South Africa’s cricket team on Sunday ridiculed suggestions they had nicknamed Muslim teammate Hashim Amla a ”terrorist”, a jibe that cost Dean Jones his television job. Jones, a former Australian Test star, was sacked as a commentator last week after being heard on air saying ”the terrorist has got another wicket”.
An unbeaten partnership of 74 between debutant Forhad Reza and Mohammad Ashraful steered Bangladesh to an emphatic six-wicket win over Kenya in the first one-day international at the Gymkhana club in Nairobi on Saturday. Reza, who ended the match with an unbeaten 34 proved the perfect foil for the experienced right-hander Ashraful as they steadied the Bangladesh innings after a shaky start.
Cubans wished Fidel Castro a happy 80th birthday on Sunday even though the ailing leader has not been seen or heard in public since ceding power to his brother two weeks ago after stomach surgery. ”Fidel, Fidel, long live Fidel,” chanted young Cubans at a birthday concert on Havana’s Malecon seafront boulevard where 3 000 gathered.
Mayon volcano in the Philippines could soon unleash a huge cloud of deadly gases and ash, experts warned on Sunday, as 40Â 000 people prepared for a second week in crowded evacuation centres. Four powerful ash explosions rocked the spectacular 2Â 460m peak on Saturday, covering nearby communities to the north-west with a light layer of dust.
It seemed more like a controlled and clinical sparring session than the blood-and-thunder of a bruising 12-rounder as Kaizer Chiefs beat Lamontville Golden Arrows 2-0 at FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon and negotiated a comfortable landing to the semifinals of the SAA Supa8 competition.
The full extent of the terror threat facing Britain became apparent on Saturday night as security sources revealed that ‘up to two dozen’ terror investigations were operating across the country and that a number of suspects associated with last week’s plot to bring down 10 airliners remained at large.
The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed to a ceasefire to take effect on Monday, as Israel reported its worst death toll yet in the month-long war against Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel, stepping up an offensive in southern Lebanon before the truce, said 19 of its soldiers were killed in clashes on Saturday and five declared missing.
China has called on its 31 provinces to rein in their economies, state media said on Sunday, in a sign the central government has yet to persuade local bureaucrats that red-hot growth is bad. Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan emphasised that investment in factories, residential buildings and other fixed assets must be cooled down, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Celebrated African poet Professor Mazizi Kunene has died, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday. Kunene died in Durban after a long illness. He was 76. In 2005 Kunene was awarded the inaugural South African National Poet Laureate Prize.
United States troops rounded up 60 suspected militants overnight in a security clampdown to stem violence in Baghdad and killed 26 insurgents in a rebel Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad. The sweep through the southern Baghdad district of Arab Jabour targeted a suspected bomb-making cell linked to attacks across the city of seven million.