The Auckland Blues appear likely to continue with their no-frills, conservative game plan as they attempt to rebuild their reputation in rugby’s Super 12. The Blues used a notably restrained — free of their typical razzle-dazzle — when they beat the Otago Highlanders 30-14 in the tournament’s opening round last weekend.
He may have survived two world wars and prohibition. But a trip to the zoo proved too much for a 10kg lobster named Bubba. The leviathan of a lobster died on Wednesday afternoon at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, about a day after he was moved from Wholey’s Market, said zoo spokesperson Rachel Capp.
Justin Kemp played a batting role slightly different from his normal explosive nature as he guided South Africa to a clean sweep in their three-match Standard Bank one-day international cricket series against Zimbabwe at St George’s on Wednesday.
Super 12 champions ACT Brumbies will have their playing resources fully stretched when they take on South Africa’s Northern Bulls in the second round of the southern hemisphere provincial rugby series in Canberra on Friday. The Brumbies were magnificent in adversity last weekend, repulsing last year’s final rivals Canterbury Crusaders 32-21.
Two suicide car bombs exploded on Thursday morning outside the main entrance to Iraq’s interior ministry, killing five policemen and wounding five others, security officials and an eyewitness said. The two car bombs blew up at 7.30am (4.30am GMT), with the first vehicle apparently serving as a decoy for the second and more powerful blast outside the interior ministry headquarters.
South African insurance company Sanlam on Thursday reported a 31% increase in headline earnings per share to 116,6 cents for the year ended December 31 2004, from 89,2 cents a year ago. A dividend of 50 cents per share was declared, up 25% from the previous year. Sanlam said there was a strong performance from all its businesses.
The mugs have sold out, the T-shirts are on a second print run and the tea towels are rapidly becoming collector’s items. But the face smiling from these personalised souvenirs of a royal tour is not that of the middle-aged heir to the British throne, it is of a young, glamorous Australian princess.
The Zimbabwe High Court on Wednesday reduced by four months the sentences of a group of suspected mercenaries jailed over an alleged coup plot in the oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea, a court official said. The official said the men would be freed into the custody of Zimbabwe’s immigration department for deportation to South Africa since they have been declared illegal immigrants.
Judging a journalism competition means you get to peruse a pile of poor quality products, but also that you are sometimes rewarded with exhilarating examples of quality work. In the intricate field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) coverage, your chances of encountering the good stuff — the narratives that go beyond a geek audience — are even more challenged. But scattered amongst the sad stuff, some very good ICT journalism can be found.
Gunmen have killed a judge and a lawyer working for the Iraqi tribunal which will try Saddam Hussein and his senior officials. Barawiz al-Merwani (59) and his lawyer son Aryan (26) were ambushed when they left their home in north Baghdad on Tuesday, two days after the tribunal ruled that a first group of defendants must be tried for crimes against humanity.