Jorge Cantu smacked a solo home run, part of a 3-for-4 performance that produced three runs and sparked Mexico past South Africa 10-4 in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday at the World Baseball Classic. The victory kept the Mexicans in contention for a second-round berth.
Top-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne would just as soon not be dubbed the favourite to lift the WTA trophy at the Pacific Life Open. ”It doesn’t matter what your seeding number is,” Henin-Hardenne said on Wednesday. ”I hate to talk about favourites. When you walk on the court, it doesn’t matter what your ranking is.”
Internet search engine leader Google on Wednesday said it had offered up to -million to settle a lawsuit by advertisers who accuse it of overbilling them through ”click fraud”. Google Associate General Counsel Nicole Wong stressed that ”until the settlement is approved by the judge, it is not final”.
Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shi’ite-dominated interior ministry have stormed an Iraqi security company that relies heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam regime, spiriting away 50 hostages. The ministry has denied involvement and called the operation a ”terrorist act”.
South Africa on Wednesday said it regrets the inability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran. It welcomes, however, the reconfirmation by the agency that all the declared nuclear material in Iran has been accounted for.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said it would keep in place sanctions on Zimbabwe because of money still owed the bank, and urged Harare to urgently implment reforms to stablise its economy. In a statement the IMF board urged Harare ”to continue its efforts to resolve the remaining overdue financial obligations”.
Vitamin salesman Matthias Rath on Wednesday renewed his offensive against Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), saying it should be banned. The attack comes less than a week after a full bench of the Cape High Court granted the TAC an interim interdict against Rath and the foundation.
The United States called for extraordinary action to get to the bottom of Iran’s nuclear programme on Wednesday as Tehran and Washington moved into confrontational mode in the long-running dispute. The US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Greg Schulte, called for ”special inspections” by the United Nations nuclear teams in Iran.
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The big wait continued on Wednesday as parties carried on the behind-the-scenes negotiations that will determine who will govern Cape Town, where no party won a clear majority in last week’s local government polls. ”Talks are continuing, progress is being made. But it all takes a long time,” a Democratic Alliance spokesperson said.
In Hollywood race is the new sex. Days after Crash beat Brokeback Mountain at the Oscars, reality television is taking a rest from engineering on-screen couplings to experiment with racial role-swapping. Black. White. uses advanced make-up techniques to turn a black family white and a white family black, and then send them out into Los Angeles equipped with hidden cameras.