Juventus’s relegation from the top-flight of Italian football was confirmed on Tuesday but Lazio and Fiorentina were reinstated after a final appeal into the match-fixing scandal that has rocked Serie A. Fiorentina and Lazio were both restored to the top division, having originally been demoted to Serie B for their part in the scandal.
Female boxer Laila Ali has jetted out of South Africa following the cancellation of and controversy surrounding her planned bout with challenger Gwendolyn O’Neill, local television reported on Tuesday night. The 28-year-old light-middleweight champion arrived in the country last week for a much-touted fight against O’Neill, a 36-year-old mother-of-five.
Quinton Fortune looks set to join Premiership club Bolton and manager Sam Allardyce cannot wait to add the South African to his squad. The former Manchester United midfielder played his second game for the club in the 1-1 draw against Rangers behind closed doors.
Fierce fighting raged in Lebanon on Wednesday as an international conference opened in Rome on how to end Israel’s 15-day-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Al-Jazeera television said nine Israeli soldiers had been killed during clashes with Hezbollah guerrillas in a south Lebanese village. Israeli medics reported heavy casualties.
The JSE was in positive territory in noon trade on Wednesday after the turnaround on the Dow overnight encouraged investors. The gains came on thin volumes however. By 12.03pm, the all share index added 0,55%, while the all share industrial and financial indices firmed 0,39% and 0,73% respectively.
Responding well to criticism has never been among Bill O’Reilly’s strong points. The star of America’s most-watched cable news show, shown daily on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel, has a habit of yelling at guests who disagree with him to ”shut up”.
President George Bush on Tuesday agreed to send more United States troops into Baghdad to help the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Maliki curb the escalating violence now claiming an estimated 100 lives a day. The US troops will be redeployed from other areas of Iraq where Bush said progress is being made, and will be sent into the capital alongside Iraqi government reinforcements.
Prop Rodney Blake returns from an ankle injury for his third Test in the only Australian change announced on Wednesday to its team for the Tri-Nations rugby match against New Zealand. Blake, who will make his hometown debut at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, replaces Guy Shepherdson. Blake missed Australia’s 49-0 victory over South Africa 10 days ago.
A defiant Saddam Hussein, who has been receiving medical care for his hunger strike to protest against his trial for crimes against humanity, said on Wednesday that he was brought to court against his will. The defence team for the former leader and seven co-accused boycotted the latest session in a trial approaching its conclusion.
Naspers took the plunge last week when it merged its digital division with MWeb Studios, the division responsible for the development of web-based services, to form local internet portal <i>24.com</i>. CEO Kim Reid said: "We think the South African internet environment is ready for an offering like this."