England captain Lawrence Dallaglio has called a news conference on Tuesday amid speculation that he is to retire from international rugby union. The veteran back-row, who has played 73 times for his country and was on the team that won the World Cup last year, took over the captaincy after Martin Johnson retired.
Reports of a family feud and racism in the family of high jumper Hestrie Cloete could have cost her the Olympic gold medal, her trainer Martin Marx said on Tuesday. Speaking on his return from the Olympics where Cloete scooped a silver medal, Marx said: ”She was under a lot of pressure but Hestrie takes pressure fine.”
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They lived in the same apartment, worked in the same market and — possibly — died within moments of each other on separate airliners that crashed in Russia last week. New details emerged on Monday about the two Chechen women who are the focus of suspicions that the planes were blown up by terrorists. But questions also arose.
After three weeks of bloody conflict in Najaf, fresh fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City suburb and a death toll creeping into the high hundreds have tarnished the reputation of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr among many Iraqis, even though anti-United States feelings still run high.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time, instead of in three stages, officials said on Monday, reflecting a major shift in position. On Monday, Sharon and Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz presented the new plan to the Security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers.
Rare and endangered cycad plants, often referred to as living fossils, are being stolen in South Africa at an alarming rate, with at least two species from Limpopo province having disappeared completely. According to the National Botanical Institute, the country’s botanical gardens are also being targeted by cycad poachers.
Preparations are under way for the estimated 10Â 000 people expected to descend on Pretoria on Tuesday in celebration of the 1956 Women’s Day march. Tshwane metro police said on Monday large parts of the city around the Union Buildings will be closed from early on Tuesday morning to facilitate the crowds.
An illegal strike in the world’s largest diamond producer, Botswana, entered a second week on Monday with the union saying that miners who have opted to stay on the job are overworked, resulting in two deaths. Thousands of workers in four mines run by Debswana went on strike a week ago.
Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as The Dogs of War and set it in Malabo: a rag-tag band of mercenaries, recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a mineral-rich, African backwater. Now the basic plot is playing out again as a trial unfolds for a group accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.