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/ 4 September 2007
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Days before the opening match of the Rugby World Cup, a global coalition representing news agencies and newspapers is still at odds with the International Rugby Board (IRB) concerning coverage of the event. Despite progress on several fronts over the last two weeks, two points of contention concerning photographs remain.
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/ 3 September 2007
Millions of commuters in London endured travel chaos on Tuesday as a 72-hour strike by Tube maintenance workers closed most of the network. As the strike entered its second day, Transport for London said the disruption was ”severe and unacceptable”, with trains suspended on all but three of the 12 lines.
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/ 3 September 2007
Benni McCarthy opened his Premier League scoring account for the new season as Blackburn took the wind out of Manchester City’s sails with a 1-0 win at Ewood Park on Sunday. The South African striker pounced after 13 minutes to claim what was to be the only goal of a match both sides ended with 10 men.
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/ 3 September 2007
Jose Mourinho must be developing an intense hatred for visits to Villa Park after Martin O’Neill condemned Chelsea to yet another dose of Midlands misery. Debutant Zat Knight and Gabriel Agbonlahor both scored in the second half to leave Mourinho still waiting for his first Premier League victory at this particular corner of the West Midlands.
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/ 3 September 2007
Sachin Tendulkar returned in style to the Headingley ground where he was Yorkshire’s first overseas player as he set up India’s 38-run win against England under the Duckworth/Lewis method in the fifth one-day international on Sunday. India’s victory reduced England’s lead in the seven-match series to 3-2.
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/ 3 September 2007
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England captain Phil Vickery says the defending champions can have a huge impact on the World Cup but must be wary of Pool A opponents South Africa. Four mediocre years since winning the trophy in Australia in 2003 have left England outside the main favourites for the tournament in France which kicks off on Friday.
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/ 2 September 2007
Liverpool brandished their credentials as potential English Premiership champions with a 6-0 demolition of Derby on Saturday as champions Manchester United continued to recover from their slow start to the season. The pressure on Tottenham boss Martin Jol increased after his side drew in a six-goal thriller at Fulham.
Princess Diana’s family solemnly marked the 10th anniversary of her death on Friday, with her younger son eulogising her as ”the best mother in the world”. The bishop of London used his sermon to call for an end to the sniping between Diana’s fans and detractors, and a priest who has led an annual memorial said it may now be time to let go.
United States President George Bush will outline reforms on Friday to help struggling subprime mortgage borrowers and his central bank chief will deliver a speech which will be pored over for hints of a looming rate cut. Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke speaks on ”Housing and Monetary Policy” at around 2pm GMT.
Stuart Broad returned career best figures with both bat and ball as England beat India by three wickets in the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford on Thursday. When Broad, who’d earlier taken 4-51 as India were dismissed for 212, came to the crease England were in dire straits at 114-7. But they still needed fewer than a run-a-ball to win.
A diamond-encrusted skull art work by British contemporary artist Damien Hirst has been sold for £50-million (about R718-million) to an investment group, a spokesperson for the White Cube art gallery in London said on Thursday. The platinum skull, cast from an 18th-century European man, is coated in 8 601 diamonds.
Camps teeming with frustrated refugees in Sudan’s Darfur region have become militarised and present a danger that cannot be ignored, a United Nations official was quoted as saying on Thursday. The UN’s emergency relief coordinator said the presence of weapons in the camps made for a potentially explosive situation.
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Jonny Wilkinson, in the Hollywood film of his life, would have kicked that World Cup-winning drop-goal against Australia and promptly announced his retirement. After all, how could he top that? But as the England flyhalf has discovered during the last four years, life isn’t always like they tell you it is in the movies.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela on Wednesday announced a giant benefit concert in London next June to promote his 46664 campaign against HIV/Aids. The gig will take place in Hyde Park on June 27 to mark his 90th birthday the following month, Mandela said at the unveiling of a statue of him in London’s Parliament Square.
A frail Nelson Mandela on Wednesday attended the unveiling of his statue opposite Britain’s Parliament in a ceremony recognising him as one of the greatest leaders of his age. Mandela made his way gingerly to the platform for the ceremony, leaning on the arm of his wife, Graca Machel, and waved to an applauding crowd.
Five-time European champions Liverpool beat Toulouse 4-0 to complete their qualification for the group stage of the Champions League on Tuesday. The Reds will be joined in Thursday’s draw for the lucrative group stage by Lazio and Rangers. Lazio won 3-1 at Dinamo Bucharest to round off a 4-2 aggregate victory.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday held private talks in London with former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom he hailed as ”the greatest and most courageous leader of our generation.” The meeting in Downing Street preceded the planned inauguration on Wednesday of a large statue of Mandela in London’s Parliament Square.
Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, scorer of the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final, retired from football aged 34 on Tuesday after a long run of knee injuries. Solskjaer confirmed his decision on the club’s website and said: ”I would like to thank the manager, the coaching and medical staff and most of all the supporters.”
HIV has slashed life expectancy in Zimbabwe by up to 19 years for men and 22 years for women but births still outpace deaths, according to the first study to detail how the Aids pandemic has affected the country’s wider population. The study, led by Simon Gregson of Imperial College London, sought to gauge HIV’s impact on Zimbabwe to see if researchers got it right in 1989.
Manchester United won their first game of the Premier League season on Sunday, with Nani scoring his debut goal in a 1-0 victory over Tottenham. Nani’s 68th-minute goal came after a frantic period of play where Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov had two shots saved.
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World Cup hosts France completed their warm-up campaign ahead of the start of next month’s showpiece tournament with an impressive 34-7 win against Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday. In a lively match, France, who’ve yet to win the World Cup, outscored Wales by four tries to one.
Frank Lampard capped his week to remember by sending Chelsea to the top of the Premier League as former leaders Manchester City were beaten at Arsenal on Saturday. Elsewhere, Birmingham won 2-1 at Derby, West Ham drew 1-1 with visitors Wigan, Everton drew 1-1 with Blackburn and Aston Villa beat Fulham 2-1.
Welsh rugby was plunged into a financial row on Friday just two weeks before Gareth Jenkins’s team open their World Cup campaign against Canada. Wales’s four regional teams have met with the Welsh Rugby Union seeking compensation of almost £1-million for the loss of their leading players for the duration of the World Cup.
Ireland struggled to a 23-20 World Cup warm-up win over Italy on Friday in a match that was crowned by two controversial tries in the dying minutes. Ireland, who had trailed 13-10 at the interval despite fielding a near full-strength side, had led 16-13 with three minutes left before Italy scored a try through Matteo Pratichetti, which they thought had won the game.
Sachin Tendulkar’s 99 set up India’s nine-run victory against England at Nevil Road on Friday, which saw them level the seven-match one-day international series at 1-1. Tendulkar’s innings was the centrepiece of India’s record 329 for-7. In reply, the hosts got close, ending on 320-8. Ian Bell top-scored for England with 64.
A man pleaded guilty on Friday to driving at 277km/h in a high-performance sports car on a public road, making him the fastest motorist ever caught speeding in Britain. Timothy Brady was caught driving a £98 000 Porsche 911 Turbo in a random police speed check on a trunk road near Abingdon, south central England, in January this year.
European power companies are making billions of euros in excess profits in the European Union’s battle to beat global warming by cutting emissions of carbon gases, and consumers are paying for it, economists say. The electricity generators are given, free of charge, permits to emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, but are then charging consumers.
Two major investigations by French and British police concluded that Princess Diana’s death in a Paris car crash was a tragic accident, but 10 years on many remain convinced she was murdered in a sinister plot. The usual suspects cited by conspiracy theorists include Britain’s royal family — because they were unhappy Diana was to marry her lover, Muslim Dodi al-Fayed.
Goalkeeper Paul Robinson’s place in the England squad was being questioned by the British press on Thursday after he gifted Germany an equaliser in a friendly at Wembley, which the visitors won 2-1. Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard put England ahead in the ninth minute but a bad mistake by Robinson gifted Schalke striker Kevin Kuranyi an equaliser in the 26th minute.
India captain Rahul Dravid said England had played the ”perfect” one-day game after defeating his side by the huge margin of 104 runs in the opening match of a seven-match series at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday. Dravid, who sent England in to bat, saw the home team pile up 288-2 with Ian Bell and Alastair Cook both scoring their maiden one-day international hundreds.
South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena said on Tuesday he loves a British-style physical contest on the pitch and reckons his experience in England will serve him well against Scotland. The Blackburn Rovers defender is set to lead out Bafana Bafana against the Scots at Pittodrie on Wednesday in a warm-up game for both sides.
Organisers of a race in Scotland have taken out a £1-million insurance policy against attack by or sighting of the fabled Loch Ness monster. Transport operator FirstGroup said in a statement that its policy with insurers Royal & Sun Alliance would pay out should "Nessie" emerge from the murky depths of the vast watercourse and/or attack one of the competitors.