Sascoc (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) president Moss Mashishi is pleased with Team South Africa’s performance at the ninth All Africa Games, which took place in Algeria earlier this month. Team SA came third in the event with 180 medals, of which 61 were gold.
Unless Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang releases a full report on the deaths of babies in Eastern Cape’s Frere Hospital within the next 24 hours, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will take constitutional steps against her, the party warned on Wednesday. The DA’s health spokesperson, Mike Waters, said the party’s previous attempts to get the minister to release the report drew a blank.
Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya grabbed four wickets as ruthless Sri Lanka thrashed Bangladesh by 39 runs on Wednesday to sweep the one-day series 3-0. The 38-year-old all-rounder picked up 4-14 in four overs to cap a series of dominating performances by the World Cup runners-up who had mauled Bangladesh by a 3-0 margin in the Test series as well.
A newborn Indian baby found abandoned with 26 stab wounds has survived, doctors said on Wednesday, despite a cracked skull and exposed intestines. The baby boy, who doctors said was aged between one and two days, was discovered soaked in blood at a garbage dump in India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Tuesday, they said.
Brazil descended again into air chaos on Wednesday after the nation’s number-one airline cancelled dozens of flights to and from the country’s busiest airport, causing a ripple effect nationwide that stranded thousands and sent tempers flaring. On Tuesday, ticket purchases were halted at São Paulo’s Conghonas airport.
Bulgaria is considering writing off Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV. After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship were freed on Tuesday.
Ratings agency Fitch raised its outlook on South Africa’s ”BBB+” sovereign credit rating to positive from stable on Wednesday, citing the country’s rapid economic growth and improved prospects. ”The change in outlook reflects South Africa’s improved growth performance and prospects,” Veronica Kalema, a director in Fitch’s sovereign team, said in a statement.
Two small explosions hit part of the Spanish section of Wednesday’s Tour de France cycle race after a telephone bomb threat from a caller claiming to represent Basque separatist rebels ETA, newspaper website El Pais said. No one was hurt and the race was not called off after the explosions, which came after the caller said that ETA had planted several bombs.
A 25-year-old woman was arrested after she threw her new-born baby into a toilet pit near the southern KwaZulu-Natal town of Harding, police said on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Captain Zandra Hechter said the woman was arrested on Tuesday night after police received a report from neighbours.
Formula One’s governing body could puncture McLaren’s championship bid on Thursday and slam the brakes on Fernando Alonso’s and Lewis Hamilton’s own title aspirations. The ”spy saga” that has gripped the sport for weeks, with leaders McLaren stunned by revelations about their now-suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan and leaked Ferrari data, comes to a head in Paris.