Richie McCaw was on Saturday named the new All Blacks rugby captain to succeed the now retired Tana Umaga. McCaw has been the only heir apparent to Umaga for the past year, and his appointment, announced by All Blacks coach Graham Henry, had been expected.
America’s Justin Gatlin set a new 100m world record at the Qatar Super Grand Prix on Friday with a time of 9,76sec. The Olympic champion bettered the old mark of 9,77sec held by Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, which was set in Athens last year. The 24-year-old American, who clocked 9,85sec in the semifinal, was overjoyed by his record.
Sajid Mahmood marked his debut by taking three quick wickets as England powered into a commanding position in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Friday. At stumps on the second day, Sri Lanka had collapsed to 91-6, still a huge 460 behind England’s first-innings 551-6 declared and needing a further 261 to avoid the follow-on target of 352.
President George Bush, in a nationally-televised speech on Monday, is expected to propose tougher immigration-enforcement measures along the United States-Mexico border, including the use of additional troops, US media reported on Friday. The New York Times reported that the president is likely to discuss the deployment of national-guard troops.
West Africa has become an increasingly important transit hub for trafficking cocaine to Europe. The ”tightening of border controls in the Netherlands and in Spain … forced South American traffickers to tackle the European market via West Africa”, said Fabrice Pothier of Senlis Council, an independent global think-tank fighting against narcotics trafficking.
South Africa’s Coastal Sharks all but secured their place in the Super 14 semifinals with a thrilling 41-25 win over the Western Force of Australia at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Friday night. The victory moved them up into fourth spot ahead of Australia’s ACT Brumbies. The South African team were given a lifeline earlier in the day when the Brumbies suffered a 33-3 defeat to the Canterbury Crusaders.
Tropical storm Chanchu continued to lash the Philippines on Saturday, leaving at least 21 people dead as heavy rains triggered landslides and left parts of the country under water. Floodwaters submerged two provinces in the central Visayas region, and several villages in Leyte’s Sogod town were cut off landslides and floods damaged a bridge and vital highway.
The Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) in KwaZulu-Natal has called on the African National Congress to ensure that Jacob Zuma is deployed to a position that would guarantee his contribution to the country’s socio-economic development and growth. The call came as they celebrated the triumph of justice in the exoneration of Zuma.
Talks aimed at resolving the ongoing strike in the security industry will continue on Monday, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) said on Friday. ”Today [Friday] we set the basis for negotiations,” Satawu’s national coordinator for the security industry, Jackson Simon, said after nearly 10 hours of talks with employers.
Thousands of villagers began fleeing their homes in the path of red-hot lava flows oozing from Indonesia’s Mount Merapi on Saturday as officials said an eruption looked imminent. But many residents were still reluctant to leave their homes, despite a mandatory evacuation order, they said.