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Steve Tikolo struck an unbeaten 72 and took two wickets to guide 2003 semifinalist Kenya to a seven-wicket win over Canada in the opening Group C match of the World Cup. Tikolo top-scored on Wednesday, with opener Maurice Ouma contributing 58 runs as Kenya replied to Canada’s 199 all out with 40 balls to spare.
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Scotland captain Craig Wright said his team will learn from their 203-run thrashing at the hands of defending champions Australia in their opening World Cup Group A match. Australia, the two-time defending champions, were inspired by a brilliant 113 from skipper Ricky Ponting as they reached an imposing 334-6.
Ethiopia demanded on Wednesday that Eritrea free eight Ethiopians being held by kidnappers, saying they were victims of Eritrean ”terrorism”. Five Europeans were freed from the kidnapped group on Tuesday in Eritrea after a 12-day ordeal. The victims were seized in remote northern Ethiopia in a case which has stoked tensions between the Horn of Africa rivals.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=cwc_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/300732/Icon_CWC.gif" align=left border=0></a>A Bangladeshi firm has sent what it says is the world’s biggest cricket bat on a signature tour to drum up support for the national team at the Caribbean World Cup, a company official said on Thursday. The 22m-long bat has been signed by thousands since its began its nationwide journey from the northern city of Rangpur.
World champion Fernando Alonso has come out against plans to stage Formula One grand prix races at night. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has spoken of wanting to include a number of night races on the F1 schedule as early as next season.
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South Africa’s record pursuit of 434 last year against Australia has given it belief that anything is possible in one-day cricket. Captain Graeme Smith pointed to the 3-2 series win over Australia in March 2006, capped by scoring 438 in the final game, as proof.
Parents of students at Oprah Winfrey’s all-girl leadership academy want better access to their children, comparing the school’s restrictions on visits, phone calls and email contact to prison rules. A few mothers complained that a two-hour visit one Sunday a month was not long enough to reconnect with their daughters.
South Africa wants the state to have the first opportunity to buy property entering the market to help speed up the redistribution of white-owned land to blacks, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Whites still own over 90% of commercial farmland in South Africa, more than a decade after the end of apartheid.
Zimbabwe’s neighbours must increase the pressure on Robert Mugabe’s regime after its violent crackdown on opposition politicians, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Thursday. He described Mugabe’s rule as an ”abomination”, saying that the president and his government ”have taken an enormously potentially successful country and destroyed it”.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang underwent a successful five-hour liver transplant on Wednesday due to a long-term disease that attacks the liver, the Department of Health confirmed. ”The operation was successful and uneventful,” said Professor Jeff Wing, head of the department of medicine at the Johannesburg Hospital and Wits University.