The sole surviving attacker of the Beslan school siege of September 2004 was found guilty today of murder, hostage taking and terrorism but was spared the death penalty because of Russia’s current moratorium on executions. The court found Nurpashi Kulayev guilty of taking hostages, causing the deaths of 330 people and inflicting material damage of around ,3-million.
Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper The Times announced on Friday it will launch a United States edition next month as part of a push to make the paper an international brand. The US edition will go on sale on 6 June via subscription and at more than 2 000 retail outlets across New York and New Jersey.
In a rare and frank public attack on the game’s administrators, businessman Tokyo Sexwale has warned that ”football leadership has to go back to the drawing board. The battle is hard for Bafana Bafana; we are battling out there. It is a hard thing that we are going to the World Cup without Bafana Bafana,” the former premier of Gauteng said.
The Mail & Guardian has shown impressive growth in circulation from January to March this year, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures released this week. The M&G‘s ABC circulation figure for the period was 42 116 — higher than figures for Business Day and the Sunday Independent.
The possibility of a nationwide taxi strike cannot be ruled out should the Department of Transport fail to comply with taxi owners’ demands over operating permits, a spokesperson said on Friday. South African National Taxi Council members marched to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum to the minister of transport.
Inside the walking, talking, living icon called Pele, a 65-year-old man named Edson still breathes and smiles and calls out ”Hello!” Sauntering down the corridor of a hushed Knightsbridge hotel in London, on his way to promote the new autobiography of Pele, the voice of Edson Arantes Do Nascimento is heard first.
Coaching at international level is more and more about compromise, it seems. The international season is almost upon us and half of Jake White’s Springbok squad is crocked. It is now easy to understand why the national coach chose 45 players for his training camp in Bloemfontein.
Brazilian soccer legend Pele this week used his enduring popularity to help raise funds for Let’s Play, a SuperSport social responsibility initiative geared at encouraging children to take part in sport to avoid health problems associated with obesity.
Gunmen in Baghdad killed the coach of the Iraqi national tennis team and two players, reportedly for wearing Western-style tennis shorts, an Iraqi Olympic official said on Friday. The coach, Hussein Ahmed Rashid, was murdered along with two of his players, Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Auda, outside his home in the capital’s southern al-Saidiyah neighbourhood.
Kumar Sangakkara insisted Sri Lanka’s batsmen ”had to do much better” after the tourists were skittled out for just 141 on the opening day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston. At stumps, England were closing in on a first-innings lead at 138-3 after pace-man Liam Plunkett had taken 3-43, including a double-wicket maiden in his first over.