Five games and four players down and the Springboks believe more than ever that victory is 80 minutes away. On Tuesday the Springboks went through their paces without fullback Percy Montgomery, who was suffering from a stomach bug, scrumhalf Fourie du Preez with an ear infection, hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle not feeling well and CJ van der Linde, who is suffering from a neck injury.
Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq has said umpire Darrell Hair is now in ”big trouble” as the ball-tampering row took a new twist. Pakistan Cricket Board chiefs on Tuesday called on the International Cricket Council to hold an inquiry into the conduct of 53-year-old Australian umpire Hair before disciplinary charges, due to be heard late next month, are considered against Inzamam.
A tolling bell and 332 white balloons — one for each victim — will commemorate on Friday the second anniversary of the school hostage massacre in Beslan, where the mental and political scars of the tragedy remain raw.
Rain wrecked the second day of the US Open on Tuesday with only an hour of play possible all day. A three-and-a-half hour delay kept players off court to start with as heavy showers swept through the New York area and when they did begin hitting balls, it was women’s top seed Amelie Mauresmo who got the action under way.
The United States and Britain plan to push for a vote on a United Nations resolution sending peacekeeping troops to Darfur, despite a fresh rejection by Sudan on Tuesday of any deployment of UN troops there. The US and British sponsored resolution would authorise the deployment of 20 000 UN troops and police in Darfur to take over from about 7 000 African Union troops.
Time is running out to reach an agreement on Tibet’s future which, if not sorted out by 2008, could become a blemish on the Beijing Olympics, a French parliamentary delegation said on Wednesday. The Dalai Lama, accused by Beijing of being a separatist, has lived in exile in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala since fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese Communist rule.
The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, used by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its inflation target, was up 4,9% year-on-year in July after a 4,8% year-on-year increase in June, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
South Africa’s daily unleaded petrol price over-recovery surged to 75,605 cents per litre (c/l) on August 29 from 54,917 c/l on August 28 and only 21,136 c/l on August 9. An over-recovery means that the basic petrol price based on the daily product price and exchange rate is less than the basic fuel price used in the calculation of the monthly retail petrol price.
New Zealand will offer permanent residence to Zimbabweans in the country who are HIV-positive, making an exception to its policy of barring infected applicants, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said on Wednesday. About 1 300 Zimbabweans have entered New Zealand as a result of the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe under a special immigration category.
Some parts are used as decorative bangles in certain countries and, at times, it is derisively referred to as a ”fish bag”, but usage of the female condom seems to be rising in South Africa, its second-largest market in the world. The female condom has been around for nearly a decade, and in South Africa it is a focal point of the government’s HIV/Aids programme.