Peter Osgood, one of Chelsea’s greatest strikers who helped the club win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, died on Wednesday at the age of 59 while attending a funeral, the club announced. Osgood won FA Cups with Chelsea and Southampton and played four times for England between 1970 and 1974.
A British Chinook helicopter, which has seen action in the Falklands War, Afghanistan and Iraq, was taken out of action after a head-on smash-up with a pigeon, the Royal Air Force said on Wednesday. The 10-tonne chopper was forced into an emergency landing.
British low-cost airline easyJet said on Wednesday that it is to start flying to Africa for the first time with a new route to Marrakesh in Morocco from July. The no-frills carrier will offer daily flights to the continent from London’s Gatwick airport on July 4, as it expands its horizons beyond Europe.
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/ 28 February 2006
When Honda met Wieden + Kennedy, it was hardly an award-winning start. ”We are the Nike of the car industry,” Honda United Kingdom announced, amazing the London office of the independent United States advertising agency with a comparison to its legendary client.
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/ 28 February 2006
Cigarette giant British American Tobacco (BAT) announced on Tuesday a 29% slump in pre-tax profits to £2,588-billion ($4,503-billion) in 2005, but the data was skewed by big deals from the previous year. BAT, maker of Kent and Dunhill cigarettes, said in an official results statement that revenue sank 13% to £9,325-billion last year, compared with 2004.
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/ 26 February 2006
Arsenal lost 1-0 at Blackburn on Saturday to slip to sixth in the English Premier League and dent their chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Also on Saturday, Chelsea beat Portsmouth 2-0 on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the English Premier League to 15 points.
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/ 24 February 2006
Three people have been arrested in connection with one of Britain’s biggest robberies, police said on Friday, after they recovered three of the getaway vehicles. A group of thieves made off with up to £50-million from a cash depot in the small market town of Tonbridge, south-east of London.
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/ 23 February 2006
The manhunt was under way on Thursday for an armed gang who disguised themselves as police officers and stole what could be a record £40-million from a security depot in southeast England after abducting its manager and his family.
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/ 22 February 2006
Gary Neville hit back at the Football Association after being fined £5 000 pounds and warned about his future conduct following
his over the top celebrations at Manchester United’s late winner against Liverpool last month.
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/ 22 February 2006
Thierry Henry scored in Arsenal’s 1-0 upset win at Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday, while AC Milan ended Bayern Munich’s 15-match winning streak at home with a 1-1 draw. Europe’s top club competition resumed after a two-and-a-half month break this week with the first leg of the opening knockout round.
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/ 21 February 2006
A health and safety meeting in a British factory building turned unexpectedly realistic on Tuesday when a floor suddenly collapsed, injuring four of the 21 participants. Firefighters were summoned to the Hyde Buildings in Manchester, northwest England, when the floor collapsed just as the assembled health and safety officers were discussing evacuation procedures.
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/ 20 February 2006
A man trying to walk the length of Britain wearing nothing but a hat, boots and a rucksack completed his marathon trek on Monday and celebrated by putting his clothes back. ”It’s nice to get warmed up again,” self-styled ”Naked Rambler” Stephen Gough (46) said.
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/ 19 February 2006
Peter Crouch’s goal gave Liverpool their first win in the FA Cup against Manchester United for 85 years as Rafael Benitez’s men advanced into the quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory at Anfield on Saturday. Also, Newcastle saw off Championship side Southampton 1-0 and Charlton ended Brentford’s Cup run with a 3-1 win.
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/ 17 February 2006
There’s a lizard on the loose in peaceful Cambridgeshire, a 1,2m black and white Argentinian tegu lizard that goes by the name of Gonzo. "I suspect anyone coming across him will be terrified," said Gonzo’s owner James Burfield (22) who suspects the reptile escaped last Saturday after the family dog pushed open the door of its tank when no one was looking.
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/ 17 February 2006
Concern is growing among European governments about United States plans to involve them in an expanded, all-out campaign against Islamist extremism from North Africa to South-East Asia, using beefed-up special forces, high-tech weaponry and more intrusive surveillance and intelligence gathering.
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/ 16 February 2006
Rockers the Kaiser Chiefs — named after South Africa’s champion soccer side — had a riot at the annual Brit Awards on Wednesday night, picking up a hat-trick of prizes at the biggest and most prestigious night of the country’s music calendar. James Blunt beat off competition from Robbie Williams to bag best British male solo artist.
