A former top South African defence official resigned after suspecting corruption over an arms deal involving BAE Systems, Thales and others, a report said on Thursday. Pierre Steyn said he left office in 1998 because he was not content proper safeguards were in place which would allow him to prevent or expose corruption in the bidding process.
Britain’s newest visitor attraction, a theme park dedicated to novelist Charles Dickens, offers a taste of the grim world of Victorian London stalked by characters like Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge and David Copperfield. In the naval dockyard town of Chatham in south-east England’s Kent, where Dickens lived and worked, Dickens World opened its doors over the weekend.
JK Rowling, who became the world’s first billion dollar author on the back of Harry Potter’s success, has given the go-ahead for the creation of a Florida theme park dedicated to the schoolboy wizard. ”The plans I have seen look incredibly exciting and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed,” Rowling said.
England’s Premiership soccer players will earn more than £1-billion for the first time next season thanks to television, sponsorship and merchandising deals, a top accountancy firm said on Thursday. Leading players could command as much as £200 000 per week — or a record £10-million a year.
Formula One’s governing body cleared McLaren on Wednesday of using illegal ”team orders” in their one-two victory in Monaco last weekend. ”It is clear McLaren’s actions during the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix were entirely legitimate and no further action is necessary,” the International Automobile Federation said in a statement.
Health professionals should routinely offer to test people for HIV, instead of waiting for patients to request it, according to new advice from the United Nations on Wednesday. In making the recommendations, it is underlining the need to identify the millions of HIV-positive people worldwide who need treatment.
Norway is the most peaceful country in the world and Iraq the least, according to a study launched on Wednesday, which notably puts Japan near the top and Russia and Israel close to the bottom. The Global Peace Index, published a week before a Group of Eight summit in Germany, rates 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe.
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is to undergo a third operation on his troublesome left ankle, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Wednesday. Flintoff, who missed the first two Tests of England’s current four-Test series against the West Indies because of the problem, will have investigative surgery over the weekend.
Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday 150 000 barrels per day of production at a key Nigerian oil terminal were cut after villagers sabotaged pipelines. A Shell spokesperson said community members attacked some oil pipelines connected to the Bonny Light crude terminal on Tuesday.
Shane Warne has been punished for disputing an umpire’s decision during an English county championship match in a move that has pushed the Australia leg-spin great nearer a match suspension. Warne initially stood his ground after being given out leg before by umpire Tim Robinson off the bowling of Ryan McLaren.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Libya for talks with President Moammar Gadaffi Tuesday as it was revealed that oil giant British Petroleum (BP) will soon resume oil and gas exploitation in the North African state after an absence of 30 years. Blair’s ”farewell trip” to Africa will also take him to Sierra Leone and South Africa.
Britain’s largest organic group may refuse to certify produce which has been imported by air amid concern about environmental impact. The Soil Association launched a consultation on Tuesday which will look at several options for air-freighted organic produce including a halt to certification, a selective ban, labelling and carbon off-setting.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to use a farewell trip to Africa this week to build momentum for a rich nation summit that will focus on Africa and to push for a world trade deal, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Blair flies to Libya, Sierra Leone and South Africa on one of his last trips abroad before stepping down on June 27 after a decade in power.
England inflicted the West Indies’ worst Test defeat of all time, breaking a 50-year-old record, as they won the second Test by an innings and 283 runs to go 1-0 up in the four-match series on Monday. West Indies, 137-6 at tea on the fourth day, lasted just 25 balls after the resumption, losing their last three wickets on 141 after being made to follow on.
A mainstream British broadcaster was under fire on Monday for vowing to screen graphic images of the car crash that killed Diana, princess of Wales. Channel 4 television is to show photographs that include Diana receiving oxygen from a doctor and a passing student trying to help her seriously injured bodyguard.
New Zealand accounted for Fiji 29-7 in a rainy London Sevens rugby final at Twickenham on Sunday. By winning their second tournament in the eight-leg world series, New Zealand closed the gap on series leader Fiji to 10 points going into the final leg at Murrayfield next weekend.
