Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is a wizard when it comes to kissing, one of his co-stars revealed on Monday at a press conference in London to publicise the latest movie in the franchise. Speaking before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix premieres in the city on July 3, Katie Leung, who plays classmate Cho Chang, said some of her friends were jealous.
France striker Thierry Henry passed a medical at Barcelona on Monday, paving the way for him to complete his move from Arsenal. ”He has passed all the tests satisfactorily,” Barcelona team doctor Ricard Pruna was quoted as saying on the club’s website.
Firefighters were on Monday battling to contain a forest fire near California’s Lake Tahoe that destroyed as many as 220 homes and forced the evacuation of 1 000 people, officials said. The blaze, which officials said was probably caused by humans, erupted on Sunday near the southern tip of Lake Tahoe, 304km north-east of San Francisco.
Cracks emerged in a crippling public-sector strike on Monday after two unions representing about 160 000 members withdrew from one of the largest mass actions in post-apartheid South Africa. The Health and Other Services Personnel Union accused the Congress of South African Trade Unions of pursuing a political agenda in the strike over pay.
Rebels in Ethiopia’s remote eastern Somali region accused the government on Monday of using war planes to bomb three villages, killing about 40 people, in an escalating offensive against the insurgents. The government said it had the Ogaden National Liberation Front ”on the run”, but denied using planes during fighting in the poor and arid region.
Cuba’s communist leader Fidel Castro accused United States President George Bush of ordering him killed in an article published in the Granma newspaper on Monday. ”The issue of the accusation related to his plan to kill me comes from before he used fraud to steal the victory from another candidate,” the convalescing Castro (80) said of Bush.
Racist anarchists in Potchefstroom are removing new street-name signs to dump them in the Vaal River, the city council said on Monday. Spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said a street sign for Nelson Mandela Rylaan (Avenue) had also been defaced to read ”Dela Rylaan” — an apparent reference to Boer War General Koos de la Rey.
The Springbok rugby team to tour Australasia for the away leg in this year’s Tri-Nations series suffered a blow on Monday when utility forward AJ Venter announced his retirement from international rugby. His retirement also means he will also miss out on a possible World Cup place with the Springboks.
India have been struck down by illness on the eve of their opening one-day international against South Africa at Stormont on Tuesday and have had to call up reinforcements for their tour of the United Kingdom. India opened their tour with a nine-wicket win in a one-day international against Ireland on Saturday.
Mozambique hopes to recruit 8Â 000 doctors from other African nations to improve a healthcare system battered by one of the continent’s worst Aids pandemics, the country’s health minister said on Monday.