The Lion King opened in South Africa on Wednesday with a star-studded gala that saw United States talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey grace the red carpet. The musical is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and the South African run has been called a homecoming for the show.
Jamaican police said they are analysing new information in the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer but declined to address reports that he was not murdered and died of natural causes. Police investigators now apparently believe the 58-year-old died of heart failure.
David Beckham returned to international competition on Wednesday and led England to a 3-0 win over Estonia in European Championship qualifying. World Cup finalists Italy and France also won. Beckham, returning after 10 months away, set up two goals at Estonia.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was not snubbed by the Aids conference in Durban, the conference organisers insisted on Wednesday. Dira Sengwe, the official organisers of the third South African Aids Conference, said it ”strongly refutes” allegations that Tshabalala-Msimang was slighted.
Shaun Pollock struck his maiden one-day international century on Wednesday but failed to prevent Asia XI from scoring a 34-run win over Africa XI in the first of three matches. Pollock (33) one-day cricket’s top-ranked all-rounder, lashed 130 to lift the innings from 87 for seven in reply to Asia XI’s 317 for nine,
United States President George Bush was coming under strong pressure from the European Union and Japan on Wednesday night to sign up to a G8 target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions after the White House’s pledge to work through the United Nations on climate change failed to satisfy its summit partners.
Africa’s wild rhinos, already classified as threatened with extinction, are under severe pressure from poachers tied to organised criminal networks. All but a handful of the 30-odd rhinoceros remaining in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 had been killed by 2005, while poaching accounted for two-thirds of all rhino deaths in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
A total public-service shutdown next Friday and a complete strike next Wednesday by all Congress of South African Trade Unions affiliates has been called for by the federation. This comes as negotiations between the state and public-sector unions are expected to resume in the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Council on Friday.
Edinburgh University stripped Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday of his honourary degree after reviewing evidence of a tribal massacre soon after he took power. The decision by the university’s Senate comes after years of campaigning by students and Scottish lawmakers.
The United Nations and the African Union were close to a deal on Wednesday on fielding 23Â 000 peacekeepers in Sudan’s violent Darfur region, but full deployment is not expected until next year at the earliest. Sudan has still to agree to the large force, after it refused to have an operation controlled solely by the United Nations.