Tony Blair will head to Africa this week for his last visit as British Prime Minister after a decade in power, during which he made helping the continent a key priority. But while widely praised for tackling poverty and debt, experts say he leaves behind a mixed legacy. Blair is expected in Sierra Leone and South Africa.
David Beckham has been recalled to England’s squad for their forthcoming matches against Brazil and Estonia. Beckham’s international career looked to be over when he was dropped by England coach Steve McClaren following last year’s World Cup, but the Real Madrid midfielder has earned a surprise return.
Nearly a year after being dropped from the national team, David Beckham looks set to return to the England squad as coach Steve McClaren scrambles to boost his side’s chances of qualifying for the 2008 European Championship. Beckham could be named on Saturday in McClaren’s squad to play Brazil in a friendly at Wembley next Friday.
Allan Donald, the South Africa pace bowling great, has been given a role with England’s coaching staff, it was announced on Friday. In a statement, the England and Wales Cricket Board said Donald would assist England’s fast bowlers on a short-term basis from the lead-in to the third Test at Old Trafford through to the end of the one-day series against the West Indies in July.
In a corner room of Britain’s Royal Courts of Justice, law lords this week handed victory to David over Goliath. It may not be the last bout in a struggle by residents to return to Diego Garcia, a remote island in the Chagos archipelago turned into a strategic United States military base, but it certainly brought that prospect closer.
Rising numbers of women in Britain are seeking state-funded cosmetic surgery on their genitals, doctors said on Friday. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they said the number of ”labial reductions” carried out in National Health Service hospitals had doubled to 800 a year over five years.
A homeless pensioner who has slept rough in one of London’s plushest beauty spots since 1986 was celebrating on Thursday after winning ownership of his plot of land, turning him into an instant millionaire. Harry Hallowes (71) secured ownership to an 800 square-metre plot in Hampstead Heath after a two-year legal battle with developers.
England’s pace bowlers will be given another chance to prove they can function without Freddie after all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was ruled out of the second Test against the West Indies starting at Headingley on Friday. Officials decided against bringing paceman Flintoff back for the second match of a four-Test series after he missed the drawn series opener at Lord’s.
With three World Cups behind him and 36 international goals to his name, Michael Owen may have felt that his days of proving himself in an England shirt were nothing but a distant memory. Yet when England’s B team lines up against Albania at Burnley’s Turf Moor on Friday, the Newcastle United forward will be aiming to show once and for all that he is fit.
Insurer Old Mutual posted a 5% rise in first-quarter operating profit, at the higher end of expectations, but said it still expected exchange rates and infrastructure costs to hold back growth this year. South Africa’s largest insurer said on Thursday operating profit on an IFRS basis was £398-million.
Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat by AC Milan in the Champions League final was due to a controversial opening goal that came off the arm of striker Filippo Inzaghi, British media reported on Thursday. Inzaghi, who also scored a fine second goal for Milan in the 82nd minute, ran into the path of Andrea Pirlo’s free kick to send the ball past goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
The leader of the San Bushmen met British lawmakers in London on Wednesday in a bid to drum up support for his people’s struggle to return to their land in the Kalahari desert in Botswana. Roy Sesana met members of the newly formed cross-party parliamentary group on tribal peoples.
Fears stoked by the post-9/11 ”war on terror” are increasingly dividing the world, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, while rapping rights abuses from China to Darfur and Russia to the Middle East. The gap between Muslims and non-Muslims notably deepened, fuelled by discriminatory counter-terrorism strategies in Western countries, warned the rights group.
British prosecutors accused a former KGB agent on Tuesday of murdering dissident Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium and sought his extradition, throwing London and Moscow on to a diplomatic collision course. The Crown Prosecution Service said it wanted to bring suspect Andrei Lugovoy before a British court.
British prosecutors will charge former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London last year after being poisoned with radioactive polonium. The Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday there was enough evidence to charge Lugovoy and seek his extradition from Russia.
England’s new coach Peter Moores tried to play down the prospect of South Africa pace great Allan Donald joining his backroom staff after seeing the home side’s fast bowlers struggle during the drawn first Test against West Indies at Lord’s. England’s quicks struggled to make much of an impression against a West Indies side ranked a lowly eighth in the world Test rankings.