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/ 5 December 2007
British detectives said on Wednesday they had arrested a man who reappeared more than five years after he was presumed drowned in a canoeing accident. John Darwin was held on suspicion of fraud four days after he walked into a London police station and told officers he believed they might be looking for him.
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/ 5 December 2007
A new type of Ebola fever in Uganda might be less deadly than others — but that’s not necessarily good news. The World Health Organisation said last week that an ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda was caused by a new subtype, the fifth to be detected since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and the Congo.
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/ 5 December 2007
Oil rose on Wednesday after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) decided to keep output levels unchanged, rebuffing consumer-country calls for more crude to rein in prices now near a barrel. Opec also agreed to meet again at the end of January to review its decision ahead of a regular March gathering.
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/ 5 December 2007
England World Cup hooker Mark Regan has been sanctioned by Bristol for disobeying orders and playing for the Barbarians against South Africa at Twickenham last weekend, the club said on Tuesday. The club did not reveal details of Regan’s punishment.
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/ 4 December 2007
The wife of a British man who disappeared more than five years ago but then turned up alive at the weekend has herself gone missing, media reports said on Tuesday. John Darwin (57), who was thought to have died in a canoeing accident, walked in to a London police station and declared he was a missing person, but had no memory of where he had been.
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/ 4 December 2007
A British teacher jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad voiced relief at her release on Tuesday, as she arrived back home after a presidential pardon. ”I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure and got a lot more adventure than what I was looking for,” said Gillian Gibbons.
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/ 3 December 2007
The world’s first self-tuning guitar was unveiled to the public in London on Monday — an instrument that automatically detects when a string has fallen out of pitch and corrects it. The Gibson Robot Guitar was unveiled to the public by Mike Peters, lead singer and guitarist from the Alarm, the biggest band to come out of Wales in the 1980s.
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/ 3 December 2007
Fernando Torres scored his third goal in two games as Liverpool crushed Bolton Wanderers 4-0 at Anfield on Sunday to climb to third place in the English Premier League. The Spain striker scored the second of Liverpool’s goals — his 11th of the season — after Sami Hyypia had headed them in front.
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/ 2 December 2007
Emmanuel Adebayor sent Arsenal five points clear at the top of the Premier League as Arsene Wenger’s side won 2-1 against Aston Villa on Saturday. Adebayor headed the winner to extend Arsenal’s lead over second placed Chelsea after Mathieu Flamini had cancelled out Craig Gardner’s opener at Villa Park.
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/ 1 December 2007
Jake White’s last match as coach of world champions South Africa ended with a defeat as the invitational Barbarians beat the Springboks 22-5 in a non-cap international at Twickenham on Saturday. The Barbarians outscored South Africa three tries to one with Australia’s Matt Giteau, Wales flanker Martyn Williams and Wallaby forward Rocky Elsom all crossing the line.
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/ 30 November 2007
The price of oil fell back below a barrel on Friday as the market speculated about the chances of an increase in Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries output at the cartel’s meeting next week, dealers said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was down ,75 to ,35 per barrel.
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/ 30 November 2007
The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will remain a 20-team competition, the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced on Friday. Before this year’s World Cup, where South Africa beat England in October’s final in Paris, plans for a reduction from 20 teams to 16 were being considered because of the numerous mismatches that had taken place in the previous five editions.
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/ 30 November 2007
A man has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment after calling a Welsh woman English. Michael Forsythe was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, a court official said.
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/ 29 November 2007
A new service promises Londoners they’ll never have to spend much time looking for the loo. Westminster city council, which covers London’s bustling Oxford Street, the West End and the Houses of Parliament, on Thursday launched ”SatLav” — a toilet-finding service for cellphone users.
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/ 29 November 2007
Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp insisted on Thursday a police probe into corruption in football had nothing to do with him. In a statement at the English Premier League club’s Eastleigh training ground, Redknapp said he was ”bitterly disappointed” to have been arrested on Wednesday and had been left ”deeply hurt” by the incident.
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/ 29 November 2007
South Africa have made three changes for Saturday’s non-cap international against the Barbarians at Twickenham — Jake White’s last match as coach of the world champions. Bismarck du Plesis takes the place of World Cup-winning captain John Smit after the hooker’s French club, Clermont Auvergne, refused to release him for this fixture.
