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/ 25 January 2007
South African commuters will be among the thousands of travellers set to be inconvenienced as British Airways on Thursday announced the cancellation of all its flights for two days next week from London’s Heathrow airport, and many from Gatwick, due to a planned strike by cabin crew.
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/ 24 January 2007
Andriy Shevchenko and Frank Lampard each scored twice as Chelsea routed Wycombe 4-0 for a place in the final of the English League Cup on Tuesday. Shevchenko hadn’t scored in his 10 previous appearances for Chelsea, and has reportedly fallen out with manager Jose Mourinho, partly because of his friendship with owner Roman Abramovich.
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/ 24 January 2007
A British government committee criticised the spiraling costs of the London 2012 Olympics and called for greater transparency from organisers on finances to ensure continued public support. While accepting costs would rise, the report released on Wednesday said it was ”vital that public confidence” was maintained.
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/ 24 January 2007
An opportunity to foster stability in Somalia after years of war is ”being squandered”, the deputy chairperson of the African Union said in an interview published in the Financial Times on Wednesday. Patrick Mazimhaka also told the paper that there had not yet been any clear commitment from a non-African country to help fund the mission.
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/ 22 January 2007
World number five Ernie Els, refreshed after a break from golf, feels his game is sharp and is itching to launch his 2007 schedule at this week’s Qatar Masters. Previous trips to the Middle East have provided the South African with plenty of success, especially when he won back-to-back titles in Doha and Dubai two years ago.
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/ 22 January 2007
Spectators will be banned from taking cellphones to this year’s British Open at Carnoustie after complaints from players during the 2006 championship at Hoylake. ”We have so far resisted the call to ban mobile phones on the grounds that it may be an inconvenience to the public,” said director David Hill.
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/ 22 January 2007
Thierry Henry scored in injury time on Sunday to give Arsenal a 2-1 comeback win over Manchester United in the Premier League. Henry met a cross from defender Emmanuel Eboue and headed past diving goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar in the third minute of injury time.
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/ 22 January 2007
British experts battled on Monday to prevent an ecological disaster by offloading about 3Â 500 tonnes of fuel oil in a stricken container ship beached off the English south coast. While scavengers began pillaging containers washed up on the beach, operations were also under way to clean up some of the 200 tonnes of lighter fuel that has already started to leak.
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/ 22 January 2007
Salvage teams on Sunday battled to secure a damaged container ship grounded off the English coast, as 200 tonnes of oil and other hazardous materials threatened the nearby coastline. The stricken MSC Napoli was deliberately run aground after it was damaged during a storm on Thursday.
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/ 20 January 2007
David Beckham’s multimillion-pound contract with the LA Galaxy has sparked resentment amongst his new teammates according to midfielder Peter Vagenas. Former England captain Beckham, currently at Real Madrid, has signed a five-year deal with the Major Soccer League club worth £128-million and is due to arrive in the United States at the end of the current European season.
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/ 19 January 2007
Global digital music sales almost doubled in 2006 to about -billion, or 10% of all sales, but have not yet reached the industry’s ”holy grail” of offsetting the fall in CD sales, a trade organisation said. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry expects digital sales to account for a quarter of all sales worldwide by 2010.
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/ 18 January 2007
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has said for the first time she is being racially abused in a British reality TV show, which has sparked protests in London and New Delhi and damaged Britain’s image of tolerance. Shetty and her fellow contestants on Celebrity Big Brother are oblivious to the international row that has erupted over her treatment.
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/ 18 January 2007
The United States could dramatically and quickly cut its troop presence in Iraq if it provided enough weapons to the country’s security forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said. Maliki called for greater US support for Iraqi troops in an interview with a group of foreign correspondents in Baghdad. Several newspapers reported his comments on Thursday.
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/ 18 January 2007
Birmingham upset Newcastle 5-1 to advance to the fourth round of the English FA Cup on Wednesday, while in other third-round replays Fulham rallied to beat Leicester and Tottenham downed Cardiff. League Championship club Birmingham beat 10-man Newcastle, with five different players scoring.
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/ 17 January 2007
The diamond industry-backed Kimberley Process is investigating a complaint that Zimbabwe is exporting rough diamonds without proper certification. Chairperson of the Antwerp-based World Diamond Council, Eli Izhakoff, said on Wednesday the council had expressed concern that rough diamonds from Zimbabwe were being smuggled into South Africa.
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/ 17 January 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair denied on Wednesday having called his heir-apparent Chancellor Gordon Brown ”psychologically flawed.” The cautiously worded denial came after a former spokesperson suggested Blair himself may have used the infamous description of Brown, a long-time ally turned political foe of the British leader.
