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/ 6 August 2006

Boks head home after tour from hell

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

Free World Cup tickets for SA’s poor

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

‘Dead zone’ threatens US suburban dream

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

Fed admits US recession on cards

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

Shi’ite death squads find a new target in Iraq

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

PE floods crisis centre shuts down

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.

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/ 6 August 2006

UN pushes Israel peace deal

A ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon moved decisively closer on Saturday night after the United States, Britain and France agreed an outline deal to resolve what British Prime Minister Tony Blair described as a ”tragic crisis”.