Bangladesh were staring down the barrel after losing a clutch of wickets on the third day of the second and final Test against South Africa on Sunday. The hosts limped to 245-7 at tea with tailenders Mohammad Rafique, batting on 10, and Mashrafe Mortaza (0) at the crease.
It did not look like a political wake. Senator Hillary Clinton emerged into a basketball stadium in Houston wearing a bright red jacket, beaming broadly and waving at thousands of screaming supporters. Gene Green, a Texan congressman, introduced her with confident words predicting her return to the White House.
Bangladesh’s Shahriar Nafees hit an unbeaten fifty to lead the home side to 169 for four at lunch on the third day of the second Test against South Africa on Sunday. Bangladesh are replying to South Africa’s record-studded score of 583 for seven declared. Nafees (61) and Aftab Ahmed (21) were unbeaten at the interval.
South Africans should arm themselves to ward off criminals, regardless of government’s efforts to disarm citizens, Gun Owners South Africa (Gosa) said on Saturday. Gosa said South Africa’s justice system was ”on the verge of collapse” and that the police and security forces were ”in a state of total disarray”.
On the segregated campus of South Africa’s University of the Free State this weekend, tensions were thunderously high as black students planned a mass protest for Monday against the white students who made a video humiliating their black cleaners.<br><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/319216/video-icon.gif"> <a href="http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=333647&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/" target="_blank" class="standardtextsmall"><b>With live video</b></a>
French Test flyhalf Frederick Michalak scored his first try in Super 14 rugby when the Sharks beat the Bulls 29-15 in an all-South African match on Saturday. Michalak scored the first of three Sharks tries in the final 10 minutes to help maintain his team’s unbeaten start to the season and settle a match in which the lead changed hands four times.
A glaring error by referee Kelvin Deaker cost the Lions seven points in the Super 14 match which they eventually lost 18-16 to the Western Force at Ellis Park on Friday night. The call forced the Lions to play catch-up after a Cameron Shepherd penalty had put the visitors ahead with a long-range penalty.
Skipper Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie set a world record for an opening wicket stand to help South Africa amass 509 for one at lunch on the second day of the second and final Test against Bangladesh on Saturday. McKenzie was not out for 223 with Hashim Amla unbeaten on 35 at lunch.
A crowded bus plunged off a cliff into a deep ravine in Guatemala on Friday, killing 37 people and injuring 25, emergency workers said. The bus was packed with people traveling to the village of Chiquimulilla in southern Guatemala when it skidded off the edge as it sped around a bend.
The Kremlin is planning to falsify the results of Sunday’s presidential election by compelling millions of public-sector workers to vote and by fraudulently boosting the official turnout, a media report said. Governors, regional officials and even headteachers have been instructed to deliver a landslide majority for Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister.