At least 72 people were killed early on Sunday in flash floods after an intense, sudden downpour pounded eastern Ethiopia, many of the victims swept away while asleep, medical officials and rescue workers said. Doctors said they had received bodies from villages that were inundated in the country’s Dire Dawa region.
Two senior members of the Scorpions elite investigation unit have been arrested for alleged involvement in an international drugs syndicate, media reports said on Sunday. They were arrested at Johannesburg International airport during an undercover operation by the police’s crime intelligence unit.
Tropical Storm Prapiroon swept across south China, leaving a trail of destruction with more than 70 people reported dead or missing by Sunday. ”It’s still raining heavily, and the situation is pretty serious,” an official said from the flood-control headquarters in Guangxi region, where the eye of the storm was located early on Sunday.
Michael Schumacher was left seething at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday after being hit with a time penalty that wrecked his chances of claiming pole position. The stewards’ decision meant he was given an identical penalty to that meted out to championship-leading Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault.
Floyd Landis’s doping samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating the Tour de France champion’s elevated levels were not produced naturally, the head of France’s anti-doping commission said on Saturday. The revelation could damage Landis’s defence prospects.
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.