The previous record was set in 1948 when Wales went to Twickenham armed with 10 Cardiff players, all of whom survived for two more games, but in those days the selectors had a working base of 16 clubs rather than the present format of four regions and an English outpost.

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Product Recalls

General Mills says it's recalling about 5 million frozen pizzas due to possible E. coli contamination. The pizzas are sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels. General Mills says state and federal authorities have been investigating 21 E. coli cases in 10 states. Nine of the 21 people reported eating Totino', ;s or Jeno's pizza with pepperoni topping at some point, before becoming ill. The voluntary recall covers pizzas with pepperoni produced since July, when the first of the E. coli cases occurred. The company asks consumers to throw away the recalled pizzas. Replacements will be provided. For more information, call (800) 949-9055.

About 4,000 decorative packaging pearl-like bead attachments sold with girl's gift sets have been recalled due to a violation of lead paint standard.

International Federation releases emergency funds for Madagascar

Malagasy Red Cross also requested the support of the French Red Cross regional intervention platform (PIROI). Twelve tonnes of material were sent from the main centre on La Reunion Island, including tarpaulins, tool kits, generators, water purification tablets and other emergency items .

Campaigning in hard times

Indeed, in the tight race now unfolding, Democratic strategists exude calm certitude that, barring a catastrophic world event, the Republicans are toast. "All the fundamentals point to the Democrats winning the White House," says veteran party pollster Mark Mellman, who predicted that Michael Dukakis would lose in 1988 even when midsummer polls showed him 17 points up. The reason: a strong Reagan economy.

The calculus isn't always so clear-cut. Consider a few recent exceptions: In 2000 the economy was tipping toward recession - the dot-com stock bubble began bursting in March - but no one thought Al Gore, the incumbent-party candidate and winner of the popular vote, suffered for it. Two years later the economy was still recovering from the 2001 recession, yet President Bush's Republicans enjoyed unprecedented gains in the congressional midterm elections as a new threat, terrorism, trumped economic concerns.