Liverpool’s Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso added to the Premiership side’s injury woes when it was confirmed on Sunday that he will be out for up to six weeks after breaking his ankle during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat against Chelsea. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez admitted that the 23-year-old’s injury is a major loss.
The number of people killed in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that hit Indian Ocean shorelines a week ago passed 144 000 on Monday. Meanwhile, a Malaysian tuna ship rescued an Indonesian woman who drifted for five days in the Indian Ocean after the tsunami swept her out to sea.
I remember standing, in those last exile years, in the garden of the Jamaican ambassador to England, and witnessing a confrontation between Trevor Huddleston and Anthony Sampson. Why is this of any interest? Well, both of these very English Englishmen had been around in my life for as long as I could remember. Now they have both moved on-to a better world, some would say. Or to dust, just like Sophiatown, as others would have it.
England seized the initiative on the second morning of the third Castle Lager/MTN cricket Test at Newlands on Monday, capturing three wickets for the addition of 90 runs. South Africa went to lunch on 337 for seven. Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla survived a torrid first half hour in which Steve Harmison was particularly aggressive.
South Africa batted their way to a dominant position at tea in the third Castle Lager/MTN cricket Test at Newlands in Cape Town. The homeside notched up 441 runs for 142.1 overs, with spinner/all-rounder Nicky Boje and Jacques Kallis providing most of the runs on the second day.
Ruling parties romped to victory in five elections held in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) last year, which also ushered in the end of the presidential terms of two liberation stalwarts — Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Joachim Chissano of Mozambique. Their voluntary departure has, however, been overshadowed by challenges to the election results.
Gary Younge tracks down Zane, the bestselling author of black erotica in the United States who has hitherto kept her identity a secret. To call her work porn, says Zane, would be inaccurate: ”Porn is just straight sex. My books have a story. If you took the sex out of it, you’d still have the story.”
The announcement by the Mpumalanga education MEC of planned disciplinary action against the whistleblower who revealed cheating in the province’s matric exams was outrageous, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
The bodies of two more South Africans have been found in Thailand, bringing the total number of tsunami deaths to seven, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the department is working with the families of the victims to arrange when to repatriate the bodies to South Africa.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/content/l3_fl2.asp?cg=tsunami%20disaster&o=194303">Tsunami disaster special report</a>
A fire raged through part of Equatorial Guinea’s capital and destroyed about 100 homes and left almost 1 000 people homeless, but claimed no lives, national radio reported on Monday. A first house in the impoverished Ela Nguema district of the tropical Central African city caught fire when a candle set light to a pile of clothes.