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>
After setting an opening partnership record and declaring their first innings on 583 for seven, South Africa also posted a wicketkeeping record on the second day of the second Test against Bangladesh on Saturday. With two catches behind, wicketkeeper Mark Boucher overtook Adam Gilchrist and took his tally for Test wicketkeeping catches to 401
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.
Mediator Kofi Annan said on Saturday he was giving up day-to-day responsibility for reconciliation talks in Kenya after securing a deal to end its worst crisis since independence. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a coalition government pact on Thursday intended to bring to a close two months of violence.
Israel killed 52 Palestinians on Saturday in its deadliest and deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip since pulling out in 2005, stoking fears of a broader conflict that could derail renewed United States-backed peace talks. At least 29 of the dead were civilians, among them women and children, said Palestinian doctors who were working round the clock.
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.
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are deadlocked in Texas and Ohio heading into potentially decisive presidential showdowns, according to a Reuters/C-Span/Houston Chronicle poll released on Saturday. Clinton is fighting to save her White House candidacy in the two primaries on Tuesday.