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”.
South Africa’s hopes of tempting Brazil’s former World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to take over their national team have hit trouble, media reports claimed on Saturday. O Globo television said that negotiations have stalled over the exact nature of Parreira’s responsibilities.
The Lions managed to score a famous 19-17 victory over the Blue Bulls in an ill-tempered game at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. But the match will be remembered more for the genius of Bulls flyhalf Derick Hougaard, who engineered an amazing comeback from 19-3 down to leave his side two points shy at the end.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should know the winner next week of historic presidential elections, with incumbent Joseph Kabila expected to keep his job despite opposition allegations of fraud. Two weeks after the vast Central African country’s first multiparty presidential in 46 years, Kabila has won 55% of votes among the one-fifth of ballots to have been counted.
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.