Steve McClaren was named as the new England manager, in succession to Sven-Goran Eriksson, by the Football Association on Thursday. The Middlesbrough manager, currently Eriksson’s deputy in the England set-up, will take over from the Swede following the World Cup finals in Germany and will take up his new role from August 1 on a four-year contract.
Rising rodent numbers in Africa are raising the chance of an outbreak of diseases such bubonic plague, a conference in South Africa heard on Thursday. The Rats and Human Health in Africa conference, attended by scientists and doctors from 20 countries, found rodent numbers in Africa are thriving as municipalities with growing populations struggle to manage sewage and refuse collection.
United States forces are ”zooming in” on al-Qaeda’s Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who may be in Baghdad or a nearby town, a US military spokesperson said on Thursday. Major General Rick Lynch said that during raids in Yusufiyeh, a town south of the capital, coalition forces had found footage of the Internet video message delivered by al-Zarqawi last month.
Two Swedish TV producers who went missing in the Kalahari turned up safe and sound after fleeing a car seconds before it exploded and wandering for days in the desert, an executive from their station said on Thursday. ”They are very relieved and happy. They are very well,” said Helga Baagoe, news director at Sweden’s SVT public television station.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions repeated its support for striking security guards on Thursday, announcing a number of events in support of the strike. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the federation will immediately establish strike committees to coordinate solidarity actions.
African Union leaders will meet on Thursday on the Darfur crisis hours before the expiration of a deadline set for the Sudanese parties to sign a peace agreement, officials said. ”The meeting is temporarily set to begin at 6pm local time in the Nigerian presidency,” AU spokesperson Noureddine Mezni told Agence France-Presse in Abuja.
South Africa are considering an all-pace attack for the third and final Castle Lager Test against New Zealand, which starts at the Wanderers on Friday morning. ”I think the Wanderers pitch will be a challenge for New Zealand, with its pace and bounce,” captain Graeme Smith said on Thursday.
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A coalition of Jacob Zuma supporters was not prepared to say on Thursday whether it thought his rape trial had been free and fair. ”It’s not our place to be commenting while the trial is still in progress. [We] shouldn’t be locked down on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers,” Young Communist League president Buti Manamela said.
A former Middle East specialist of the United States Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday condemned what he called an organised campaign of manipulation by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war. Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the US had particularly wanted to prove a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday opened a road named after him in Malawi, accusing those who criticise his human rights record of "speaking for their white masters". Cheered on amid heavy security, Mugabe unveiled a plaque to open the newly constructed road between Malawi’s commercial capital Blantyre and the Mozambican border.