Coaching at international level is more and more about compromise, it seems. The international season is almost upon us and half of Jake White’s Springbok squad is crocked. It is now easy to understand why the national coach chose 45 players for his training camp in Bloemfontein.
Brazilian soccer legend Pele this week used his enduring popularity to help raise funds for Let’s Play, a SuperSport social responsibility initiative geared at encouraging children to take part in sport to avoid health problems associated with obesity.
Gunmen in Baghdad killed the coach of the Iraqi national tennis team and two players, reportedly for wearing Western-style tennis shorts, an Iraqi Olympic official said on Friday. The coach, Hussein Ahmed Rashid, was murdered along with two of his players, Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Auda, outside his home in the capital’s southern al-Saidiyah neighbourhood.
Kumar Sangakkara insisted Sri Lanka’s batsmen ”had to do much better” after the tourists were skittled out for just 141 on the opening day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston. At stumps, England were closing in on a first-innings lead at 138-3 after pace-man Liam Plunkett had taken 3-43, including a double-wicket maiden in his first over.
Hamza El Din, a musician and composer who helped popularise ancient traditional songs from North Africa, has died. He was 76. El Din died on Monday at Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, said hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp. His wife, Nadra, told The New York Times the cause of death was complications after surgery.
Zimbabwe says an invitation to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is no longer valid following reports that Annan might use the visit to press President Robert Mugabe to step down after more than two decades in power. ”Zimbabwe is not a UN issue,” Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba was quoted as saying in state media on Thursday.
A well-known Australian climber given up for dead near the summit of Mount Everest may still be alive and rescuers are trying to reach him, a colleague said on Friday. Lincoln Hall (50) and one of Australia’s leading climbers, was reported by his Russian expedition leader earlier on Friday to have died on Thursday while descending from the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
The JSE was in positive territory in noon trade on Friday, boosted by a turnaround on world markets and a bounce in precious metals prices. While dealers were not convinced the strength would last, it was nevertheless welcomed after the recent weakness.
Yeehaw! Texans who brag they do things bigger and better now can go faster too. State transportation officials on Thursday boosted speed limits on two stretches of rural highway from 75mph (121kph) to 80mph (129kph) — the United States’s highest posted speed limit.
Scientists searching for the origin of HIV, the global pandemic infecting more than 40-million people, believe they have finally tracked its original source to two colonies of chimpanzees in a corner of Cameroon. The finding represents the culmination of a 10-year hunt for the source of the pandemic.