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The 86-Year Quest is Over: The "Bambina Curse" is Broken, Red Sox are
World Champions
Pedro Martinez paraded the trophy down
the left-field line, hoisting it high over his head with both hands. Thousands of Boston fans roared. Seeing was
believing, but they still couldn't believe their eyes. The Red Sox -- yes, the Boston Red Sox! -- were World Series
champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it. Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat,
the Red Sox didn't just beat the St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, they swept them for
their first crown since 1918. Johnny Damon homered on the fourth pitch of the game, Derek Lowe made it stand up
and the Red Sox won 3-0 Wednesday night, wrapping up a Series in which they never trailed. "All of our fans
have waited all their lives for this night, and it's finally here. These guys did it for you, New England,"
Red Sox owner John Henry said. Chants of "Thank you, Red Sox!" bounced all around the ballpark when it
was over, with Boston fans as revved-up as they were relieved. Only 10 nights earlier, the Red Sox were just three
outs from getting swept by the New York Yankees in the AL championship series before becoming the first team in
baseball postseason history to overcome a 3-0 deficit. It was Boston's sixth championship, but the first after
86 years of frustration and futility, after two world wars, the Great Depression, men on the moon, and the rise
and fall of the Soviet Union. "We know people who are 90 years old who have just said: 'Just one championship
before I die,"' Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said. After all that, on an eerie night when the moon went dark
in a total eclipse, MVP Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox made it look easy. They became the third straight wild-card
team to win the Series, and the first club to win eight straight in a postseason. 
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 Corporate
BiafraNigeria may return to strike chaos on Monday unless the government accedes to demands by Labour that fuel
prices be reversed to the pre-September 23 levels. Abuja has up to midnight Sunday to stave it off. BiafraNigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) President Adams Oshiomhole told journalists at the end of its National Executive Committee
(NEC) meeting in the federal capital late Tuesday night that the action this time would be “indefinite and total
mass protest” until the government yields ground.
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 Voters’
register in the 2007 general elections will be computerised to minimise the incidence of malpractices, Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Abel Guobadia said on Tuesday. Besides, he disclosed in Port Harcourt,
a geographical data base of polling units has been compiled in readiness for the exercise. Guobadia, who was speaking
with Rivers State Governor Peter Odili, said “all the constitutional and legal reforms demanded by the major stakeholders
in the electoral process have been articulated into two draft bills now before the National Assembly”...
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