Players care nothing for the record books, but after a while the weight of history forces its attention upon them. South Africa have not won against England at Twickenham since 1997. Last week they lost a game they should have won and it would be a brave man who would predict a different result this time around.

Zimbabwe’s unofficial foreign exchange is set to plunge to Z$4 000 against the United States dollar by year-end before dipping further to Z$180 000 to the greenback by December 2007 unless there is a drastic shift in economic policy, a leading Harare economist has warned.

Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent living in exile in London, died in hospital on Thursday night, three weeks after apparently ingesting a mysterious poison which has baffled doctors. In a statement at 11pm, a spokesperson for University College hospital, Jim Down, said: ”We are sorry to announce that Alexander Litvinenko died at 9.21pm.”

Michael Richards, the actor loved by millions as Seinfeld’s peculiar neighbour Kramer, has turned to an equally legendary public relations guru to save his career after last week’s racist outburst. Richards has signed up Howard Rubenstein, whose New York-based PR firm is the first port of call for many stars in a fix.

It was conceived as the ultimate tribute to human ingenuity and international cooperation — an orbiting space lab that would play host to some of the most talented and highly trained individuals on the planet, doing cutting-edge science. But 20 years and more than -billion later the International Space Station has been reduced to recouping some of its extravagant costs with a commercial stunt.

Willie Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, survived another round of debate about divisions within the federation during a tense, two-day central executive committee meeting recently where ”gloves were off and blood was on the floor”, in the words of general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.