Paul Scholes insists Manchester United must mount a serious challenge for the Premiership title this season after admitting that the club have waited too long to secure domestic dominance. Scholes (31) is currently proving his fitness on United’s tour of South Africa after missing five months of last season with a blurred-vision problem affecting his right eye.
Iran said on Thursday it was determined to produce nuclear fuel on its territory in defiance of international calls to halt the work, and accused the United States of trying to prevent a negotiated solution to its dispute with the West. ”Based on law, Iran has planned to produce 20 000MW of nuclear electricity in the next 20 years,” chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said.
The findings of a government probe into alleged offences by Zimbabwe’s trade union federation have been handed to the police, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Its website said Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche informed the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions of the move on Wednesday.
The African National Congress has condemned the killing of two police officers in Langa, Cape Town, on Wednesday, and called on anyone with information to come forward so that justice can be done. ”We hope the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to book and be removed from society,” ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said on Thursday.
Australia’s second-most capped Test prop forward Bill Young on Thursday announced his retirement from rugby. Young (32), who made 46 international appearances after making his Test debut against France in Paris in 2000, has been troubled by a chronic neck injury this year.
Struggling English Premiership side Aston Villa, reeling from the departure of manager David O’Leary, on Thursday said they had received takeover approaches from ”various parties”, both from Britain and overseas. The Birmingham-based football club has been in an official offer period since September 19, when the AVIL consortium made an initial approach to the company.
Manchester United’s Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy wants to play for Bayern Munich next season according to Bild newspaper, though Spanish press claim he will join Real Madrid. Bayern club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, quoted by Thursday’s Bild, said the offer was for â,¬13-million.
The five-person panel appointed by the Treasury to study the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on petrochemicals group Sasol and state-owned PetroSA on Thursday issued a 102-page discussion document. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel first mooted the possibility of a windfall tax during his Budget speech in February.
South Africa’s woeful performance against Australia last weekend has baffled the All Blacks who admit to being unsure of what to expect in their Tri-Nations rugby Test in Wellington on Saturday. When the Springboks’ backline failed to function, and the forwards were aimless, they appeared to have run out of ideas as they submitted to a 0-49 drubbing in Brisbane.
The Indian High Commissioner to South Africa, Satyabrata Pal, said on Thursday that a wake-up call was needed on economic relations between South Africa and India. Pal listed numerous areas of substantial growth in India where South African companies could come to the party, but were not doing so.