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New Zealand has beaten England by 13-10 to secure the women’s Rugby World Cup at the Twickenham Stoop.

 

Australia sealed third place with a 22-8 victory over France.

The women Boks just managed to crack the top ten, though they went down 29-17 to Wales in the play-off match for ninth.

The South African Rugby Union (Saru) is set to review the Springboks’ Tri-Nations performance with Peter de Villiers later this month.

 

SARU President Regan Hoskins will have a formal discussion about some of the coach’s comments regarding Bees Roux, who allegedly beat a metro police officer to death last month.

During a press conference after the incident de Villiers admitted the Bok team had discussed the matter because some of the players know Roux. He suggested the team supported the Blue Bulls prop.

The Springbok coach is also under pressure after his charges lost all but one of their Tri-Nations matches.

 

Saru will reserve further comment until the review is complete.

The Defence Ministry on Monday stepped in to help a 15-year-old girl who desperately needs an operation at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg.

The teenager hit her head at the bottom of a swimming pool last week while diving in and could possibly be a quadriplegic.

The teenager’s cousin called into the John Robbie Show on Talk Radio 702 on Monday morning asking for help.

“The difficulty now is that she needs to be operated on and they can’t operate on her. The scary thing is that she is number 27 on that list,” said the cousin.

The Defence Ministry’s Ndivhuwo Mabaya has offered a helping hand.

“We have a specialist doctor who is at Helen Joseph Hospital whom we are rushing there to see what we can do. It is our duty as the SANDF to help,” said Mabaya.

The Western Cape Health Department on Monday said all facilities were operating as normal despite the ongoing public servants’ strike.

Department spokesperson Darren Francis said fewer than 100 of the province’s 28,000 health workers took part in the strike last week.

“There were a few disruptions here and there but nothing major. As we have said it many times before, and are still saying, health workers are essential services and everything still goes as normal,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Metalworkers said its strike is expected to gain momentum.

Workers in the automotive industry are set to embark on indefinite strike action on Monday following months of failed wage negotiations.

Numsa members who work at petrol stations and vehicle component manufacturers have demanded a 15 percent wage increase and the outlawing of labour brokers.

Numsa’s coordinator in the Western Cape Roger Piedt said there were no formal pickets organised for Monday.

“We didn’t fully communicate with our members with regards to whether the strike continues because we were still in talks with the employers but we expect members to come out in large numbers from Tuesday onwards,” he said.

(Edited by Lisa Bartlett)

A 15-year-old boy accused of murdering Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche is expected to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

The youth and co-accused Chris Mahlangu allegedly beat Terre’Blanche to death in his farmhouse in the North West in April.

The minor is expected to tell the court whether he is kept under satisfactory conditions at the place of safety where he is being kept.

The court will also check whether he has any complaints in compliance with the Child Justice Act.

In a previous appearance last month, the boy indicated he was satisfied with his living conditions.

Former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi is back in court on Monday to challenge his conviction.

 

It comes after he released a surprise press statement on Friday saying he had fresh evidence that his prosecution was improper but would not reveal any details.

 

Last month, Selebi was sentenced to 15 years in jail for a corrupt relationship with self-confessed drug lord Glenn Agliotti.

Both sides have submitted their heads of argument to Judge Meyer Joffe. Normally, an application like this would take less than an hour.

But Selebi’s trial dragged on for months and it remains to be seen how long the two sides will do battle for.

Selebi’s defence team will argue another court could reach a different verdict, siting Agliotti and his ex-fiancé Dianne Muller as the weak links.

The State will contest thi,s saying the court’s ruling was conservative.

If Selebi wins, his application will be heard either by a full bench of judges at the same court or will move to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

If he fails on Monday, he will have to petition the Bloemfontein court.

Selebi’s new revelations are not likely to be heard in court as they still need to be investigated.

Two hundred and seventy people are feared dead in two separate river boat accidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the weekend.

The incidents are the deadliest of several accidents reported on central African rivers this year.

Seventy of the estimated 100 passengers died when a boat capsized on the Rupi River in Congo’s northwestern Equateur province on Saturday.

 

Police are probing why the boat was travelling through the dark without lights.

 

Up to 200 people died when another boat tipped and caught fire in Kasai Occidental province.

 

Central African river traffic is characterised by overloaded and poorly regulated boats.

 

In a country the size of Western Europe, with only 300 kilometres of tarred road, Congolese are forced to rely on river transport.

Australia’s Labour Prime Minister Julia Gillard is strongly tipped to form a new minority government within 48 hours, ending a fortnight-long political limbo with the backing of three kingmaker independents.

Independent Tony Windsor said he expected a decision by Tuesday, but warned there was a risk the three independent MPs could still split, delivering a deadlock of 75 votes apiece in the 150-seat lower house and the prospect of another election.

"That is what we will be talking about today. If that is the circumstance, what do we do about it? Do we go back to the polls or do we nominate one side and have a government," Windsor told reporters Monday as he arrived at Canberra’s parliament house.

Gillard and conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott have been desperately wooing the independents for their support for a minority government since August 21 elections delivered the country’s first hung parliament since World War Two.

Several newspapers Monday said unnamed conservatives were expecting Gillard to win over at least two independents to form a minority government holding 76 seats. Bookmakers are also tipping a Gillard Labour government.

Gillard currently has 74 seats to Abbott’s 73 after a fourth independent last week sided with Labour, but Abbott could still form government if the three uncommitted independents back him. Gillard’s Labour has promised a controversial mining profits tax and a $38 billion broadband project if it wins, as well a carbon price to curb one of the world’s highest per-capita levels of emissions. The conservatives oppose all three policies.

