The 2003 All Africa Games 400 metres gold medallist Ezra Sambu has pulled out of Kenya’s squad for this year’s African Athletics Championships due to a hamstring injury. ”I got injured as we were training at the starting blocks and I opted out because there is no point of me going to the championships when I am not fully fit.
Up to 15 illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa were trafficked every day through Maputo’s Mavalane International airport to South Africa, the Mozambican media reported on Saturday. O PaÃs said that this was done with the involvement of officials from the police, airports security, immigration and customs officials, and private airport security guards.
Iranian conservatives were on Saturday heading for a crushing victory in parliamentary elections over reformists who were sidelined by mass pre-vote disqualifications, partial results showed. Eighty-two seats in the 290 seat Parliament were at stake in the run-off voting on Saturday after the first round on March 14 left conservatives assured of taking a majority in the next Parliament.
Resolving the thorny question of Robert Mugabe’s fate may hold the key to breaking the impasse over Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential vote. Mugabe has not himself suggested he would be willing to step aside if he were granted immunity for alleged human rights abuses and allowed to fade into comfortable retirement.
Singer Amy Winehouse spent the night in custody after being arrested on suspicion of assault, police said on Saturday. The 24-year-old handed herself in at a police station in central London on Friday to face questioning by detectives. It was not clear when she will be questioned.
Zambia’s main opposition leader Michael Sata was in a stable condition in Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital on Saturday after having a heart attack. ”He is in the cardiac care unit …,” said hospital spokesperson Amelda Swartz. ”He is going to have an angiogram this afternoon.”
The Blue Bulls guaranteed themselves a place in the semifinals of the Vodacom Cup with their 51-7 victory over the Lions at Loftus on Friday. The Bulls scored a total of seven tries, five of which came in the first half, and led 36-7 at the interval. The hosts were first to draw blood with a Braam Gerber try in the first minute, followed by a Burton Francis penalty in the eighth minute.
The death toll from a bomb that ripped through a bus outside the Sri Lankan capital rose to 26 on Saturday after two more passengers died of their injuries, police said. The bomb exploded inside the overcrowded bus, blowing off its roof, as it pulled out of the Piliyandala terminal into rush-hour traffic on Friday.
China’s offer to hold talks with aides to the Dalai Lama is unlikely to bring a breakthrough on Tibet, experts cautioned on Saturday, saying it was a PR exercise ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Chinese state media said on Friday that government officials would meet soon with a representative of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
Democrat Barack Obama said on Friday he would fine-tune his United States presidential campaign and remind voters of his humble roots after a defeat in Pennsylvania fuelled in part by his failure to win over working-class voters. Obama leads the Democratic race but is in a gruelling battle with Hillary Clinton for the right to face Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election.