Arsenal versus Middlesbrough. You’ll learn to love those words. The teams meet four times over the next 18 days. On Saturday at Highbury, it’s a mere Premiership clash. The unbeaten Gunners, held 1-1 at Everton on Wednesday, come against one of the meanest defences in the division.
Scripted endings to careers are rare in sport. Too often great players hobble into retirement on the arm of a physiotherapist, or choose euthanasia, a quick pre-emptive press-conference to avoid the indignity of being dropped. But Stephen Roger Waugh has always written his own script.
Following his return from international travel to brief governments and investors on the current state of the peace process in his country, Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi, Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), spoke with Irin recently on his country’s view of the Great Lakes regional peace conference, and more.
Two airline crashes in Africa this past fortnight have added to the continent’s dismal air safety record. On December 25 113 people were killed when a Beirut-bound Boeing 727 clipped a building on the end of the runway at Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin and ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
The decision by the oldest Burundian rebel group to start talks with President Ndayizeye is more than a light at the end of the tunnel for that war-torn country. Before emerging into daylight, however, Burundi faces problems of implementing the ceasefire. This in turn poses tough questions for South Africa and other members of the African Mission in Burundi.
The ”big news” to emerge from Thursday’s emergency SA Rugby board meeting in Cape Town is that the appointment of the newest Springbok rugby coach will not take place on Friday January 30 as originally announced. At this stage, no date has been set for the official appointment.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova said on Thursday she plans to stick with a decision to retire for good at the end of the year. In a stunning career that has spanned over two decades, Navratilova won 167 singles titles — more than any man or woman — and 173 doubles titles.
Double champion Hiroshi Masuoka on Thursday ruled out his dream of a third successive Dakar Rally crown when his Mitsubishi was struck down by gearbox trouble. The Japanese veteran, who had started the day in front, lost more than an hour-and-a-half on the 355km eighth stage.
Stuart Appleby went four years before returning to the winners-only Mercedes Championships. The way he played on Thursday, he might not have to wait that long. As the Kona winds fooled Tiger Woods and made it difficult on the elite field, Appleby recovered from a tough start to the new season.
On a mission to spread love, four-time world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield said on Friday he had forgiven Mike Tyson for biting his ear in an infamous 1997 bout and would even forgive terrorist leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11 2001 attack on the United States.