Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday announced a staggered withdrawal of his troops from the Lebanon in a historic move that ends three decades of military presence. Assad said troops would withdraw first to the eastern Bekaa area of the country and then to the Syria-Lebanon border.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has no intention of becoming a political party or of turning its leaders into politicians, its general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Saturday. ”We have no business whatsoever of being ambitious to become politicians. We have no political ambitions,” Vavi said.
South Africa achieved the expected crushing victory over Zimbabwe in the first Test at Newlands, wrapping up the tail 45 minutes before the scheduled close of play on Saturday. It was the 18th time in the history of the game that a Test was completed within two days.
Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie kept the Euro/Africa Zone, Group One Davis Cup tie alive on Saturday when they won the doubles rubber at the Standard Bank Arena. The SA duo downed Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 6-3 7-4 (7-4) 7-5 in an encounter that lasted two hours and 10 minutes.
The Democratic Alliance’s nominated representative to join the Southern African Development Community’s observer mission to Zimbabwe for that country’s election, has been excluded. In a statement on Friday, DA Chief Whip Douglas Gibson said the exclusion of MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard was ”an outrage”.
Traditional leaders invited to Zimbabwe this week came back impressed with the outcome of that country’s land reform programme, they said on Saturday. However, they are not advocating that South Africa follow a similar route. The six member delegation had met personally with President Robert Mugabe.
The Stormers shrugged off any side-effects of their long trip from South Africa as they came back in the dying stages to snatch a 16-all draw with the Otago Highlanders in the rain in New Zealand on Saturday.
Ernie Els had a nightmare start to the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Saturday, four-putting from 20 feet on the first green. It was an inexplicable lapse from the South African after he sent his birdie putt charging past the hole. He then slid his fourth past again and his fifth from three feet lipped out.
Martha Stewart, who indoctrinated millions in the importance of pastel hues and perfectly turned pie crusts, left her prison cell to return to the kitchen of her palatial home yesterday to begin a new, and potentially even more dizzying, chapter in her life as America’s household goddess.
When a rocket carrying a weather satellite blasted into orbit last weekend it did more than restore confidence in Japan’s battered space programme — it ignited talk of a space race with the country’s old rival, China. The emerging contest between these two Asian powers is already showing signs of ferocity.