The Premier League’s inquiry into John Obi Mikel’s transfer tug-of-war between Manchester United and Chelsea is to investigate claims that the Nigerian teenager has turned his back on Old Trafford because he has been ”intimidated and coerced into acting against his wishes”.
You’ll have to forgive Manchester United fans for looking a little Glazed over in the build-up to the showpiece FA Cup final against Arsenal at Cardiff’s magnificent Millennium stadium. The world’s oldest knock-out final has been overshadowed by Malcolm Glazer, a 78-year-old American watchmaker.
Springbok coach Jake White is beginning to understand the media. Bad news sells newspapers. So when the first Springbok squad of the season was announced on Saturday, was there a nationwide chorus of praise from the fourth estate about the inclusion — at last! — of Bulls hooker Gary Botha? Of course not.
In a week in which Tony Leon came out with guns blazing because the African National Congress seemed, in his view, bent on dividing and ruling the white population, South Africa was pondering yet another great gulf in the populace.
This weekend, the national question will be answered: Who will be South Africa’s football champions?
The reserve bank governor announced an effective 45% devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar, a ban on luxury imports and heavy subsidies for agriculture and exporters to try to end an economic crisis that has seen mass arrests of black market traders, long lines for gasoline and stampedes for scarce foods.
Luis Posada, the ageing anti-Castro militant wanted in Venezuela and Cuba over an airliner bombing 30 years ago, was on Thursday charged with illegally entering the US, in a case that has led to claims of double standards by Washington in the war on terror.
Just as 1 300 scientists from 90 nations warn of looming extinction in the animal world, a small team of biologists has discovered a species of African monkey. The highland mangabey — Lophocebus kipunji — was spotted by Wildlife Conservation Society biologists on the flanks of a 3 500m volcano in Tanzania.
<b>AUTHOR’S NOTES:</b> Craig Higginson’s new novel <i>The Hill</i> is a sensitive and well-told tale that is set at a young boys school. He tells ZA@Play more about the book.
Zimbabwe’s former finance minister Chris Kuruneri, facing charges of funnelling funds abroad to buy a mansion in South Africa, has been convicted of breaching citizenship laws by holding dual nationality. Twenty witnesses, including 11 South Africans and Zimbabwe’s central bank governor are still to testify against Kuruneri.
One of Robert Mugabe’s fiercest critics, the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, has accused Zimbabwe’s opposition of failing to give the strong leadership needed to overthrow the president’s regime. He avoided naming the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, but the target of his criticism was clear.