He is hardly an archetypal baby boomer. He wasn’t at Woodstock — he was too busy helping his father campaign for the Senate in Texas — and he certainly didn’t march against the Vietnam war, although exactly what he was doing at the time remains a matter of some intrigue.
Just as national economies move in cycles so does football — and the current World Cup downturn is proving a long slog for Argentina, who with their quarterfinal loss to Germany must now be classed among the latter day underachievers.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was proud of the ruthless way his side finished their tour of England with a 5-0 one-day series whitewash at Headingley. Set a seemingly taxing 322, Sri Lanka cruised to a dominating eight-wicket win with a massive 75 balls to spare after a world record opening stand of 286 between Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga.
A lion tamer at a Moscow circus had to have 100 stitches after he was clawed and bitten by one of his charges during Saturday evening’s performance, Russian media said. The tamer at the Nikulin Circus, Artur Bagdasarov, sustained injuries to his head and one of his hands when he intervened to stop a fight between two of the 10 tigers on stage.
The ”severely paralysed” Darfur peace agreement ”does not resonate with the people” and is in danger of collapse, the head of the United Nations mission in Sudan wrote in his blog. But Jan Pronk said the pact was still salvageable if revisions were made, calling it ”a good text, an honest compromise”.
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Germany could be hit by a late blow ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal with Italy after Fifa announced they would take a decision whether to punish influential midfielder Torsten Frings. Fifa took the decision on Sunday after viewing television footage in which he apparently hits Argentinian striker Julio Cruz after the quarterfinal.
Johncom CEO Connie Molusi is to decide on Tuesday whether to accept an ultimatum to leave Johncom voluntarily as chief executive, reports Business Day. It said that Molusi had had several run-ins with chairperson Mashudu Ramano over the company’s black economic empowerment (BEE) strategy.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over the weekend announced that it had declared a dispute over maternity leave and housing with South Africa’s second largest platinum miner Impala Platinum. The declaration of the dispute followed a meeting between the two parties to address the implementation of existing agreements, NUM said.
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Claims that South Africa could lose the 2010 World Cup were ”laughable” and ”absolute nonsense”, said Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the local organising committee for the event. ”What has changed since we won the World Cup? Why will we suddenly now lose it?” Jordaan asked from Germany.
A woman accused of having an affair with long-distance athlete Zola Budd-Pieterse’s ex-husband was arrested after an attempted suicide drama in Bloemfontein, media reports said on Monday. Pinkie Pelser — the alleged mistress — fired a gun while threatening to shoot anyone entering the premises of the house she rents from Mike Pieterse.