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.
All prisoners on death row should be released, the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) said on Friday. ”After all, the majority of them have been behind bars for such a long time, they virtually have no life to fall back to,” said Golden Miles Bhudu, president of Sapohr.
Preventative measures have been taken to supply Johannesburg residents with gas until the Sasolburg plant is fully operational, Egoli Gas said on Friday. Sasol warned earlier on Friday that Johannesburg residents who use hydrogen gas could be left without gas for three weeks due to technical problems at the Sasolburg plant.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that his party is considering amending the country’s Constitution to make it easier for the government to take over land owned by the country’s former white farmers. He told a meeting of his ruling Zanu-PF that the government’s five-year-old land reform lacks finality.
The two old men apparently declared they were soldiers, and the story they told when they emerged from the dense jungle of a Philippine island was on Friday the talk of the nation for which they claimed to have fought. According to reports, they had been hiding on the island of Mindanao since before the end of World War II.
An Australian tourist was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Friday for trying to smuggle more than 4kg of marijuana into the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, concluding a trial that has gripped her country. Her plight has galvanised Australia into an unprecedented outpouring of public sympathy for an alleged drug smuggler.
One of the most divisive campaigns in France’s recent political history drew to a close on Friday night as the country contemplated the enormity of its intention — clearly signalled in a string of opinion polls — to reject the European Constitution treaty. Two final surveys putting the no vote at between 52% and 55%.