Former Celtic manager Billy McNeill said had he been in charge of the club at the time he would never have signed Roy Keane, who has retired from football, the Scottish Sun reported on Tuesday. The 34-year-old Irishman, who was plagued by a hip injury last season, announced his retirement after just 13 appearances and one goal for the Hoops.
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The superstars of Brazil were set to burst on to the World Cup stage on Tuesday as the reigning champions start their bid for a sixth title when they play Croatia in the German capital. The team, spearheaded by Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, are the hot favourites to retain the title they won four years ago in Japan.
Indonesia on Tuesday downgraded its top alert on Mount Merapi volcano as scientists said they no longer believe an eruption is imminent. Merapi — whose name means "Mountain of Fire" — was put on red alert on May 13 and its activity has fluctuated since then. It has declined substantially since Friday when part of a lava dome forming at its peak collapsed.
Somali leaders met with regional government ministers on Tuesday to try to find a way to empower Somalia’s United Nations-backed government, which watched from the sidelines as a fundamentalist Islamic militia battled warlords and seized its capital.
A rebel group in western Sudan’s Darfur region threatened on Tuesday to scuttle peace efforts in the country’s troubled east if excluded from planned negotiations. ”We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum,” Khalil Ibrahim, leader of Justice Equality Movement (JEM), told Agence France-Presse.
Coal supplies to Zimbabwe’s main power stations have been massively scaled down, further crippling electricity supply in the struggling Southern African country. Power cuts took a rapid turn for the worse this weekend, with residents of some parts of Harare and other cities reporting cuts lasting up to seven hours every day since Friday.
A German gentleman criminal who vanished with his employer’s truck full of money and enjoyed a spendthrift life at a beachside home in South Africa was sent to jail on Monday for 46 months for theft. Goetz Decker (47) was nabbed after he bragged to German television and a newspaper about his lifestyle and girlfriends.
The first efforts to build the Panama canal more than 120 years ago led to about 30 000 deaths, landslides and personal humiliation for the legendary French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Now an attempt is being made to launch a vast venture which would carve a new lane through the country and catapult Panama from ”the Third World to the First” in the space of less than a decade.
China’s largest refiner Sinopec has acquired stakes in Angolan oil exploration blocks, state press reported on Tuesday, marking another success in the Asian nation’s global quest for more sources of fuel. The three blocks have total proven reserves of 3,2-billion barrels of oil and are expected to boost oil production for Sinopec by 100 000 barrels a day.
Beijing’s preparations for the 2008 Olympics have been hit by a high-level corruption scandal that has led to the dismissal of a vice-mayor accused of accepting bribes and sexual favours. Liu Zhihua, who oversaw the construction of the sporting venues that will be used for the games, is under investigation for allegedly taking more than 10-million yuan (,2-million) from developers.