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/ 29 December 2007
Former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot slammed his federation chiefs on Friday declaring that the domestic scene was a disgrace. The 33-year-old scrumhalf told Argentine daily La Nacion he could not believe the manner in which the federation chiefs were dealing with the question over making the domestic game professional.
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/ 29 December 2007
It will be the year of the Golden Slam for tennis in 2008 and realistically only two names are in the running. Both Roger Federer and Justine Henin finished this year as clear number ones in their sport and they are set to dominate again. But from there to winning all four Grand Slams events plus Olympic gold in Beijing in the same calendar year is a huge step.
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/ 29 December 2007
The early stages of the 2008 Super 14 competition could be especially challenging for the five South African franchises — three of the teams have new coaches, and the training of all five has been affected to various degrees by the resting of their Springboks after the United Kingdom tour.
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/ 29 December 2007
Australia thrashed India by 337 runs to win the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series on the fourth day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. The Australians claimed their 15th consecutive Test victory and will look to equal their world record of 16 wins set from October 1999 to February 2001 in next week’s second Test.
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/ 29 December 2007
Tanzania’s ambassador to South Africa was beaten unconscious and several of his guests were assaulted and robbed at his farewell dinner in Pretoria on Friday night. About five armed men pushed aside the barbed wire and jumped over the wall of a diplomatic residence in Pretoria at about 10pm, a government official at the function said.
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/ 29 December 2007
China on Saturday ruled full democracy in Hong Kong by 2012 but flagged universal suffrage for 2017 in a long-awaited decision on democratic reform for the former British colony, officials said. The decision is likely to upset democrats who had been pushing for 2012 as a deadline for changes in the way the chief executive and the legislature are chosen.
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/ 29 December 2007
Kenya’s opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, led on Saturday in the race to govern East Africa’s largest economy but tempers flared over the slow pace of vote tallying in the incumbent’s strongholds. In a third day of ballot counting, Odinga, heir of a wealthy nationalist hero, led President Mwai Kibaki.
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/ 29 December 2007
Pakistan was on Saturday gripped by division and uncertainty following the burial of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as her supporters angrily rejected a government explanation of her death. Bhutto died on Thursday shortly after a suicide attack targeting her vehicle at a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi.
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/ 29 December 2007
Former Guantánamo Bay inmate David Hicks walked free from an Australian jail after completing a sentence for supporting terrorism on Saturday, vowing not to let down those who got him home. More than six years after he was captured in Afghanistan, the so-called "Aussie Taliban" was escorted from Adelaide’s maximum security Yalata jail.
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/ 29 December 2007
Bringing Saddam Hussein to book for the crimes of his regime was supposed to symbolise the restoration of the rule of law after decades of tyranny in Iraq, but instead his hanging a year ago on Sunday drew accusations of victors’ justice. Footage captured on a cellphone of his executioners taunting him before putting him to death sparked criticism.