New Zealand rugby legend Jonah Lomu’s dreams of forcing his way into the All Blacks World Cup squad were dashed on Monday after he was left out of a 30-strong squad named for the tournament.

Tennis player Andy Roddick has put in some bizarre preparation for the next week’s United States Open. He has played to the point where he no longer wants to pick up a racket, and he is now going to jump out of a plane with his coach.

Sri Lanka has named an experienced squad for the forthcoming A team’s tour of South Africa at the beginning of September.

Jacques Kallis took a Test-best six for 54 as South Africa beat England by 191 runs on the fifth and final day of the fourth cricket Test on Monday.

English Premiership sides Chelsea and Newcastle United, four-times winners Ajax Amsterdam, Scotland’s Celtic, Italy’s Lazio and French side Marseille can look confidently towards their final Champions League hurdle.

There was no warning. The two vehicles, a standard Land Rover and a slate-grey four-wheel drive, had driven out of the British Army headquarters a few minutes earlier. Basra, at 8.30am yesterday, was quiet. The ferocious heat was keeping most of the city’s two million inhabitants indoors, despite the lack of power and water.

The name of the latest Israeli army operation, Fine Tuning 1, is laden with layers of meaning. In its most literal sense the ‘fine tuning’ refers to the assassination of militia leaders, whom the Israelis this weekend said they will now systematically kill where and when they find them unless Palestinian security forces can arrest them first.

As they clicked on the pornographic image, they could not have realised the havoc they were about to cause. These internet users were triggering the biggest virus attack in history.

On Friday night my power supplies were cut off. Nothing as big as North America mind, but still the cause of some localised disturbance. It happened at 2 o’clock in the morning and triggered my burglar alarm.