After a humiliating exit from the 2002 World Cup, a disappointing Euro 2004, and a lacklustre qualifying campaign, France are not exactly surfing a wave of optimism as they head to Germany. Which is strange, because any side boasting the likes of Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele would normally be considered strong favourites for the title.
Togo’s euphoria at qualifying for their first World Cup was tempered by a dismal performance at the African Nations Cup which indicates they will struggle in Germany. The Togolese accounted for 2002 World Cup quarterfinalists Senegal in a huge upset but were brought down to earth with a resounding bump after failing to win a point in Egypt.
Mark ”Chopper” Read, the notorious self-confessed Australian hit man whose criminal exploits have inspired books and a movie, has now lent his name to a board game. Using bullet-shaped counters, players cavort through the criminal underworld, visiting brothels, attacking fellow gangsters, evading the police and finally making their way to the island state of Tasmania.
A remarkable meteorite the size of a beachball, found in heat-forged crystals in one of the world’s largest impact craters, may push back the boundaries of knowledge about space rocks. The 25cm fragment has been found in the Morokweng impact crater in north-west South Africa, where a massive object slammed into Earth around 145-million years ago.
Aboriginal flags will fly above Australian cricket venues on Friday as Australian cricket recognises the 138th anniversary of its first touring side to England, the 1868 aboriginal team, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Thursday. In what’s planned as an annual initiative, CA and most states and territories associations will fly the flag at their offices or grounds to honour the team.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel ”one day will vanish” as he ramped up his anti-Western rhetoric in a speech to university students in Jakarta. The Iranian president declared last October that the Jewish state should be ”wiped off the map”.
It appears that a number of travel authors are a little preoccupied with death. Your death. Just browse around your local bookstore and you’ll find <i>Getaway’s 1 001 Places to See Before You Die: Places To Go</i>, <i>Things To Do in Southern Africa</i> (Struik), <i>Michael Bright’s Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die</i> (Cassell Illustrated).
A British aristocrat who escaped murder charges in Kenya after killing a game warden on his family’s ranch last year shot another man to death on the premises on Wednesday, police said. Thomas Cholmondeley, son of the Fifth Baron Delamere and great-grandson of Kenya’s most prominent early British settler, told authorities he fired at a suspected poacher on the ranch in the central Rift Valley.
Several portable MP3 players can be as loud as a Formula One car causing irreparable damage to your hearing, the German Forum of Good Hearing (FGH) warned quoting a recent British study. The FGH said the study found that 39% of 18 to 24-year olds spent at least one hour per day listening to music via headphones with a volume of up to 105 decibels.
Escalating an already heated national debate, a first-of-its-kind TV channel premieres on Thursday designed specifically for babies — an age group that the American Academy of Paediatrics says should be kept away from television altogether.