling Oxford Street, the West End and the Houses of Parliament, on Thursday launched ”SatLav” — a toilet-finding service for cellphone users.

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/ 29 November 2007

Redknapp protests innocence

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp insisted on Thursday a police probe into corruption in football had nothing to do with him. In a statement at the English Premier League club’s Eastleigh training ground, Redknapp said he was ”bitterly disappointed” to have been arrested on Wednesday and had been left ”deeply hurt” by the incident.

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/ 29 November 2007

Muller to lead Boks in Baa-baas clash

South Africa have made three changes for Saturday’s non-cap international against the Barbarians at Twickenham — Jake White’s last match as coach of the world champions. Bismarck du Plesis takes the place of World Cup-winning captain John Smit after the hooker’s French club, Clermont Auvergne, refused to release him for this fixture.

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/ 29 November 2007

Report: World faces threat of ‘cyber cold war’

A ”cyber cold war” waged over the world’s computers may become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday. About 120 countries are developing ways to use the internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.

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/ 27 November 2007

Social networking drives advertising changes

A hunt for Britain’s top university is helping mobile firm O2 tap Facebook’s burgeoning audience and reflects the innovation advertisers need to tap the potential of such sites, analysts say. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook are hugely popular with younger internet users — vital but hard to reach for advertisers.

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/ 26 November 2007

Pathologist: No sign Princess Diana was pregnant

The body of Princess Diana showed no physical signs of pregnancy, Robert Chapman, the pathologist who carried out her post-mortem, told the inquest on Monday into her death. But he acknowledged that while her womb and ovaries did not show any of the normal signs of pregnancy, those would not have been seen if the pregnancy was less than three weeks old.

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/ 26 November 2007

Virgin team picked for Northern Rock rescue

A consortium led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has been picked as the preferred bidder to rescue Northern Rock and plans to repay £11-billion (,6-billion) quickly to the Bank of England. Half the cash will come from the consortium and half will be raised through a rights issue at 25 pence per share.

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/ 26 November 2007

Mission for James Bond’s Q: Seek venture capital

In the James Bond novels and films, it fell to technical expert Q to invent the gizmos and cunningly concealed weapons that helped the British spy cheat death and save the world. From a biometric keyboard to blast-proof curtains, the inventions on display in the real world this month came from five technology firms in the final round of the Global Security Challenge.

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/ 25 November 2007

‘My dear, a penis and a mountain’

A British opera singer who sang Croatia’s national anthem before their crucial football victory over England blundered by accidentally singing about his manhood, British media reported on Friday. Tony Henry’s explicit rendition was delivered before about 90 000 fans at London’s Wembley Stadium.

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/ 23 November 2007

Oil prices slip further from record heights

World oil prices fell on Friday after a momentous week that saw record peaks close to $100 as traders worried about tight energy supplies and geopolitical jitters in key producer countries. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, sank 95 cents to $96,34 per barrel. The contract had hit an historic $99,29 on Wednesday.

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/ 23 November 2007

154 passengers in sinking Antarctic cruiseliner

Rescue teams are working to save 154 passengers and crew from a cruiseliner sinking in the Antarctic Ocean, a British coastguard spokesperson said. ”This morning the Argentine and American coastguards are coordinating the rescue of 154 passengers from the Explorer, which is holed and taking water down in the Antarctic near the south Shetland Islands,” said Andy Catrell.

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/ 22 November 2007

Oil steady above $97

Oil steadied above a barrel on Thursday, after falling just shy of the milestone in the previous session, as the dollar tumbled to fresh record lows. United States light crude for January delivery was down one cent at ,28 a barrel by 2.40pm GMT. Oil briefly surged to a lifetime peak of ,29 a barrel on Wednesday.