The Football League has volunteered to be used as a ”guinea pig” for goal line technology that, if successful, could be implemented throughout the world. Rather than video evidence, the scheme would involve using a specially created ball fitted with a microchip that bleeps whenever it crosses the line.
There cannot be many babies named after disasters, but then there cannot be many babies that nature has thrown so totally on the comfort of strangers as 20-day-old Wave. In his short life, the Thai boy has escaped a tsunami that appears to have killed his parents and the poverty that forced his carer to abandon him three days later.
In Agege, a suburb of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, Augusta Uyi-Evbuomwam has become indispensable. From dawn until dusk, people carrying buckets and jerry cans queue to buy water from her borehole. Uyi-Evbuomwam claims she dare not close shop for even a day, as the entire neighbourhood would be left without water. ”It is more than a business, it is a service. People are begging me to sell water to them,” she says.
”As preparations for the grand prix season get under way, allegations that Bernie Ecclestone treats formula one like his personal Scalextric set are confirmed when he forgets to pack away all the drivers and his mother hoovers up Juan Pablo Montoya.” Harry Pearson gazes into his crystal ball and decides what won’t happen in sport this year.
Premiership managers are fending off agents as the amount of business done during the current transfer window struggles to match the speculation. It feels quite like old times. The papers suddenly look more like themselves, and the court circular of King Lear, as they muse on who is in and who is out.
The number of people killed in the Indian Ocean quake and tsunamis coastlines on December 26 shot up past 165 000 on Friday as Indonesia confirmed nearly 20 000 more deaths. The number of South Africans unaccounted for following the tsunami has dropped to 474.
Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel, driving a Mitsubishi, won the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday to storm to the top of the overall standings. The Frenchman clocked 8 hours, 21 minutes and 57 seconds over the 660km stage from Zouerat to Tichit to clinch his second stage win this year, having also been victorious on Wednesday.
Roger Federer continued his spectacular run of success as he clinched his 19th victory in a row, and his 44th in 46 matches, with an easy 6-1, 6-2 win against Feliciano Lopez that carried him to the semifinals of the Qatar Open on Thursday. Federer’s success against the most successful left-hander on the tour was improbably quick.
Almost 90% of all heroin will come from Afghanistan this year, according to a United Nations report. The ,8-billion trade accounts for 40% of the country’s economy, employs 10% of the population, and has fuelled the rise of drug lords who threaten to upend the fragile democratic transition. But tackling the trade is a priority for the newly inaugurated president, Hamid Karzai.
Deutsche Börse’s attempt to take over the London Stock Exchange (LSE) faced fresh difficulties on Thursday when German politicians and bankers demanded a Frankfurt head office for the combined entity. It emerged that the German government has raised objections about any offer to move the head office to London.