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.
A car bomb killed 36 civilians and wounded 72 in a Shi’ite district of east Baghdad on Sunday, a day after an inaugural meeting to start reconciling Iraq’s rival factions produced little tangible result. The bomb, near a police station and open-air market, was in the Sadr City neighbourhood, a poor area that is a stronghold of Shi’ite militias.
Two foreign delegates attending the International Sociological Association’s world congress in Durban were beaten and assaulted within three hours of arriving in the city on Saturday evening. Mexican sociologist Daniel Gutierrez Martinez (33) and Belgian sociologist Delphine Resteigne (28) were attacked by a group of at least 10 youths who attempted to mug them.
Somalia was edging closer to full-scale war on Saturday night as Ethiopian troops moved into a second Somali town, potentially bringing them into conflict with an Islamic militia that has taken over the capital, Mogadishu, and is seeking to spread its influence over the rest of the country.
Britain dramatically broke ranks with United States President George Bush on Saturday night over the Lebanon crisis, publicly criticising Israel’s military tactics and urging America to "understand" the price being paid by ordinary Lebanese civilians.
Manchester United’s South African tour was an investment in the club’s future despite losing Saturday’s Vodacom Cup final in a penalty shoot-out against Kaizer Chiefs, Alex Ferguson said. Misses by goalkeeper Ben Foster and midfielder Chris Eagles consigned United to a 4-3 penalty defeat against the Johannesburg-based Chiefs on Saturday.
A new James Bond novel will be published in 2008 to mark the centenary of creator Ian Fleming’s birth, but the identity of the new author is being kept under wraps. Fleming is credited with writing 13 or 14 Bond novels, starting with Casino Royale in 1953 and ending with Octopussy and the Living Daylights in 1966, two years after his death.
Naming a pop group after a judge was always going to have potential legal pitfalls. Spanish pop group Garzon, named after the crusading judge who tried to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice, has had to change its name after Baltasar Garzon himself threatened legal action.
England captain Andrew Flintoff has been ruled out of action for 12 weeks after being told on Saturday that he needs surgery on his injured left ankle. The all-rounder will have the operation next week and will miss the three remaining Test matches against Pakistan and all of the five-match one-day series scheduled for this English summer.