A Sudanese cameraman with the al-Jazeera on Friday accused United States authorities of insulting Islamic symbols on his return home after six years of detention at Guantánamo Bay. There were ”many violations — [we were] deprived from praying and there were … deliberate insults to God’s holy book” said Sami al-Haj.
The United Nations’s new top adviser on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe in a stinging interview published on his first day in office. Frenchman Olivier de Schutter told <i>Le Monde</i> newspaper the world needed to prepare for the end of "cheap food".
Somali Islamist militants on Friday promised to avenge the killing of a man said to be an al-Qaeda’s chief, warning citizens from countries they considered hostile to stay away from the war-torn country. The United States military on Thursday killed Moalim Aden Hashi Ayro and 11 others when it bombed a house in Somalia’s central town of Dhusamareb.
Victor Matfield, Bulls captain when they won the Super 14 last year, will be back for the Blue Bulls when the Currie Cup season starts, and will therefore be eligible for the Springboks. The Blue Bulls on Thursday night announced that Matfield had signed a contract with them to return ”home”. The contract becomes effective on July 1 and ends on October 31 2011.
Kenya’s inflation rate rose to 26,6% in April, up almost 5% from the previous month, the government announced on Friday, blaming rising food and oil prices. "Month-to-month overall inflation rate increased from 21,8% in March 2008 to 26,7% in April 2008," said a statement from the government’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will look at introducing experimental law variations (ELVs) for this year’s Tri-Nations tournament. The International Rugby Board said on Thursday that 13 of the 23 ELVs, many of which are being trialled in this year’s Super 14 competition, would be adopted for a 12-month global trial from August 1.
Israel’s fraud squad on Friday questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been dogged by corruption scandals that surfaced after he took office in 2006, police said. The investigators, led by the head of the National Fraud Squad, Lieutenant Commander Shlomi Ayalon, questioned Olmert in his Jerusalem residence.
Shane Bond, one of the world’s best and most menacingly quick bowlers, laughs with surprising ease, seemingly undeterred by the fact that he has just been banned from international cricket. If some expected Bond to mourn the end of his Test career as New Zealand begin their tour of England, they might be taken aback.
The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has dissolved the executive committee of Basketball South Africa (BSA) and appointed an interim committee. This follows allegations that Vusi Mgobhozi and Eric Nkosi — who were respectively president and treasurer of BSA until Sascoc’s move — are guilty of financial mismanagement.
Come May 6, officials from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality are confident that they will leave the South African Football Association smiling after world football governing body Fifa and the 2010 local organising committee agree that their stadium will be able to host matches for the 2009 Confederations Cup.