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/ 17 January 2007
Broadband internet access has become cheaper than dial-up for the first time, figures show. Consumers with a dial-up connection are now almost certain to make savings by switching to broadband, irrespective of whether they pay per minute or via a monthly fee for unlimited access, according to SimplySwitch.com, the price-comparison service.
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/ 17 January 2007
Television bosses launched an investigation on Tuesday after a newsreader flashed her tummy and exchanged risqué banter with a colleague, not realising she was live on air. Emma Baker of Anglia Television, which broadcasts to viewers in eastern England, also fiddled with her bra and apparently addressed a co-worker as "Mrs Shameless".
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/ 17 January 2007
Police are investigating threats against Celebrity Big Brother housemates after an outburst of public concern over alleged racist bullying of Indian Bollywood siren Shilpa Shetty on the British show. Almost 10 000 viewers have complained about the treatment of Shetty (31) who has been called a ”dog” since the reality television series started barely two weeks ago.
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/ 15 January 2007
Harry Potter and other big-budget films triggered a welcome surge in spending on British movies last year, according to figures released on Monday. The amount spent in 2006 on making films in Britain reached £840,1-million — the second-highest figure to date, the United Kingdom Film Council said.
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/ 15 January 2007
Is Wales closed during the winter? Are the churches in England open at Christmas? From the confused to the frankly bizarre, British tourist centres have dealt with them all. Visit Britain, the national tourism agency, has half-a-million people a year pass through its information centres seeking advice on how to make the most of their trip.
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/ 14 January 2007
Manchester United remained six points clear at the top of the English Premiership after a 3-1 win against Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Saturday. Reigning champions Chelsea stayed second with a 4-0 home victory over Wigan, while Liverpool remained third after a 3-0 win away to basement club Watford.
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/ 12 January 2007
James Bond will take on Her Majesty at the British film awards, with Casino Royale garnering nine Bafta nominations on Friday, just one behind frontrunner The Queen. Stephen Frears was on the best director shortlist for The Queen, and Helen Mirren, an Oscar favourite in the leading role, was a best actress nominee for her portrayal of a confused monarch.
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/ 12 January 2007
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is set to quit the Premiership champions at the end of the season, according to reports on Friday. The frustrated Blues boss is reported to have told a close friend that he will leave Stamford Bridge in May, the media reported.
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/ 12 January 2007
The British press lauded David Beckham’s United States mega deal on Friday as a shrewd financial move for a footballer whose top playing days are behind him, although some lamented that greed was behind the move. Many papers cited the figure of about -million per week which Beckham will reportedly earn under the deal.
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/ 11 January 2007
Jose Mourinho has fuelled speculation that he could be on his way out of Chelsea by refusing to kill off rumours that he could leave the Premiership champions at the end of this season. Dutchman Guus Hiddink, now in charge of Russia and reportedly close to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, has been widely touted as a possible successor to Mourinho.
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/ 11 January 2007
British surgeons have condemned a plastic surgery lottery that offers winners money for face lifts, breast enlargements and tummy tucks. London-based Europa International is running what is thought to be the world’s first lottery for cosmetic surgery.
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/ 11 January 2007
Drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew, German scientists said on Tuesday. Research has shown that tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax but researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin in Mitte found milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.
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/ 11 January 2007
This weekend’s Ferrari launch could be one of Formula One’s more unusual presentations, given that the new race car may not be finished in time and photographers are not invited. A spokesperson billed the gathering at the team’s Fiorano test track on Sunday as ”more of a press preview”, with the car still being put together ahead of a planned debut on Monday.
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/ 10 January 2007
The last letters written by Antarctic explorer Robert Scott to his wife and young son before the adventurer died on his South Pole expedition are to go on display for the first time.Addressing his final letter home to ”my widow” Kathleen, the doomed British explorer wrote: ”I shall not see you again — the inevitable must be faced.”
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/ 10 January 2007
Wednesday’s back-page headlines made unpleasant reading for Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez after his side were crushed 6-3 by a young Arsenal side in the League Cup at Anfield on Tuesday. Benitez apologised to the club’s fans after Arsenal became the first visiting team to score six at Anfield since Sunderland won 6-0 there in a Division One match in April 1930.
In the desert of North Africa is a vast source of energy that holds the promise of a carbon-free, nuclear-free electrical future for the whole of Europe, if not the world. We are not talking about the vast oil and gas deposits underneath Algeria and Libya, or uranium for nuclear plants, but something far simpler — the sun.