The Blue Bulls stampeded into their third consecutive Absa Currie Cup final with a hard-fought 40-33 semi-final win over the Lions at Loftus on Saturday afternoon. The Bulls scored four tries to three, but the 25 points by flyhalf Derick Hougaard proved the difference on the scoreboard at the end of the bruising 80 minutes.

Bush Bucks escaped slaughter when they drew 2-2 with Kaizer Chiefs in a dull Castle Premiership match in front of a paltry crowd. The Eastern Cape visitors were promised all sorts of humiliation by the Chiefs but instead Bucks played their hearts out and gave Chiefs a scare when they were the first to rattle the net.

Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, is the hub of Arab America. Where electoral politics are concerned, it is extremely important. The latest tracking poll shows the Democrats leading by four percentage points in the swing state of Michigan; Arab-Americans comprise 5% of the state’s vote. By luck rather than design Arab-Americans are a sizeable force in many swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Libyan President Muammar Gadaffi on Friday embarrassed his latest high-profile western visitor, the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, by demanding compensation for thousands of landmines left in the Libyan desert during the second world war.

Travel executive Soraya Beukes, one of the suspects in the parliamentary travel voucher scam, was taken back into custody on Friday after her R100 000 bail was revoked for giving false information in court. Beukes was the owner of the recently liquidated agency Business and Executive Travel.

The Israeli army last night began withdrawing from Palestinian areas of the northern Gaza strip, winding down the largest assault on the territory in recent years and leaving more than 100 Palestinians dead and widespread destruction of homes. At least 20 of those killed in the 16-day Israeli operation were under 16.

Some say that men’s tennis has lost its glamour — which may explain why a world tournament in Madrid is hiring long-legged models as ball girls. The ”ball models” were picked in a casting session by organisers who say that, by resorting to the gimmickry of boxing promoters, they are merely recognising that tennis is showbusiness.

Ray Jennings was on Friday appointed coach of the national cricket team until the end of the tour to the West Indies in May next year. Jennings was named to the post after coach Eric Simons’ contract was terminated with immediate effect by the United Cricket Board of South Africa.