Iran is due to give its reply on Tuesday to a package backed by six world powers that aims to end a nuclear stand-off with the West and Iranian officials say Iran does not accept the key demand to suspend uranium enrichment. Refusing to suspend the work that has both military and civilian uses would be tantamount to rejecting the package of incentives offered in return, Western diplomats say.
It took Pushkar Shah, a Nepal native, seven years and nine months to pedal to 100 countries to spread his peace message to the world. And he says his mission is not over yet — despite being mugged twice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stabbed in Barbados, kidnapped in Mexico and losing his belongings, including having his bicycle stolen in New Zealand.
Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq issued a stark warning to cricket chiefs on Tuesday: Clear me of ball tampering or the tour of England is finished. The star batsman faces an International Cricket Council disciplinary hearing in London on Friday for his part in the events that saw Pakistan forfeit the fourth Test against England at The Oval on Sunday.
Former Australia captains Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor defended umpire Darrell Hair’s integrity in the wake of the Pakistan forfeit row on Tuesday, as the local media dubbed him ”the bravest man in cricket”. Waugh said the Australian official correctly awarded the fourth Test to England on Sunday after Pakistan refused to come out after tea.
England striker Alan Smith declared himself happy on Monday with his comeback for the Manchester United reserves six months after suffering an horrific broken leg when playing for the first team. The 25-year-old former Leeds United star played for just over an hour in United’s 7-2 thrashing of Preston, failing to score but he was still more than satisfied.
Australia rugby captain George Gregan hinted on Tuesday he would finally be ready to hang up his boots if he leads the Wallabies at the World Cup in France next year. ”To get through to next year’s World Cup, that’ll pretty much do me,” Gregan told Channel Seven when asked about his remaining goals in his record-breaking career.
Former Olympic champion Marion Jones has said she was ”shocked” over reports that she had failed a drugs test at the United States Championships in June. The statement, issued by her attorney Howard Jacobs, was the American’s first comment on the matter since US media reports on Friday that the American had tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).
Pick ‘n Pay chairperson Raymond Ackerman confirmed on Tuesday that company CEO Sean Summers would be succeeded by current retail MD Nick Badminton in March 2007. Summers will have spent 34 years at the company and eleven years at the helm.
Al-Jazeera International, a subsidiary of famous Arabic television channel al-Jazeera, has opened a two-man bureau in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Al-Jazeera International, which like its parent company is headquartered in Doha, Qatar, broadcasts news and current affairs in English 24 hours a day. It is the only English news channel with its head office in the Middle East.
Armed bandits raided a luxury safari camp near Kenya’s famed Maasai Mara game reserve early on Tuesday, stealing cash and passports from British and United States tourists staying there, officials said. About six men with AK-47 assault rifles and machetes stormed the Mara Porini Camp in a private conservancy just outside the wildlife-rich reserve shortly after midnight.