David Beckham expects to make his debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy on July 21 in an exhibition match with FA Cup holders Chelsea after recovering from an ankle injury. The 32-year-old midfielder twisted his ankle while playing for England against Estonia in a Euro 2008 qualifying match a month ago.
Justine Henin won the latest battle in the most fierce rivalry in women’s tennis with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 quarterfinal victory over seventh seed Serena Williams at Wimbledon on Wednesday. The Belgian world number one is chasing the one grand slam title she needs to complete her collection and looked in ominous form.
Surging demand for African coffee is a unique opportunity for producers, but they must not let quality slip or assume processing is the best way to capitalise on it, a coffee official said on Thursday. East African Fine Coffees Association director Philip Gitao told Reuters Africa’s market has come of age.
An innovative concept and the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin were key factors in the surprise decision to award the 2014 Winter Games to Russia’s Sochi. Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea with a palm tree-lined coast, built a bid around the city’s mild climate and the nearby Krasnaya Polyana snow-capped mountain range.
The side of a sodden mountain collapsed on a bus carrying up to 60 passengers along a remote Mexican road on Wednesday and hours later rescuers could only pull a woman’s corpse from the debris. Local rescuers said those on board were probably killed but the government held out hope for survivors.
Pakistani security forces fired a series of ”warning blasts” before dawn on Thursday near Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque, stepping up pressure on hundreds of militant students inside to surrender, a security official said. There were about eight explosions at intervals of several minutes, witnesses said.
Hours after being sworn in as a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, Amos ”Toenka” Matila found himself behind bars, charged with drunken driving. Matila, who is acting chairperson of the South African National Civic Organisation’s Gauteng branch, apparently drove into the back of a truck on Tuesday night.
A Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry official gatecrashed the United States embassy’s July 4 celebrations on Wednesday to criticise outgoing ambassador Christopher Dell, saying ”diplomats are supposed to be bridge builders not bridge busters”. Samuel Mhango criticised Dell for remarks he made in an address on Wednesday on the assault by police of opposition leaders in Harare.
An explosion in a nightclub in north-east China killed 25 people and injured 33, state media reported on Thursday as investigators sought to pin down the cause. The blast hit an entertainment club in Benxi county, Liaoning province, at about 9pm (1pm GMT) on Wednesday, the China News Service reported.
The last hour of captivity for Alan Johnston was perhaps the worst. His guard burst into his room in the early hours of Wednesday morning and told him to get dressed. His regular captor, "an extraordinarily moody man with dark rages", had been joined by some new gunmen who looked "totally wired".