South Africa’s AngloGold and Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields look set for marriage soon, creating the world’s largest gold producer with 26 mines on four continents. Ashanti, burdened by high operating costs and problems raising cash to pay short-term debt, received the go-ahead from the Ghana government.

Israel has been described as the top threat to world peace, ahead of North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran, by an unpublished European Commission poll of 7,500 Europeans, sparking an international row.

Sharp disagreements are emerging between the US and the UK over the exact nature of the Iraqi resistance, amid warnings that the US is losing the intelligence war against the rebels. US and UK officials admit that at the centre of the worsening crisis is a continuing failure of intelligence on exactly who is behind the resistance.

Few US Presidents have been as openly religious as Bush. Now a new book has lifted the lid on how deep those Christian convictions run. It will stir up controversy at a time when the administration is keen to portray its ‘war on terror’ as non-religious, giving ammunition to critics who say Bush’s administration is influenced by extremist Christians.

The Blue Bulls retained their Absa Currie Cup title with a convincing 40-19 victory over the Natal Sharks in the final at a packed Loftus in Pretoria. Ill-discipline cost the Sharks a shot at an upset win, but the Bulls had to dig deep late in the second half to see off a mini-comeback from the pretenders to their crown.

Orlando Pirates came back from 2-0 down to score twice in the last seven minutes of their Castle Premiership game against Santos. The two teams shared spoils. Santos led 2-0 at half-time. Santos went straight on the attack and came close in the 14th minute.

South Africa’s World Cup hopes were dealt a devastating blow after star flanker Joe van Niekerk was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a serious knee injury. Van Niekerk suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the Springboks 60-10 victory over Samoa.

Bob Dwyer, Australia’s World Cup winning coach in 1991, said current Wallaby captain George Gregan and fly-half Stephen Larkham should be among those dropped following the nail-biting 17-16 win against Ireland if the world champions are to retain the trophy they won for a second time four years ago.

Fiji, the great rugby entertainers, are bemoaning another unfulfilled tournament of what might have been after they were dumped out of the Rugby World Cup by a last-gasp Scotland try. The Fijians looked poised to gatecrash the quarter-finals only to be outdone by a Scottish rolling maul try three minutes from time.