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President Jacques Chirac will don his football scarf and head to Berlin on Sunday in the hope that a French World Cup win could boost his flagging popularity ratings. He will also be seeking to restore a sense of community spirit after comments by the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen that there were too many non-whites in the national team.
A vast chunk of Europe’s most ill-famed mountain threatens to break loose and crash down in the next few days, a geologist monitoring the situation said on Friday. Hans-Rudolf Keusen said 2-million cubic metres of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland — twice the volume of the Empire State Building — was rapidly working its way loose.
Israel is prepared to release Palestinian prisoners in order to free a soldier abducted by militants 12 days ago, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter was quoted as saying on Friday. ”Israel will release prisoners to free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit,” Dichter told businesses executives in Tel Aviv, as reported by the online news site Ynet.
Australian Robbie McEwen dominated another bunch sprint to claim victory in the 189km sixth stage of the Tour de France on Friday, his 11th career win in the race. Belgian rival Tom Boonen, who finished a distant third, retained the race leader’s yellow jersey ahead of Saturday’s 52km time trial around Rennes.
Roger Federer performed one of the most clinical demolition jobs ever witnessed on centre court as he crushed Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman to move within one match of a fourth Wimbledon title. The Swiss needed just one hour and 17 minutes to complete a 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 victory with a flawless, almost surgical, display of precision tennis.
Five Palestinians were killed on Friday as Israel pressed on with its bloody offensive in Gaza, a day after reoccupying land in the deadliest 24 hours in the Palestinian territories for four years. Twenty-seven Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the offensive began late on Wednesday.
The embassy of Zimbabwe in South Africa on Friday criticised the media for what it believes are unsubstantiated allegations that former Zimbabwean soldiers are involved in crime. ”In an attempt to seek clarification on the veracity of these claims, the relevant authorities … have expressed shock … at these allegations, which have ho basis in fact,” ambassador Simon Moyo said.
After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son’s name from ”Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred” — the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam’s two-child policy. Angry he was being fined, Mai Xuan Can in 1987 named his son after the amount he was forced to pay.
Militiamen linked to Somalia’s sharia courts faced off with a group vowing to fight Mogadishu’s new Islamist rulers on Friday as residents feared another flare-up in fighting after a month of relative peace. And in another indication of the emerging hard-line nature of the Islamists, a local sheikh was quoted in local media as saying anyone who does not practise daily prayers should die.
Two municipal trade unions indicated this week that they have accepted a three-year wage deal put forward by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union announced on Friday that it would accept the deal, while the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union accepted it earlier this week.