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”Zimbabwe won the toss and will field,” announced Ramiz Raja. A day later, Michael Holding: ”Ireland won the toss and decided to bowl”. Even the broadcast feed: ”Australia won the toss and chose to bat,” an on-screen flash told viewers. Whatever happened to ”so and so won the toss and elected to bat/bowl” — that pompous idiocy so beloved of cricket commentators?
A French judge has placed the chief executive of the Total oil group under formal investigation on suspicion of paying bribes to secure a major gas-field deal in Iran. Christophe de Margerie, who is already under investigation over the Iraq "oil-for-food" bribes scandal, was officially warned of the new accusations on Thursday night after he had spent more than a day in detention.
The JSE was marginally higher in noon trade on Friday, lifted by resources stocks. The market was quiet, however, and lacked clear drivers. By 11.58am, the all-share index added 0,21%. Resources rose 0,77%, although the gold- and platinum-mining indices were off a modest 0,04% and 0,08% respectively.
Defeated Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba was sheltering in the South African embassy in Kinshasa on Friday after a day of clashes between his guards and DRC troops. At least two civilians were killed and a dozen wounded on Thursday in the violence in the capital Kinshasa.
The government of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Friday issued a chilling threat against Western journalists working in the Southern African country. The information ministry warned journalists, including Jan Raath of the Times and Peta Thornycroft of the Daily Telegraph that the government might be forced to act against them.
A complete meltdown in troubled Zimbabwe appears inevitable, neighbouring South Africa said on Friday while rejecting rising international calls to condemn President Robert Mugabe’s regime. "It is difficult to see how a total meltdown won’t take place," South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
The death toll from blasts at a military armoury in Mozambique’s capital Maputo triggered by high temperatures had risen to 72, Health Minister Ivo Paulo Garido said on Friday. The blasts began on Thursday. President Armando Guebuza called off a visit to South Africa on Friday because of the disaster.
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Paceman Billy Stelling returned a career-best 3-12 and Ryan ten Doeschate hit a half-century to help The Netherlands race to an easy eight-wicket World Cup group-A win over Scotland on Thursday. Ten Doeschate hit an unbeaten 68-ball 70 and added 103 for an unbroken third wicket stand with Bas Zuiderent.
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Lou Vincent found his form as New Zealand made it three World Cup wins out of three in Group C with a 114-run success against Canada at the Beausejour Cricket Ground in Gros on Thursday. Vincent’s 101 was the centrepiece of New Zealand’s World Cup record score of 363 for five.
Britain is making contingency plans for the post-Mugabe era in Zimbabwe in the belief that the president — under increasing pressure from within his own party as well as from the opposition and a plummeting economy — may not last the year. A senior Foreign Office official said that 2007 would be ”a pivotal year … There will be significant change this year.”