In the middle of the World Cup, I was on BBC radio, arguing with Fiona McIntosh, a Grazia magazine columnist, about the Wags who, at the time, were the wives and girlfriends of the England football team. At the moment, the Wags have become the Swags (Summit Wives and Girlfriends, for G8).
The real aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government. That was the aim of Ariel Sharon’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it.
Tiger Woods, oozing confidence throughout the final round, completed a successful and emotional British Open title defence with a two-shot victory over compatriot Chris DiMarco on Sunday. One stroke clear at the start of the day, the 30-year-old American birdied three of the last five holes at Royal Liverpool for a five-under-par 67, sealing his 11th career major.
Iraq’s ousted president Saddam Hussein was admitted to hospital on Sunday suffering from the effects of his hunger-strike, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi told Agence France-Presse. The detained leader, who stopped eating 16 days ago, is too ill to attend the next session of his trial, scheduled for Monday, Musawi said.
Uganda said on Sunday it might still attack Lord’s Resistance Army rebels camped in the Democratic Republic of Congo if peace talks hosted by neighbouring southern Sudan fail to end fighting in one of Africa’s longest wars. Kinshasa and the United Nations have refused repeated requests from Uganda to be allowed to send its troops into the DRC to hunt down the rebels themselves.
Israel unleashed more air strikes on Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets at Haifa on Sunday as a senior United Nations official demanded a halt to the violence to allow aid to reach desperate civilians. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, leaving for the Middle East later in the day, has said she will pursue a lasting solution, not an immediate ceasefire.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz wrapped up a visit on Saturday to the war-shattered West African nation of Liberia, where he has praised economic progress led by the country’s new head of state, but warned there is ”a lot of work to do”. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office in January after winning elections that made her Africa’s first democratically elected female president.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has taken his former secretary as his new wife, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the country. His wife Ko Yong-hi, the mother of two of Kim’s three sons, died of breast cancer in August 2004, the agency said.
Bodies dumped in wells, dead children hung from rafters and underage boys abducted to fight. During two decades of civil war, such atrocities were commonplace in Sri Lanka but a ceasefire since 2002 halted the worst of the attacks on children.
New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen said he was already excited about his side’s Tri-Nations Test against Australia in Brisbane next Saturday. The All Blacks, who beat the Wallabies 32-12 in Christchurch two weeks ago, overcame a committed, but one-dimensional Springbok team 35-17 in Wellington on Saturday, to head the Tri-Nations table on nine points.