A post template

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

Steve Bruce gets the Blues

He was perhaps the finest centre-half never to play for England. The Geordie who was always destined to manage Newcastle United but turned them down in their hour of need. Steve Bruce: a career of broken dreams, broken promises and broken noses. And after Tuesday’s unacceptable 7-0 defeat against Liverpool, now the unwanted owner of a shattered reputation.

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

R900 a month, 12 hours a day

Phil Naledi has changed the lives of residents along a leafy street in the north-eastern Johannesburg suburb of Sydenham. He earns R900 a month for guarding the houses in the relatively affluent suburb, working 12-hour shifts. ”No one can make a life if they spend so much time working for this little money,” he explains.

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

Sam Allardyce, a man of the people

A Saturday evening in 1991 and Sam Allardyce is tramping the streets of Limerick with a priest. They are searching for local businessmen willing to help pay the wages of Limerick City footballers. It is difficult finding the £100 a week that keeps Allardyce’s better players happy and it is a routine that manager Allardyce and the club chairperson will repeat through the season.

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

Rand, metals take JSE to new high

The JSE touched a record high in morning trade on Friday, helped by a softer rand and a rebound in commodity prices. It was nonetheless a fairly uneventful morning’s trade. By 11.56am, the all-share index was up 0,77% at 20 315,37 after earlier touching a lifetime high of 20 324,09.

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

Fans’ resistance forces Juve to downsize

Tickets for Juventus’s Champions League quarterfinal against Arsenal went on sale in Italy last Friday, and they were hardly flying out of the box office. Well, they never are nowadays. Juventus might be the defending Serie A champions and the self-styled most popular club in Italy backed by an estimated 11-million fans, but their crowds are an absolute abomination.

No image available
/ 24 March 2006

Brazil stands to lose more than 40% of rainforest

Unless Brazil enforces existing conservation laws, it will lose more than 40% of its Amazon rainforest by 2050, say scientists. The predictions are among the first to emerge from a unique, large-scale study that is using computer models to simulate how factors such as logging, farming and climate could affect the future of the forest.