Australia recorded their biggest win over South Africa in 85 years with a 49-0 demolition in the second round of the Tri-Nations at Lang Park on Saturday. The Wallabies rebounded from last week’s 32-12 loss to New Zealand to produce their best performance of the season, scoring six unanswered tries to chalk up their highest total.
The United States and Russia announced on Saturday a plan to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons by setting up international enrichment centres as their leaders sought to give a boost to a big-power summit. US President George Bush and Russia’s Vladimir Putin unveiled the initiative at a news conference after talks ahead of a Group of Eight summit that starts in earnest on Sunday.
Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes Formula One is becoming a bore. The 1997 world champion, who at 35 is one of the senior men still on duty in motor racing’s elite division, said he believed most teams now preferred to recruit young, cheap and ”corporate” drivers.
Michelle Wie was taken to a hospital after withdrawing from the John Deere Classic with nine holes left on Friday, overcome by the conditions on a hot, humid afternoon, and left the course in an ambulance, getting fluids intravenously. Wie walked off the ninth hole on her own, but after talking with her parents said she couldn’t play anymore.
Israeli aircraft targeted the Palestinian Economy Ministry and the house of a Hamas militant in Gaza on Saturday, part of an offensive to free a captured soldier and prevent the functioning of the Hamas-led government. Doctors said one person, later identified as a Hamas militant, was killed in the strike on the house and eight people were wounded, included a baby and a child.
Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina reacted with fury on Friday after they were all relegated from Italian football’s top-division and banned from Europe for their part in the country’s match-fixing scandal. Juventus were also deducted 30 points from their total for next season and stripped of their last two league titles.
Russian and United States negotiators failed on Saturday in marathon talks to strike a bilateral deal to pave the way for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation, a US trade spokesperson said. A Kremlin spokesperson said talks would keep going but gave no details. ”The Russian-American negotiations are continuing and will continue,” Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.
It worked for David as he squared up to Goliath, and now scientists hope a slingshot will help save the planet. Scientists at the French space agency, CNES, have calculated how to capture an asteroid and manoeuvre it into a near-Earth orbit, from where it can be flung into the path of a larger asteroid that threatens to collide with Earth.
The New York Times on Friday received a letter containing a suspicious white powder and a copy of a recent editorial in which the paper defended its coverage of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism programmes. The powder incident raised fears of a repeat of a series of anthrax attacks in the United States, which started one week after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party is planning a major cleansing exercise to remove elements who are tarnishing its image with bad behaviour, President Robert Mugabe told leading party members on Friday. ”You are not being fair — some people are just being crookish,” he was quoted as telling 400 members of his Zanu-PF central committee.