On the day of Lebanon’s first election since the departure of Syria’s occupying army, Christians are bitter, frightened and divided over what they say has been their ”betrayal” by both the Cedar Revolution — which sprang up earlier this year — and by their own leadership at the moment of the country’s ”liberation”.
Prop Dave Hewett scored a valedictory try as the Canterbury Crusaders beat the New South Wales Waratahs 35-12 on Saturday to end a decade of Super 12 rugby with their fifth championship. The Crusaders led 35-6 after 64 minutes and seemed likely to make their fifth championship win their most emphatic.
A group of protesters sang, danced and chanted anti-Barclays slogans in Johannesburg on Saturday morning against the British bank’s takeover of Absa. The protesters, from the Jubilee South Africa group, wore anti-privatisation T-shirts and carried banners with slogans such as ”Barclays economic terrorists”.
Another person died of Ebola in the north-western Congo, raising the number of victims to 10, health officials announced on Friday. The latest victim died on Thursday in Etoumbi district after being in contact with her husband, who succumbed to the haemorrhagic fever on May 11.
Car owners around town in Sullivan, New York, are covering their mirrors in an attempt to outsmart a woodpecker who apparently thinks his reflection is an enemy. Tim Taylor, who owns Thruway Auto Glass, said he replaced 30 smashed mirrors last year and 18 this year because of the bird.
Michael Jackson’s defence suddenly rested their case without calling any rebuttal witnesses on Friday after prosecutors in a final move showed the jury a videotape of the accuser telling investigators for the first time in 2003 that he was molested by the pop star. The tape offered little that the boy had not already testified to on the stand.
At least 19 people were killed on Saturday in two bomb attacks in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, police said. The successive blasts took place in the town of Tentena. The bombings are the most serious in a long series of bombings and other attacks in the region, many of them against Christians.
United States soccer coach Bruce Arena has a timetable for when the global game will join the elite American sports scene and allow the US squad to schedule World Cup qualifying matches anywhere. ”In about 100 years,” he said. It seems like that long since soccer has been called the US sport of the future.
Venus Williams did plenty to beat herself, and 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva took care of the rest. The young Bulgarian upset an erratic Williams 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 on Friday in the third round of the French Open. Lindsay Davenport survived her toughest test yet and beat unseeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Peter Hedblom of Sweden birdied seven of the last 11 holes for a seven-under 65 at Wentworth on Friday to take a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the BMW Championship. Paul McGinley’s 64 gave him the lead for several hours at eight-under 136 for the tournament before Hedblom’s charge left him at 133.