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/ 29 November 2007
A ”cyber cold war” waged over the world’s computers may become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday. About 120 countries are developing ways to use the internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.
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/ 29 November 2007
England hooker Mark Regan was on Wednesday confirmed as captain of the Barbarians team to play South Africa on Saturday despite being warned by his club not to play. Bristol had given Regan the week off as they are involved in a dead rubber EDF Energy Cup match but say they want him to rest ahead of the Heineken Cup fixture.
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/ 28 November 2007
The Golden Compass, a -million picture based on Philip Pullman’s acclaimed novel Northern Lights, is caught between a United States Catholic group that has called for a boycott of what it sees as an attack on religion and Pullman purists who do not want the original watered down.
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/ 28 November 2007
Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, AS Roma and Sevilla all advanced to the second round of the Champions League on Tuesday. Inter, Sevilla and Roma advanced with wins, while a point against Lyon was enough for Barcelona. The four teams join Arsenal and Manchester United in the next round.
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/ 28 November 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a grilling in Parliament on Wednesday over the funding row that has engulfed the Labour party. Despite pledging to return the donations, Brown will face calls to explain what he knew about the £600 000 that property developer David Abrahams donated through intermediaries.
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/ 28 November 2007
”Le fish and chips” in a top French restaurant? Pourquoi pas? At least that’s the view of leading Gallic chef Alain Ducasse, who is embracing British cuisine with open arms, in the teeth of his homeland’s traditionally snobbish attitude towards English food.
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/ 27 November 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed on Tuesday that he will boycott a European Union-Africa summit to be held in Lisbon next month in protest at the participation of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. ”I will not be attending this summit,” Brown said at a press conference at Downing Street.
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/ 27 November 2007
A hunt for Britain’s top university is helping mobile firm O2 tap Facebook’s burgeoning audience and reflects the innovation advertisers need to tap the potential of such sites, analysts say. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook are hugely popular with younger internet users — vital but hard to reach for advertisers.
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/ 27 November 2007
Johan Ackermann joined South Africa on Monday as cover in case injured lock Bakkies Botha was unavailable for the Springboks’ season finale against the Barbarians this weekend. Botha hurt his ankle in the Boks’ 34-12 win over Wales at Cardiff on Saturday.
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/ 26 November 2007
The body of Princess Diana showed no physical signs of pregnancy, Robert Chapman, the pathologist who carried out her post-mortem, told the inquest on Monday into her death. But he acknowledged that while her womb and ovaries did not show any of the normal signs of pregnancy, those would not have been seen if the pregnancy was less than three weeks old.
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/ 26 November 2007
The woman known as ”the voice of the Tube” on London’s underground has been sacked after criticising the network and making spoof announcements including making fun of United States tourists, officials said on Monday. Emma Clarke has for the past eight years been famous as the voice warning travellers to ”Mind the gap”.
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/ 26 November 2007
Tottenham had an injury-time penalty kick saved in a 1-1 draw Sunday at West Ham in the Premier League. West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green dived to his left to save the shot from Jermain Defoe, who had earned the penalty after being brought down by Lucas Neill.
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/ 26 November 2007
In the James Bond novels and films, it fell to technical expert Q to invent the gizmos and cunningly concealed weapons that helped the British spy cheat death and save the world. From a biometric keyboard to blast-proof curtains, the inventions on display in the real world this month came from five technology firms in the final round of the Global Security Challenge.
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/ 26 November 2007
A consortium led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has been picked as the preferred bidder to rescue Northern Rock and plans to repay £11-billion (,6-billion) quickly to the Bank of England. Half the cash will come from the consortium and half will be raised through a rights issue at 25 pence per share.
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/ 25 November 2007
Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League with a dramatic 2-0 win over Wigan, while Manchester United slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat at Bolton on Saturday. Steven Gerrard’s stunning strike put Liverpool on course for a stylish 3-0 win against Newcastle.
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/ 25 November 2007
A British opera singer who sang Croatia’s national anthem before their crucial football victory over England blundered by accidentally singing about his manhood, British media reported on Friday. Tony Henry’s explicit rendition was delivered before about 90 000 fans at London’s Wembley Stadium.