Steven Gerrard changed his mind and made his peace with Champions League winners Liverpool on Wednesday. If he signs a new deal on Friday and plays when Liverpool begin their defence against Welsh champion Total Network Solutions next Wednesday, then Chelsea and Real Madrid may as well put away their chequebooks.
Believe it or not — as Ripley would have chronicled it — another Bafana Bafana player has ”vanished” on the hazardous road to Los Angeles for Concacaf’s Gold Cup tournament. Bafana general manager Stanley ”Screamer” Tshabalala on Wednesday revealed that Thando Mngomeni has ”disappeared from the face of the earth”.
Lance Armstrong could afford to show his charitable side after the fifth stage of the Tour de France in Montargis on Wednesday, where Australian Robbie McEwen finally got to show his sprinting prowess ahead of Belgian Tom Boonen. However, he will be hard pushed to be as calm when the race goes over some tricky terrain this weekend.
Big-hitting schoolgirl Michelle Wie will hope to take advantage of some notable absences this week as she takes on the men of the PGA Tour in the John Deere Classic. The 15-year-old amateur will make her third PGA Tour start when the -million tournament starts on Thursday at the TPC at Deere Run.
Irish fullback Geordan Murphy and English wing Mark Cueto will make their Lions Test debuts against the All Blacks in the third Test in Auckland on Saturday, with coach Clive Woodward producing a new-look backline in a final effort to win one Test on tour. Woodward has dug deep into his bag of tricks to conjure up a competitive squad.
Chelsea have confirmed that Argentine striker Hernan Crespo will return to Stamford Bridge for the new Premiership season. Crespo had been expected to extend his stay with AC Milan, either on a new year-long loan or permanently, but negotiations between the two clubs broke down.
Japan and South Africa agreed on Thursday to consider a pact to promote trade, raising the possibility the fast-growing nation will become the first African country to have a free trade pact with Japan. Japan’s exports to South Africa surged 33,9% to 314,4-billion yen (,8-billion) in 2004, with growing shipments of automobiles and auto parts.
Expensive international call roaming charges, long the bane of overseas travellers, could soon become a thing of the past. Since April, a few thousand pioneering owners of palmtop computers have avoided the additional fees charged by cellphone operators when they travel abroad by making free — or extremely low-cost — calls over the internet.
The remains of five people who disappeared during apartheid-era political violence will be returned to their families in a ceremony at the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) office in Pretoria on Sunday. ”The NPA have been assisted in this task by forensic experts from Argentina,” said Khulumani Support Group chairperson Marjorie Jobson.
A Chinese herbalist will go without food for 50 days in full public view to prove he didn’t pull a fast one when he performed a similar feat last year, state media said on Wednesday. Chen Jianmin plans to live in a glass box placed on a stone platform in central Wuhan city from September 8, consuming only water.