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/ 15 February 2006
Glorification of terrorism will become a crime in the United Kingdom now that Parliament has backed Prime Minister Tony Blair’s version of a key part of a new anti-terror law prompted by the July bombings in London. Blair said banning glorification of terrorism is essential in order to crack down on radical Islamists.
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/ 15 February 2006
There is no meaningful response to climate change without massive social change. A cap on this and a quota on the other will not do it. Tinker at the edges as we may, we cannot sustain Earth’s life-support systems within the present economic system. Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature.
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/ 14 February 2006
With controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for soliciting to murder and race hate offences, British police have revealed to the public what they discovered when they raided his Finsbury Park mosque. Suspicion about terrorist involvement swirled around Hamza and the north London mosque for years.
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/ 13 February 2006
Tottenham let in an 89th-minute equaliser on Sunday to draw 1-1 at Sunderland, missing the chance to move further clear of local rivals Arsenal in the Premier League standings. In Sunday’s other game, Joey Barton scored one goal and set up two more in Manchester City’s 3-2 win against Charlton.
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/ 13 February 2006
The British government recently defied the United States by giving money for safe abortion services in developing countries to organisations that have been cut off from American funding. Nearly 70Â 000 women and girls died last year because they went to backstreet abortionists. Thousands of others suffered serious injuries.
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/ 13 February 2006
Violence and a dramatically low turnout marred the first elections for seven years in Nepal on Wednesday — polls the king had described as the first step back to democracy for the Himalayan state. Turnout was said to be less than 10%, reflecting dismay with the king’s strategy and a response to Maoist and opposition calls for a boycott.
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/ 10 February 2006
Anglo-South African insurer Old Mutual said on Friday that investors owning more than 88% of shares in Swedish rival Skandia have accepted its hostile takeover bid. The group also said that the deadline for its â,¬4,8-billion (about R35-billion) offer has been extended to March 14.
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/ 10 February 2006
A long-lost 17th century manuscript charting the birth of modern science has been found gathering dust in a cupboard in a house in southern England. Filled with crabby italics and acerbic asides, the 520 or so yellowing and stained pages are the handwritten minutes of the United Kingdom Royal Society.
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/ 9 February 2006
A local British police chief who advised shopkeepers in his area not to ”bother to report” shoplifting crimes involving goods valued at less than £75 (about R800) has been criticised by his superiors, who apologised for his ”mistake”. Outraged local shopkeepers took the matter up with their MP.
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/ 9 February 2006
Steve Fossett piloted his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft over Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after a ”bit scary” takeoff on his solo bid to set a world record for the longest flight. The 61-year-old United States aviator continued steadily eastward across northern Africa on his estimated 80-hour flight after hitting two birds during takeoff.
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/ 9 February 2006
Chelsea kept their dreams of a treble-winning season alive by booking their place in the last 16 of the FA Cup with a 4-1 fourth-round replay win at home to Premiership rivals Everton in London on Wednesday. Chelsea were 3-0 up at half-time with Dutch winger Arjen Robben putting the English champions ahead.
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/ 8 February 2006
Birmingham beat Reading 2-1 to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup on Tuesday, winning on a 67th-minute goal by Julian Gray. Preston beat Crystal Palace 2-1 in the other fourth-round replay with two goals by Daniele Dichio, including the winner in the 88th minute.
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/ 8 February 2006
The British authorities faced questions on Wednesday about why it took so long to act against radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri who was jailed for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder. During sentencing on Tuesday in London, Judge Anthony Hughes said 47-year-old Abu Hamza’s sermons had helped generate a climate in which some now regarded it as a ”moral duty” to kill.
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/ 8 February 2006
ExxonMobil recently set a new record for corporate profits, announcing annual figures of ,13-billion, up 42% on the previous year despite spending -billion in share buybacks. The announcement brought immediate condemnation from green groups, which accused it of prospering from a ”carbon economy” that would bring the world close to extinction with global warming.
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/ 6 February 2006
A hapless visitor who accidentally smashed a set of rare 300-year-old Chinese vases at a British museum after tripping up on his shoelaces said on Monday he has been banned from returning. The 42-year-old tripped as he came down a flight of stairs, causing the £100 000 (about R1,07-million) mishap.
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/ 6 February 2006
Two complete strangers will get married in Britain later on Monday after winning the chance to tie the knot in a radio station competition that has drawn anger from religious leaders. Craig Cooper will meet his bride Rebecca Duffy for the first time at the start of the ceremony organised by commercial station BRMB, based in Birmingham in west central England.