David Beckham insists he’s going to Major League Soccer to increase the game’s popularity in the United States. ”I know it’s never going to be as big as American football, basketball or baseball, but I believe I can help take it to a higher level,” Beckham was quoted as saying in Friday’s edition of Sport magazine.
For the past four years, Phil Spector, the man behind the ”wall of sound” production technique, has stayed within the walls of his 1926 castle on -million bail. But next week that all changes as the 1960s record producer goes on trial for the February 2003 killing of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actor and waitress.
Zimbabwe’s morgues are filling up. The families of those who are dying cannot afford to pay their medical bills any longer, so relatives register the sick under false names. When they die, the bodies cannot be claimed. The practice is just one of the increasingly desperate measures Zimbabweans are taking to survive.
The personal armies of two former Congolese rebel leaders have refused to disband as promised, ignoring this week’s deadline. The personal guard of Jean-Pierre Bemba as well as that of Azarias Ruberwa have continued their armed patrols, refusing to turn over the security of the ex-rebels to the country’s police force.
Britain’s United Nations ambassador on Friday asked for a Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, citing the recent attack on the country’s opposition leader, continuing oppression and an economic meltdown. The country’s opposition has vowed to finish off its campaign to topple President Robert Mugabe.
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African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma and the French arms company Thint on Friday opposed any attempt to obtain documents from Mauritius, media reports said. They filed their heads of arguments in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday.
Bus drivers are set to go on strike following the collapse of a three-month-long negotiation process, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said on Friday. ”Labour demands an across-the-board increase of 13%, while bus owners are prepared to give a 5% increment,” read a statement.
The body of an elderly woman was found on Friday and rescue workers were still searching for 10 more people who were washed away during floods in Inanda, north of Durban. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha the body was found in a small river in the area. The floods also caused disruptions in the Durban area.
Wartime French Resistance hero Lucie Aubrac, who famously rescued her husband in a daring attack on a German convoy, died on March 14 in a Paris hospital at the age of 94. In 1943, Aubrac was with a group of fighters who ambushed a truck bearing Raymond Aubrac and 13 other resistance members from Gestapo headquarters in Lyon.
It may be called Coca-Cola, but though the drink uses the name of the coca leaf, its maker shies away from confirming whether the leaf is one of its ingredients. Now Bolivian coca farmers want to reclaim the leaf as part of their country’s cultural heritage by forcing the United States drinks giant to change its brand name.