The Lions staggered back from their disappointing start to the Absa Currie Cup competition at Ellis Park on Saturday by destroying the Pumas 74-15 in their bottom-of–the-log clash. In other matches, Western Province edged Griquas 27-23, the Boland Kavaliers thrashed the Griffons 59-0 and the Blue Bulls beat the Cheetahs 24-12.
The Springboks are headed home after a winless five-week Australasian tour, looking forward to finishing the Tri-Nations rugby series on an upswing with three home matches at altitude. South Africa’s players were heartbroken to go down to a converted try in the final minutes of their 20-18 loss to Australia in Sydney on Saturday.
Poor people in South Africa will receive free or very cheap tickets to Soccer World Cup matches when the tournament is held here in 2010. Fifa, the sport’s world governing body, is drawing up plans to ensure that ordinary people can experience at first hand an event that many could otherwise not afford to attend.
For the past five years, the United States has been gripped by a housing price bubble. It has funded a huge expansion of suburbia as Americans poured their wealth into their homes. Yet many think that bubble may be about to burst. That would send shock waves through the US economy and into the rest of the world.
As United States Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke prepares to decide whether to raise American interest rates for the 18th time on Tuesday, bond prices and the high level of borrowing costs are now showing a 38% chance of recession, according to a model published by Fed economist Jonathan Wright earlier this year.
Hard-line Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, a media report has revealed. The country is seeing an escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the ”immorals” — homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.
The joint operations centre (JOC) set up to respond to the Port Elizabeth area floods finally closed on Saturday, said disaster-management officials. ”We’ve closed our JOC now … We believe there’s no further risk to life,” said Nelson Mandela Metro disaster-management chief Shane Brown.
The wreck of the Safmarine Agulhas is breaking up and containers still on board may break free, the East London harbour authorities warned on Saturday. ”She’s almost in two, but she hasn’t broken in two. She’s about to go. It won’t be much longer,” said the National Port Authority in East London.
A man was burnt to death when his nephew crashed their car on Saturday night in what an eyewitness described as ”a race with a tow-truck”. ER24 spokesperson Neil Noble said the Ford Sierra hit a traffic sign on the M41, crossed the median and collided with oncoming traffic. The car caught alight on impact.
Water has been successfully pumped out of the bulk carrier that started taking on water in heavy seas off KwaZulu-Natal and the vessel is no longer listing, officials said late on Saturday night. A spokesperson for the Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre in Cape Town said the ship was due in Durban at about 11am on Sunday.