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More than 300 people were rounded up by police in Dortmund overnight after German hooligans sparked fighting before the World Cup match between Germany and Poland. The violence signalled the end of five trouble-free days at the World Cup.
All Blacks fans saw double on Thursday as one team continued its preparation for the second Test against Ireland on Saturday and another jetted off to Buenos Aires for next week’s one-off Test against Argentina. The team for Saturday’s Auckland Test saw the Argentina side off in true All Blacks fashion with a haka outside their Auckland hotel.
Separatist Islamic militants in southern Thailand bombed more than 40 police and government targets on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 21. The attacks, using crudely made, small and remote-controlled devices, shattered the relative calm of recent days as mainly Buddhist Thailand united to celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60-year reign.
A diminutive grandmother donned a cap and gown on Wednesday and fulfilled a dream she had abandoned 80 years earlier — she got her high school diploma. ”I felt like I had missed something,” Josephine Belasco said when asked what inspired her to complete the schooling she began at Galileo High School when it opened in 1924.
Strike action begun two weeks ago by transport workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has paralysed economic activity at the country’s leading port. The strike, in the south-western port of Matadi, ”affects the whole national network” of the National Transport Office, said Etienne Ntadila, staff representative at the public company.
About -billion in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told on Wednesday.
The black-and-white photo illustrates the brutality of the apartheid regime: young Hector Pieterson carried by a fellow schoolboy after being gunned down by police on June 16 1976 in Soweto. Thirty years on, photographer Sam Nzima remembers the day that was to change the destiny of South Africa, and end his career as a photojournalist.
Arch-foes and Horn of Africa neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea tussled on Wednesday over the holding of a meeting to discuss their simmering border dispute, as the fate of the planned talks remained unclear. Asmara said that it would not attend the meeting set for Thursday in The Hague unless Addis Ababa agreed to the terms of a 2002 border ruling.
South Africa recalled fit-again winger Bryan Habana and Scotland made six changes to its run-on side for the second rugby Test on Saturday. South Africa won the first 36-16 last Saturday at Durban. Habana missed that match because of an ankle injury he aggravated in the Bulls’ Super 14 semifinal.
United States aviation giant Boeing scored a major victory when Singapore Airlines (SIA) ordered 20 of its new mid-size jets while production delays plague its European rival Airbus. SIA on Wednesday announced an order for 20 Boeing 787 aircraft worth $4,5-billion, just hours after publicly expressing displeasure over a postponement in the delivery of the much-vaunted Airbus A380 super jumbo jet.