Australia utility back Julian Huxley has been diagnosed with a brain tumour just days after he collapsed during a Super 14 match. The tumour, believed to be benign, was discovered following a series of scans after Huxley began convulsing while playing on Saturday. ”It was a huge shock when the doctor told me I have a tumour,” Huxley said on Tuesday.
Bulls prop Jaco Engels received a three-week suspension and centre JP Nel a one-week ban on Monday following incidents in the weekend’s Super 14 loss to the Sharks. Cited after the 29-15 defeat at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s final, the pair fronted up to a judiciary at the stadium.
Struggling Premier Soccer League (PSL) club Bloemfontein Celtic said on Monday that they had fired coach Khabo Zondo. Zondo, who also assists national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, was axed a day after mid-table Celtic conceded three late goals to lose 3-1 at Moroka Swallows.
Boozing into the night might inhibit coherent speech, but a Japanese company bets it will make workers communicate better. And it’s even willing to pay for it. Japan General Estate said on Tuesday it is planning to dole out thousands of dollars a month for its employees to go on the town in a bid to help communication.
Benni McCarthy has moved to end speculation over his future by insisting that he is ready to remain with Premiership outfit Blackburn Rovers for the rest of his career. The South African striker has two years left to run on his current contract at Ewood Park, but has continually been linked with a move away from the club since his arrival in July 2006.
Frederic Michalak is an anomaly in the migration patterns, the maverick flyhalf the sole French player moving to South Africa to play while many Boks head the other way. It now seems almost voguish that every French rugby team have at least a couple of South Africans on their books.
The Bush administration, caught out by the rise of Hamas, embarked on a secret project for the armed overthrow of the Islamist government in Gaza, it emerged on Monday. Vanity Fair reports in its April edition that President George Bush signed off on a plan for the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to remove the Hamas authorities in Gaza.
Kicked out of sleepy Nile fishing hamlets lost forever to Sudan’s oil boom, villagers in the south curse a refinery for causing forced relocations, for spreading disease and ravaging the environment. Villagers say thousands were forcefully evicted to make way for a low-sulphur crude-oil venture in south-central Sudan.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele on Monday condemned a surge in cash-in-transit heists in the province. ”This renewed spate of heists in the province is something we condemn in the strongest terms, for such criminality results in a number of people … being inconvenienced by the delays in getting their money,” he said.
Israeli war planes on Tuesday carried out raids on the north of the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians and wounding two others, a Palestinian medical source said. Israel had vowed on Monday to keep hitting Gaza, even as troops pulled out of the Hamas-run territory after clashes that killed more than 120 Palestinians and dealt a blow to peace talks.