They are the scourge of motorists across the former Soviet Union, known for accusing drivers of fictitious crimes and demanding a bribe to clear them. But now Ukraine has sacked all of its 23 000 traffic police. The President, Viktor Yushchenko, said they had ”discredited themselves” and would cease to exist.
Pakistan on Tuesday launched a series of sweeping arrests against Islamist militants across the country, in a move explicitly linked to the investigation of the 7/7 bomb attacks in London, officials said. Security officers detained at least 25 people in raids in several major cities including Faisalabad, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan.
The United States President, George Bush, has agreed to aid India’s civilian nuclear power programme, an unexpected decision that reverses three decades of American policies designed to deter nations from developing nuclear weapons. The agreement is the first exception to the international bar on nuclear assistance to any country that does not accept monitoring of all of its nuclear facilities.
The Vodacom Challenge showdown between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates will be watched by a sell-out crowd of approximately 50 000 on Sunday, but the Buccaneers are still pondering allowing on the field their four Bafana Bafana players who recently took part in the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament in the United States.
As Lance Armstrong closes in on a seventh straight Tour de France title, the high mountains safely behind him and the finish almost in sight, just one thing is missing: a daily stage win of his own. In all of his previous record six Tour wins, Armstrong always managed to win at least one individual stage.
Steven Gerrard scored two goals in two minutes on Tuesday to help put Liverpool into the second qualifying round of the Champions League after beating Total Network Solutions 3-0 and 6-0 on aggregate. Djibril Cisse scored the opening goal for the defending champions in the 26th minute.
The Argentinian coach of Mexican First Division giants Cruz Azul was kidnapped on Tuesday, the club’s vice-president announced. Ruben Omar Romano had just left a training session when five men forced the 47-year-old out of his 4×4 and took him away in another car.
Alexandre Despatie gave Canada another gold medal to celebrate at the World Swimming Championships when he won the 3m springboard title on Tuesday. The Montreal resident was cheered loudly, especially for earning two perfect marks of 10 on his third dive. American Troy Dumais earned the silver.
Australian spin-meister Shane Warne has admitted that his high-profile personal problems, notably the recent break-up of his 10-year marriage, will cut short his career as the world’s most successful bowler. ”I definitely think it will make me play shorter,” Warne told reporters of his off-field dramas.
Visa USA and American Express are cutting ties with the payment-processing company that left 40-million credit and debit card accounts vulnerable to hackers in one of the biggest breaches of consumer data security. CardSystems Solutions ”has not corrected, and cannot at this point correct, the failure to provide proper data security for Visa accounts,” said Rosetta Jones, a vice president at Foster City, California-based Visa.