Premier League clubs are waiting for Tuesday’s opening of the month-long January transfer window, some seeking to tweak their squad as they press for the title and others hoping to add players in the fight to stay in England’s most lucrative competition.
Millions staged midnight parties at icon landmarks around the world to see in 2008 but bomb attacks and security fears quickly darkened New Year festivities. More than one million people lined Sydney harbour for fireworks that set off the global party and hundreds of thousands packed Hong Kong streets and historic European venues.
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/ 31 December 2007
Union leaders are to hold new talks with the British Airports Authority (BAA) on Monday in an attempt to avert a series of strikes that could cause widespread travel chaos in January. A BAA spokesperson said the talks will take place at an undisclosed location after negotiations last week failed to solve the dispute over pensions.
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/ 31 December 2007
Liverpool missed the chance to close within eight points of Premier League leaders Arsenal on Sunday as they could only draw 0-0 at Manchester City. Rafa Benitez’s side still have a game in hand, and City remain unbeaten at home this season, but with Manchester United losing on Saturday and Arsenal only drawing on Boxing Day, this still felt like an opportunity missed.
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/ 30 December 2007
Phil O’Donnell, captain of Scottish Premier League club Motherwell, died on Saturday after collapsing during a match. The 35-year-old midfielder fell to the ground at Fir Park just as he was about to be substituted against Dundee United. The player was carried from the field on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
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/ 30 December 2007
Arsenal reclaimed first place in the Premier League as Arsene Wenger’s side routed Everton 4-1 to take advantage of Manchester United’s surprise 2-1 defeat at West Ham on Saturday. The Gunners moved two points clear of United thanks to Eduardo’s double strike and late goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Tomas Rosicky.
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/ 28 December 2007
Newcastle United and England midfielder Joey Barton was refused bail on Friday after appearing in court charged with assault. Barton (25) was arrested in Liverpool, north-west England, in the early hours of Thursday and charged with common assault and affray. He was already on bail for two other alleged offences.
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/ 28 December 2007
Louis Saha expects Manchester United’s superior squad to give the champions a decisive edge as the Premier League title fight hots up. Sir Alex Ferguson rested Carlos Tevez, Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Patrice Evra against Sunderland on Wednesday but United still coasted to an emphatic 4-0 victory that took them back to the top of the table.
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/ 27 December 2007
World leaders voiced outrage at the assassination on Thursday of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and expressed fears for the fate of the nuclear-armed state. United States President George Bush condemned the killing as a ”cowardly act”.
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/ 27 December 2007
Lewis Hamilton believes the traumatic experiences of his debut season in Formula One can help him emerge as a team leader for McLaren. Hamilton spent most of the campaign embroiled in an increasingly bitter feud with teammate Fernando Alonso, while his team were caught up in the spygate controversy.
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/ 27 December 2007
Champions Manchester United begin the second half of their Premier League title defence at the top of the league on Saturday but manager Alex Ferguson will be hoping for better luck at West Ham United. United were imperious in a 4-0 thrashing of Sunderland on Wednesday to move a point above Arsenal.
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/ 26 December 2007
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 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
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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/ 25 December 2007
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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/ 24 December 2007
The Scottish government said on Monday it will pay to insert advertisements discouraging drinking and driving into video games. The trial project will see the ads appear on virtual billboards within several games for Microsoft Xbox consoles, including Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing IV and NBA Live.
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/ 24 December 2007
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
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
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, 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
Property investors smarting from this year’s housing bust in the United States might do well to look farther afield — even out of this world. Internet searches for lunar land prices show the cost of buying an acre of the moon’s surface has risen 40% since the start of 2007.
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/ 18 December 2007
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
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
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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/ 15 December 2007
Veteran South African all-rounder Shaun Pollock sent the West Indians crashing to a narrow defeat against a Makhaya Ntini Invitation XI in a rain-affected opening match of their tour at Buffalo Park on Friday. Pollock top-scored 54 off 40 balls and took one for five in three overs as the Ntini XI won by five runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method.
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/ 14 December 2007
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
Multi-millionaire English artist Damien Hirst said on Thursday he was donating four major works to Britain’s Tate Gallery, including a sliced and pickled cow and calf. It is the first time Hirst, who recently sold a diamond-encrusted skull for -million, has made a major donation to a museum.
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/ 14 December 2007
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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/ 13 December 2007
A hand-written, illustrated book of wizardry by Harry Potter author JK Rowling fetched a record £1,95-million (about R26,9-million) at auction in London on Thursday, nearly 40 times its expected price. The Tales of Beedle the Bard had been expected to go for up to £50 000 (R690 000).
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/ 13 December 2007
A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering this week after spending nearly four days trapped inside a men’s toilet with no food or cellphone. David Leggat was locked inside the bathroom at a lawn bowling club near the Scottish city of Aberdeen after the door jammed and the handle on the outside fell off.
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/ 13 December 2007
British author Terry Pratchett (59) has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. ”I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news,” Pratchett said.
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/ 11 December 2007
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.”