Betting on major sporting events is always going to happen, but in chunks of Asia it is illegal and police across the region are cracking down ahead of the World Cup. Asians enjoy a flutter and tens of millions of dollars is expected to be wagered over the month-long football festival on everything from who will win to who scores the first goal.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille joined an anti-crime cavalcade through the streets of Mitchell’s Plain on Sunday and urged people to take back the streets. Zille said she felt privileged to join the symbolic stance against what she called a ”terrible” and ”brutal” wave of violence sweeping the country, particularly the Western Cape.
The Wallabies under new coach John Connolly are working on expunging the bitter memories of the demolition of the Australian scrum by England at Twickenham last November. England’s domination at the scrum, where loosehead prop Andrew Sheridan was particularly impressive, was so complete that Australia tighthead Al Baxter was eventually sin-binned for repeat offences.
Hundreds of thousands of VIP ticket-holders for the World Cup could be barred from stadia for not having their names on the tickets, media reports said on Monday. The German organising committee of the World Cup and Swiss agent ISE, hired by football’s world governing body Fifa to oversee commercial sales of tickets have insisted they are not responsible for the blunder.
George Gregan, just two appearances away from becoming rugby’s most capped international player, on Monday restated his commitment to lead the Wallabies at next year’s World Cup in France. The 33-year-old scrum-half general goes into the domestic international season next month on 118 Test caps — just one behind England prop forward Jason Leonard’s record of 119 Tests.
Argentina’s buzzing Buenos Aires has turned into a top Latin American destination for homosexual tourists, as the capital gets its gay-friendly message out to lure fresh revenue. The recent designation of the city as Latin America’s first host of a homosexual football World Cup and an opening of a wine bar catering to gays are some of the latest effects of Buenos Aires’s rising star.
Education’s stormy petrel Jonathan Jansen almost left South Africa this year. In an interview with the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently, he explained his motives and articulated his deep concerns about the country’s education system.
Ghana has its own stock exchange. True, it only trades shares in 30 companies and is only open for three hours a day, but you have to start somewhere. As the trade minister, Alan Kyerematen, puts it: ”This is the Wall Street of Ghana. Wall Street used to be like this once.”
Senior United States marine officers are under investigation for an alleged cover-up of a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last November — an atrocity being described as ”worse than Abu Ghraib”. The marine corps commandant, General Michael Magee, has flown to Iraq to lecture his troops on the laws of war and was reported to be considering dismissing high-ranking officers.
Nineteen South African passport holders deported from the Democratic Republic of Congo for their alleged involvement in a coup plot arrived home on Sunday night. Their flight from Kinshasa landed at Johannesburg International airport just after 6.20pm.