Australian rugby’s most-experienced prop Bill Young said on Tuesday a neck injury will probably force him to quit the game, according to a media report. ”At this stage, it’s probably highly unlikely I’ll play again,” 31-year-old Young told the Canberra Times newspaper.
Officials of the trade union Solidarity and Sasol managers were holding talks on Tuesday intended to end a strike that began earlier in the day, the union said. The meeting was to take place in Secunda, Mpumalanga, after the union’s general secretary, Flip Buys, had spoken to striking members, said Dirk Hermann, Buys’s deputy.
Manchester United’s Dutch international Ruud van Nistelrooy is on Tuesday due to finalise his -million transfer to Real Madrid, Marca sports daily reported. ”Real Madrid will announce today [Tuesday] the transfer of Van Nistelrooy,” Marca wrote of the man who will be Real’s first signing of the summer.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Tuesday the Gunners won’t get involved in the race to pick up bargain buys at scandal-hit Juventus because they can’t afford it. The Italian giants were relegated to Serie B and were penalised 30 points for their part in the country’s match-fixing scandal that saw Lazio and Fiorentina also demoted.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson saw his transfer kitty boosted on Tuesday and immediately set his sights on the potential clear-out of players at scandal-hit Italian giants Juventus. Under a complex refinancing scheme, the Old Trafford club said that an agreement has been made that will see their annual interest payments slashed by almost 30%.
Two elephants from the Kruger National Park ”had to be killed” after a group of 15 wandered out of the park through a section of broken fence, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The group of 15 adolescent bulls got out recently through a section of fence believed to have been damaged by people stealing parts of it, and wandered onto land adjoining the park.
Avian influenza detected in poultry north-west of Mossel Bay is under control, the Department of Land Affairs and Agriculture said on Tuesday. ”The virus has been classified as type H5N2 which is not known to infect humans, unlike the H5N1 virus that has caused disease in humans in Asia, Europe and North Africa”, said spokesperson Nare Mabuela.
Security officials for next year’s cricket World Cup aim to adopt a common approach in handling safety and protection issues from a two-day meeting which started on Monday. Regional police commissioners and their designated security officers met with the International Cricket Council and heads of the local organising committees of the nine countries hosting matches.
The death toll in China from Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 198, official media said on Tuesday, as 140 people remained missing and heavy rain continued to pound the south of the country. Forecasters had expected the storm to weaken as it hit mainland China but instead it brought more death and destruction, as well as paralysing transport and communications infrastructure.
A suicide bomber pulled his minivan into a busy market on Tuesday, lured labourers onboard with the promise of jobs and then blew himself up, killing at least 59 people in one the bloodiest attacks in Iraq this year. The blast in the Shi’ite city of Kufa wounded 132 people and sparked clashes between police and angry protesters.