Washington likes to hold up Afghanistan as an exemplar of how a rogue regime can be replaced by democracy. Meanwhile, human rights activists and Afghan politicians have accused the US military of placing Afghanistan at the hub of a global system of detention centres where prisoners are held incommunicado and allegedly subjected to torture.
World champion Michael Schumacher lowered his targets for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix after a disappointing performance in first qualifying in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Schumacher could only manage the 14th-fastest time of the day and was forced to watch his rivals speed away into the distance with their new models.
Caleb Ralph scored two of Canterbury’s six tries on Saturday as the Crusaders claimed a 41-19 win over the Auckland Blues in a Super 12 rugby match. Five of those tries, including a penalty try, came in the first half at Eden Park as the Crusaders preyed on their traditional rival’s turnovers to lead 34-0.
New South Wales emerged from a ”difficult week” and made light of the absence of controversial lock Justin Harrison with a 25-10 win over the Stormers at Aussie Stadium on Saturday. The Super 12-leading Waratahs made it four wins from as many starts, though they failed to pick up a bonus point for the first time this season.
Burundi’s President Domitien Ndayizeye has ratified the country’s new power-sharing Constitution as the country slowly progresses towards putting behind it an 11-year civil war. The Constitution evens the balance between the majority Hutus and the minority Tutsis who dominated the country since independence in 1962.
Amid a string of dazzling track performances from Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Geraldine Pillay, Alwyn Myburgh and Leigh Julius, a cloud of concern hung over Jacques Freitag, who struggled with a sore back and managed a 2,25m winning clearance at the final Absa Series meeting at Pilditch in Pretoria on Friday night.
Seven months after a scandal that shook the Athens Olympics, Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were cleared of evading drug tests in a surprise decision that could be challenged by the International Association of Athletics Federations. A Greek sporting tribunal voted 4-1 to clear the runners on Friday.
Eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi withdrew from the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells ATP Masters Series event in California on Friday with a foot injury. The 34-year-old American said he woke up on Friday with an extremely sore left toe, which made it impossible for him to play against Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
The Northern Bulls ripped apart the form book as they scored their first win of the season with an upset 21-12 victory over the previously unbeaten Wellington Hurricanes in New Zealand on Saturday. There were two tries apiece but the difference was with the intensity of the Bulls’ defence.
Thirty guests tucked into a sheep-shaped cake at a 21st birthday party for a merino who may have set a longevity record for his kind in Australia or even the world, news reports said on Saturday. ”We’ve never ever had a sheep as old as George,” said New South Wales farmer Myra Tolhurst.