While the Spar South African women’s hockey team cantered to victory in their Africa Cup of Nations final, the men’s final between South Africa and Egypt was a thrilling affair that went right down to the wire. The men had to weather an immense effort from the Egyptians as the two teams ended full-time goalless.
Brett Lee and Shane Watson took four wickets apiece as the World XI crumbled meekly for 137, losing by 156 runs on Sunday and giving Australia a 3-0 sweep in the limited-overs Super Series. The two-time defending World Cup champion Australians confirmed their status as the number-one team in limited-overs cricket.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said on Sunday that more than 19 000 people died in the huge earthquake that shook parts of South Asia on Saturday, while India raised its toll to 583. Another Pakistani official said an estimated 30 000 people were killed in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir alone.
Rescue experts, medical teams, sniffer dogs and supplies were being mobilised on Sunday as a worldwide effort cranked into gear to bring aid to victims of a massive earthquake that struck South Asia. Japan, the United States and the European Union were among the first to offer manpower and financial aid to Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
Eldorado Park residents promised to continue protesting over the murder of a six-year-old girl on Saturday after a day of violent demonstrations in the township. The residents, who threw stones, broke windows and damaged cars outside of the Eldorado Park police station, dispersed on Saturday afternoon but promised to come back to protest about the death of Gairoenisha Ganchi.
Croatia, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy and England on Saturday booked their places at next year’s World Cup finals to join fellow European qualifiers, Ukraine and Germany. Croatia beat Sweden 1-0 through Darijo Srna’s 56th minute penalty, while England also needed a penalty — scored by Frank Lampard in the 25th minute — to edge out Austria by the same score.
A proposed return to Formula One tyre change pitstops next season is likely to meet with strong opposition from the teams, McLaren boss Ron Dennis warned on Sunday. The suggestion was included in a list of possible changes to the draft sporting regulations for 2006 sent to all the team chiefs by the sport’s governing body, the FIA.
Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly may be forgiven for thinking fate is against him. Dogged by bad form and a spat with his coach, he now has to overcome injury before answering his critics. Laid low with a tennis elbow, it will now be all the more difficult for him to save his captaincy as well as his place in the side, and the 33-year-old admits he has a battle on his hands.
The secretive group of intellectuals who award the Nobel Prize for literature have delayed their decision for at least a week amid reports of a split over honouring the controversial Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk. For the first time in at least 10 years, the literature prize was announced neither in the run-up to, nor in the same week as the four other main Nobel awards — medicine, physics, chemistry and peace.
It seemed as though a signal was given at dusk and they came out like the stars. Strolling vendors who had been selling boxes of paper handkerchiefs, car air fresheners and dusty packets of biscuits suddenly had armfuls of yellow and the colour was spreading to the market stalls. And so it moved up the streets.