Alaalatoa says crucial Australia keep win streak going against Georgia

Alaalatoa says crucial Australia keep win streak going against Georgia

Wallabies skipper Allan Alaalatoa stressed on Friday the importance of maintaining momentum under new coach Joe Schmidt, forecasting a physical game against Georgia this weekend. Australia won back-to-back Tests this month against Wales to get the New Zealander's reign off to a flying start. "It's massive, it's something we addressed early in the week," Alaalatoa -- Australia's third captain in as many Tests -- said of keeping the […]

July 19, 2024 8

Sport

England’s Brown takes shock lead in British Open

English journeyman Dan Brown birdied the last hole to card a first-round 65 and lead the Open Championship by one shot from Ireland's Shane Lowry on Thursday. The 29-year-old Brown, a one-time European Tour winner who came through qualifying to earn his place in the year's final major, took advantage of benign late conditions. He sank an eight-foot birdie putt at the last to move top of the […]

July 19, 2024 6

World

Saudi Arabia executed over 100 people this year: AFP tally

Saudi Arabia executed two people convicted of drug trafficking, the interior ministry said Thursday, bringing the total number of executions carried out this year to at least 106, according to an AFP tally. The official Saudi Press Agency reported the ministry's announcement, saying one was a Saudi national executed for trafficking amphetamines, and the other a Pakistani for trafficking heroin, both in Mecca. Saudi authorities resumed executions […]

July 18, 2024 27

Africa

UN urges Central Africa to protect human rights in prison

The United Nations has called on authorities in the Central African Republic to guarantee human rights in prisons, where torture and malnutrition are common, said a report published Thursday. Thousands of prisoners are currently being held in overcrowded places of detention across the country, with limited access to food, water, sanitation and basic healthcare, said the report. Some had been in pre-trial detention for nearly six years, the […]

July 18, 2024 23

World

Vietnam president handed power as party leader seeks medical care

Vietnam's communist party handed the reins of power Thursday to the country's largely ceremonial president, To Lam, as its 80-year-old leader and general secretary temporarily stood down for health reasons. The politburo appointed Lam, 67, to take over as both the party and country's caretaker leader while current General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong focused "on active treatment", the Vietnamese Communist Party said in an online statement. […]

July 18, 2024 12

Environment

The basic care during the winter lambing and kidding season

By Erastus Ngaruka,Technical Advisor, Livestock & Rangeland During the winter season, smallstock (goat and sheep) farmers always have a big task at hand of ensuring that the lambing (sheep birth) and kidding (goat birth) season progresses well with fewer or no complications in their kraals to potentially achieve their production targets. Generally, animals’ breeding activities take place during seasons or times most favorable to their […]

July 18, 2024 7

Environment

Wildfires in South Africa are set to increase: how legal action can help the country adapt better to climate change

By Tracy-Lynn Field, University of the Witwatersrand As climate change drives temperature increases and lower precipitation in southern Africa, research has found that there is likely to be an increase in the number of wildfires in regions that are already hot, dry and water scarce. Massive wildfires broke out in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province on 12 and 13 July 2024, killing six firefighters who were […]

July 18, 2024 27

Sport

Mascherano says Argentina racist chants video ‘taken out of context’

Javier Mascherano, the coach of Argentina's Olympic football squad, said Wednesday that a video showing racist chants by national team players after they won the Copa America was "taken out of context". "Argentines, if there's one thing we're not, it's racists, far from that," Mascherano said at Argentina's pre-Olympic training base in northwestern France. The chants were heard during a live video posted on social media by Chelsea […]

July 18, 2024 9

Sport

Zverev plays through the pain to advance in Hamburg

Top seed Alexander Zverev shrugged off a knee issue to ease past Jesper de Jong in straight sets and into the last 16 at his home tournament in Hamburg on Wednesday. The defending champion hurt his left knee in a fall at Wimbledon but advanced 6-2, 6-2 past 114th-ranked Dutchman De Jong to set up a meeting with France's Hugo Gaston in the pre-Olympic clay-court tournament. "I was […]

July 18, 2024 14