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/ 21 April 2008

Federer hopes late win is much-needed boost

At this point, Roger Federer will take a title victory however it comes. Top-ranked Federer won the Estoril Open on debut and his first title of 2008 when fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko retired with a left leg injury while trailing 7-6 (5), 1-2 on Sunday. He hadn’t won a tournament this late into the season in nine years.

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/ 14 February 2008

Angola welcomes responsible foreign investment

A high-level mission from Angola has visited Portugal to entice potential investors with business opportunities arising from the new-found stability in the south-western African nation, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But foreign investors should forget about merely transferring profits abroad without leaving any benefits behind.

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/ 11 February 2008

East Timor president ‘out of danger’

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta is "out of danger" and "recovering" following treatment in Australia after being shot in the stomach by rebels, the speaker of the country’s Parliament said on Monday. "According to the information we have, the president has been operated on and the bullet that was in his lung has been removed," Fernando de Araujo said.

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/ 4 January 2008

Dakar Rally cancelled over security fears

This year’s Dakar Rally has been cancelled over security concerns, in particular direct ”terrorist” threats to the race, organisers announced on Friday. The race had been due to start in Lisbon on Saturday but the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24 led to the French government advising against any travel to the country.

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/ 2 January 2008

Portugal anti-smoking chief breaks ban on first day

The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect. Antonio Nunes, president of Portugal’s food standards agency, was photographed by the daily, Diario de Noticias, smoking a cigar at a casino on the outskirts of Lisbon.

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/ 13 December 2007

UK’s Brown finally also signs EU treaty

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed the European Union’s reform treaty in Lisbon on Thursday, hours after his fellow European leaders inked the text at a ceremony he missed, an Agence France-Presse photographer witnessed. The treaty replaces a draft EU constitution scuppered by French and Dutch referendums in 2005.

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/ 10 December 2007

EU, Africa summit brings little progress

European and African leaders were seeking to open a new era of closer relations, but their summit closed on Sunday with squabbling over trade and human rights. Old divisions surfaced at the first summit in seven years between the continents as leaders swapped accusations over the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur.

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/ 9 December 2007

Africa spurns new trade deals with EU

Most African leaders on Sunday rejected new trade deals demanded by the European Union, dealing a blow to efforts to forge a new economic partnership at the first European Union (EU)-Africa summit in seven years. The EU wants to replace expiring trade accords with so-called Economic Partnership Agreements or temporary deals.

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/ 9 December 2007

Merkel attacks Mugabe at Lisbon

German Chancellor Angela Merkel directly confronted Robert Mugabe over human rights abuses in front of European and African leaders in Portugal on Saturday, putting the Zimbabwean leader under the spotlight at a summit that has been overshadowed by the despot’s presence.

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/ 8 December 2007

EU, African leaders seek new era

Leaders of Europe and Africa opened a landmark summit on Saturday designed to forge a new partnership of equals, but with strains showing over trade and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s presence. ”We are here … to write a new page in the history of Europe and Africa,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said in an inaugural address.