All Blacks captain Reuben Thorne said his team is cranking up their training in order to hit the ground running at next months rugby World Cup. The New Zealanders have held a series of training camps around the country during the past fortnight and have been overwhelmed by the support of the public, Thorne said.

If you’re a fan of history, I’m sure you’re also familiar with the great William J Le Petomane who farted professionally (and in tune) for very happy audiences at the Moulin Rouge. You can even download a clip or two of a wind instrument of the sort that the ANC should be using for their Moral Regeneration choir fetish idiocy.

An investigation by The Observer can reveal that White House officials are attempting to downplay findings of scientists on global warming. The revelations will anger environment campaigners who claim that efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are being sabotaged because of President Bush’s links to the oil industry.

Reform of the UN security council is the Rubik’s cube of international diplomacy, yet secretary-general Kofi Annan wants the world body to have another crack at this puzzle. In a report earlier this month, Annan indicated that the time may have come for a radical restructuring of the UN after its crisis of legitimacy over the Iraq war.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had better watch their backs. The UN’s Security Council will find its anomalous powers ever harder to sustain. Poor nations, if they stick together, can begin to exercise a collective threat to the rich. For this they need leverage and, in the form of their debts, they possess it.

What’s in a name? Married women in Zimbabwe are taking the government to court over a procedure that compels them to adopt their husbands’ surnames as a precondition to official documents, including registering the birth of infant children.

Police were called to the home of Frank Bruno on Monday as medics tried to treat the British former world heavyweight boxing champion. Bruno admitted last month he had received treatment at the Priory clinic in Essex following his divorce from his wife, but denied having a drink or drugs problem.

BMW Williams driver Ralf Schumacher has recovered from a training accident and expects to be behind the wheel again on Sunday at the crucial Indianapolis formula one race. The 28-year-old German, younger brother of world champion Michael Schumacher, suffered a concussion during a September 2 training crash.