Ethiopia’s ruling coalition and allied political parties have won a majority in the country’s 547-seat Parliament, according to provisional results, the National Electoral Board said. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s coalition won 269 seats, while four small independent parties affiliated with the ruling party won 14 seats.
Premier Soccer League champions Kaizer Chiefs were slapped with a lengthy three-year ban by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) on Saturday for refusing to play a Caf Cup match last weekend. The ban excludes Chiefs from participating in any African club competitions until 2009.
BMW motor-sport director Mario Theissen insisted at Nürburgring on Saturday that the German company expects to stay with Williams beyond the end of this season despite persistent rumours to the contrary. Williams look set to be forced to share their engine supply with Sauber next season.
Spanish champion FC Barcelona drew 0-0 with Real Sociedad on Saturday in their final league match of the season. Barcelona, who lacked five of their title-winning team, including Ronaldinho and Deco, gave a relaxed display at Sociedad’s Anoeta stadium. The champions were applauded by their opponents before the match.
Amelie Mauresmo saw her French Open hopes go up in flames once again on Saturday on a bad day for the home fans. Mauresmo lost 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 to 17-year-old Serb Ana Ivanovic in a centre-court stunner as three other French women were sent packing from the third round. Meanwhile, the Russians were on a roll.
As campaigning ended in France on Friday night ahead of Sunday’s historic referendum over the European Constitution, the ”non” on the streets is echoed in final opinion polls. Europe now stands at a perilous crossroads: rejection would not just see decision-making paralysed, or block the path of new nations queuing to join.
A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son’s birthday party. Anette Pharris (34) has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy’s father, the stripper and two others also face charges.
They are the new pioneers, echoing their 19th-century forebears by flocking to the prairies on the promise of free land and new opportunity. Small American towns are desperate to fight off decades of decline and depopulation. Now many have made a last-ditch promise to attract settlers: go there, build a home and the land will be free.
Major increases in the price of the staple diet of bread and maize meal went into effect on Saturday in Harare, but the Zimbabwean capital was reported quiet after a weeklong blitz on street traders and shack dwellers that saw ten of thousands arrested or left homeless in the midwinter cold.
The disciplinary hearing of disgraced Beaufort West politician Truman Prince will resume on Sunday morning when the African National Congress will call its last two witnesses to testify. The hearing arises from a documentary on SABC3 on child prostitution that showed Prince flirting with under-age girls.