South Africa is confident in its ability to host the 2010 World Cup, claiming on Wednesday it is better prepared than Germany was at this point before the 2006 tournament. ”We are absolutely on target with World Cup preparations. We are well within the time frame,” Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters in Tokyo.
South Africa’s veteran all-rounder Shaun Pollock returns for the second Test against Sri Lanka on Friday with a war cry to teammates to rise from despair and defeat. The 33-year-old missed the first Test, which Sri Lanka won by an innings and 153 runs, to be by wife Trish’s side for the birth of their second daughter.
Light snow fell over Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday as a cold front gripped the country. Snowflakes were also falling in Rosebank, Bryanston, Soweto and Hyde Park. ”Snow over Gauteng seems to occur once every eight to 10 years,” said weather forecaster Kevin Rae.
Back in 1994, Steve Outing — doyen of online media columnists — began assessing the internet’s meaning for newspapers. Reflecting on his early musings, he recently wrote: ”Geez, I feel old!” Well said, fellow scribe! It has indeed taken many years to reach the point where, as you put it, there’s no longer cause to gripe about newspapers’ poor grasp of online.
A French court was due to give a ruling on Wednesday likely to determine the fate of Eurotunnel which is set for liquidation if its request for protection from a debt mountain is rejected. Eurotunnel, which operates twin under-sea rail tunnels between France and England, took the precautionary move of asking the court for protection three weeks ago.
Japan’s space agency has set a goal of constructing a manned lunar base in 2030, an official said on Wednesday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency revealed its ambition to an international conference in Tokyo this week but has not yet been alotted the budget for the ambitious project.
The bodies of 28 illegal sub-Saharan migrants who had tried to reach the Canary Islands washed up on a beach in Western Sahara on Tuesday, Moroccan state news agency MAP reported. The migrants, who had set off from the Moroccan coast in two boats, were discovered in Blibilatte, 40km north of the territory’s chief city Laayoune.
A separatist rebel faction from Angola’s oil-producing northern Cabinda province signed a peace deal with the central government on Tuesday, which gives special status to the restive coastal enclave. Separatists led by the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda have fought for independence since Portugal relinquished control over Angola in 1975.
A social networking website for Americans aged 50-plus went live on Monday — complete with an online obituary database that sends out alerts when someone you may know dies. The founder of internet job site Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, launched Eons.com, a similar site to the popular online teen hang-out MySpace for the 50-plus crowd.
Three Indian doctors caught on camera apparently agreeing to amputate the healthy limbs of beggars are to be questioned by the Indian Medical Council. Footage broadcast on Saturday showed one of the doctors asking for 10 000 rupees (about ) to amputate a lower leg, leaving a stump that may draw sympathy — and a few rupees — from passersby.