The Commonwealth Games were ending on Sunday much the way they started –tarnished by an unsavory event and a drug controversy that just won’t go away. While 19-year-old Canadian gymnast Alexandra Orlando won her record-equaling sixth gold medal and Australia increased its massive lead in the overall count, a Bangladeshi athlete was charged with indecent assault.
Stephen Gray reviews Antjie Krog’s new collection of poetry, a candid portrayal of the body beautiful — and not so beautiful.
Australia had the best of the second day of the second Castle Lager Test against South Africa at Kingsmead on Saturday although Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers fought back well in the last session of the day with a partnership of 130. At close of play, South Africa had 140 for two — still trailing Australia by 229 runs.
Michael Hussey and tail-ender Stuart Clark frustrated South Africa after lunch on the second day of the second Castle LagerTest at Kingsmead on Saturday, with a last wicket partnership of 42. Shaun Pollock got rid of Shane Warne, who had played a cameo innings, putting on 36 runs off just 31 balls, and sharing a 56-run eighth-wicket partnership with Hussey.
The Canterbury Crusaders endured an anxious mid-race pitstop in rugby union’s Super 14 on the weekend, sitting idle as New South Wales and Wellington passed them and the ACT Brumbies closed in on them from behind. The Brumbies’ thrilling 28-26 win over the Waikato Chiefs on Saturday, inspired by a man-of-the-match performance from captain Stirling Mortlock, helped them consolidate fourth place and move within four points of the Crusaders.
Fighting has broken out between the army and local militia in Ituri in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a military spokesperson said on Friday. ”Two stations held by our soldiers were attacked yesterday [Thursday] evening by a group of militia in Nyamavi and in Boguma,” said captain Charles Boeka, a spokesperson for the Central African country’s armed forces in Ituri.
Brian Lara’s battle against a form slump brightened an autumn gloom on the first day of the third cricket Test between New Zealand and the West Indies on Saturday. Only 27.2 overs were bowled on a day which started more than five hours late because of a saturated outfield and ended an hour early because of bad light, but the hour and 49 minutes that intervened belonged to Lara.
Bushbuckridge residents in Limpopo were living in fear after a pride of lions escaped, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. The report said the lions allegedly escaped from a private game reserve last week. The provincial department of environmental affairs has so far shot and killed five of the lions.
A former director of the United Nations Commission on HIV/Aids and Governance in Africa has painted a gloomy picture of efforts to bring the pandemic under control across the continent. ”There is absolutely nothing optimistic about HIV in Africa, 25 years after the virus was discovered,” said Nana Poku.
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The Public Protector, the Gender Commission and the South African Human Rights Commission have expressed concern over the conduct of Jacob Zuma supporters and media coverage of his rape trial. The three bodies — all set up under chapter nine of the Constitution and referring to themselves as the C9s — said they met on Friday to discuss events around the trial.