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/ 12 November 2006
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and beleaguered United States President George Bush have had a long discussion on how to push forward ”change” in the coalition’s policy in Iraq. Blair, who will give evidence to the Bush-appointed Iraq Study Group on Tuesday, has insisted on the need to regionalise the peace effort and draw Iran and Syria into any solution.
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/ 12 November 2006
Israeli military commanders drastically reduced the ”safety” margins that separate artillery targets from the built-up civilian areas of Gaza earlier this year, despite being warned that the new policy risked increasing Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries.
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/ 12 November 2006
South Africa were let down by their tackling on Saturday, captain John Smit said after his side’s 32-15 defeat to Ireland in Dublin. The inexperienced Springbok team, without stalwarts like Os du Randt and Victor Matfield who were left at home to test new players ahead of next year’s World Cup, missed a remarkable 30 tackles against the composed Irish.
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/ 11 November 2006
The initiation of Avigdor Lieberman — widely regarded as an outright racist — into Ehud Olmert’s Israeli government seems to have already brought a taste of things to come. For the past week, the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun has been made a ground zero by the Israeli army. By Tuesday, more than 260 Palestinians lay dead and injured, with 53 fatalities — women, children and ambulance drivers among them.
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/ 11 November 2006
Cash-strapped national carrier Air Zimbabwe has suspended its flights to London fearing the seizure of its planes by a European navigation agency over a ,8- million debt. Air Zimbabwe board chairperson Mike Bimha was quoted by the Herald as saying the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation recently won a court order to impound the national carrier’s planes to recover its debt.
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/ 11 November 2006
World Cup chief executive Chris Dehring told the nine venues hosting next year’s Caribbean tournament that they could be stripped of matches if their preparations are not up to scratch. The International Cricket Council (ICC) begins a tour of all the venues starting in Barbados next Wednesday, which will host the final.
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/ 11 November 2006
The International Cricket Council rated Australian Darrell Hair the second-best umpire in the world before it sacked him for alleged incompetence. The Daily Telegraph newspaper said it had uncovered a copy of the performance appraisal that Hair received before the ICC’s board of directors sacked him.
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/ 11 November 2006
Wales coach Gareth Jenkins has backed calls for the Pacific Islanders to be integrated into the Tri-Nations tournament. ”It is the way forward for them, there is no doubt at all about that,” said Jenkins, whose Welsh side take on the Islanders on Saturday.
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/ 11 November 2006
Fraud convict Tony Yengeni — the former African National Congress chief whip — would be released on weekend parole, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday. A few offenders per prison are released each weekend, with 22 prisoners from the Western Cape benefiting this month.
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/ 11 November 2006
One of China’s wealthiest tycoons has bought an -million stake in Anglo American, a landmark deal in China’s pursuit of African resources, the Financial Times said on Saturday. Citic Pacific chairperson Larry Yung, China’s third richest man, also known as Rong Zhijian, bought 17-million shares from the Oppenheimer dynasty.