Yearly Archives: 2003

Sharp disagreements are emerging between the US and the UK over the exact nature of the Iraqi resistance, amid warnings that the US is losing the intelligence war against the rebels. US and UK officials admit that at the centre of the worsening crisis is a continuing failure of intelligence on exactly who is behind the resistance.

South Africa’s World Cup hopes were dealt a devastating blow after star flanker Joe van Niekerk was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a serious knee injury. Van Niekerk suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the Springboks 60-10 victory over Samoa.

Orlando Pirates came back from 2-0 down to score twice in the last seven minutes of their Castle Premiership game against Santos. The two teams shared spoils. Santos led 2-0 at half-time. Santos went straight on the attack and came close in the 14th minute.

Bob Dwyer, Australia’s World Cup winning coach in 1991, said current Wallaby captain George Gregan and fly-half Stephen Larkham should be among those dropped following the nail-biting 17-16 win against Ireland if the world champions are to retain the trophy they won for a second time four years ago.

Fiji, the great rugby entertainers, are bemoaning another unfulfilled tournament of what might have been after they were dumped out of the Rugby World Cup by a last-gasp Scotland try. The Fijians looked poised to gatecrash the quarter-finals only to be outdone by a Scottish rolling maul try three minutes from time.

The Blue Bulls retained their Absa Currie Cup title with a convincing 40-19 victory over the Natal Sharks in the final at a packed Loftus in Pretoria. Ill-discipline cost the Sharks a shot at an upset win, but the Bulls had to dig deep late in the second half to see off a mini-comeback from the pretenders to their crown.

Academics in California have confirmed what every office worker in the land has known for years: we are drowning in a rising sea of information. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say the amount of information being generated worldwide has increased by 30% each year since 1999.

A rightwing German MP last night faced numerous calls for his resignation after he talked of ”the Jews” as a ”nation of perpetrators” and alleged they were responsible for the deaths of millions of people during the Russian revolution. In a speech to his constituents the MP claimed that Jewish people had a ”dark side”.

Iran appeared to have passed a stiff international test on its suspected nuclear weapons programme yesterday when the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tehran had supplied its inspectors with a ”comprehensive” record of a project that goes back 20 years.