"They are pretty significant issues with significant amounts of money wrapped up in all three of those policies, so I think a lot more certainty on the government side and those policy fronts will be welcomed by business leaders," said Stephen Halmarick, Head of Investment Markets Research with Colonial First State.

AUSTRALIANS WANT FRESH ELECTION

A poll in the Daily Telegraph newspaper Monday showed 56 percent of Australians now wanted another election, regardless of which party the independents decided to back, underscoring expectations that any new government will struggle to overcome ongoing instability with such a thin majority.

Independent Rob Oakeshott said he could change his mind about which of the two major parties to back in a minority government if the outcome was tied at 75 seats apiece. He also said he was disappointed at conservative opposition to some parliamentary reforms sought by the kingmakers.

"There is a national interest issue in question about how we have a stable government over the next three years," he said.

Betting agencies were tipping one of the three, stetson-wearing outback MP Bob Katter, to side with Abbott.

Katter last week gave Gillard and Abbott a "wish list" of 20 priorities that could cement his support, ruling out emissions trade and the 30 percent tax on coal and iron ore miners.

But Katter also hinted that the mining tax, brokered by Gillard with Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Xstrata, was not a deal breaker.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele on Monday said although sections of the controversial Protection of Information Bill appear to be extreme, the legislation is needed.

If the bill is implemented government entities would be allowed to declare any information classified and keep it out of the public domain.

It would also give any state agency, government department, parastatal and even a municipality the power to classify public information as secret.

But Cwele said some government departments will be implementing it more easily than others, adding it should be decided which organs of state would be prioritised in the implementation of the bill.

Journalists and civil society groups have slammed the bill as an attempt to censor the media.

Five suspected rhino poachers are expected to appear in the Lephalale Magistrate’s Court on Monday. They were arrested last month on a private game farm.

Four men and their female accomplices are expected back in the dock for a second time since their arrest.

Rangers from the Ferroland Game Estate spotted their vehicle driving near the farm last month and quickly stopped them.

They were found with a hunting rifle that had the serial number filed off and several rounds of ammunition.

 

There have been recent successes in the fight against rhino poaching that they were hunting rhino as their tracks followed those of the animals.

Meanwhile, security officials last week said they foiled two alleged rhino poaching attempts in Limpopo with three arrests being made.

In another incident Anti-Poaching Unit members gunned down a suspected poacher during a shootout at the Pilanesberg Reserve in the North West.

A massive landslide buried a crowd trying to dig out a bus from deep mud on Sunday, killing at least 22 people, with dozens more feared dead, as torrential rains battered Guatemala.

Emergency workers recovered 22 bodies from the landslide on a major highway in Cumbre de Alaska northwest of the capital, and they warned it could take two days to dig out all the victims.

"A wall of earth fell on a bus and around 100 local people organized themselves to dig out the victims," said fire department spokesman Sergio Vasquez. "Then another landslide came along and buried them."

Rescue workers used shovels and pickaxes to dig bodies from the deep mud and local residents wrapped victims in blankets and carried them away.

Recovery efforts were abandoned when heavy rain struck the region again, sending people fleeing from the rain-saturated hillsides.

Another landslide later on Sunday on a different highway slammed into a small bus, killing at least one person and injuring several others.

On Saturday, 12 people were killed when another bus was buried in a landslide. Six more people were killed in other incidents on Saturday, raising the weekend death toll to at least 41.

"It’s a national tragedy," President Alvaro Colom told a news conference, adding that nearly 12,000 people had been evacuated to emergency shelters. "It’s painful that poor people are paying the price of natural disasters."

Photographs of the bus that wrecked on Saturday in Cumbre de Alaska showed its roof crushed by a huge pile of earth and rock that almost completely covered the vehicle.

More than 30 separate landslides cut the Inter-American Highway, one of Guatemala’s main roads, within a single 30-mile (50-km) stretch, local media reported.

Emergency services officials warned further rain was expected on Sunday and Monday.

Colom appealed to people to stay off the nation’s highways due to the threat of further landslides and said rescue efforts would be suspended if more rain fell in the affected areas.

More than 150 people died in Guatemala in May when Tropical Storm Agatha drenched Central America, triggering landslides.

Record amounts of rain have fallen in parts of Guatemala and southeastern Mexico this year. Thousands of people in the Mexican Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco have been forced from their homes by flooding.

Water levels behind some dams in the region have risen so high that floodgates have been opened.

Motor industry workers will intensify their industrial action on Monday, picketing in Gauteng and striking in several other provinces.

Around 70,000 workers at petrol stations, workshops, production houses and dealerships are demanding a 15 percent wage increase while their employers are offering 6.6 percent.

Wage negotiations with the Fuel Retailers’ Association (FRA) and the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) reopened late last week.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s Karl Cloete said talks would continue at lunchtime on Monday.

“The demonstrations will be in the work places. More petrol pump attendants from Western Cape and Eastern Cape will be joining the strike,” said Cloete.

It remains unclear whether public servants’ unions will announce an end to their strike on Monday or continue protesting for a fourth week.

 

Union leaders have been balloting their members over whether to accept or reject government’s 7.5 percent wage increase and R800 housing allowance.

Striking state employees are calling for 8.6 percent and R1000 subsidy.

Union members were to collectively report on the latest developments in the public service dispute on Sunday but the briefing was cancelled just two hours before it began, as it is understood one union had not yet finished polling its members.

The Independent Labour Caucus’ Chris Klopper said they had completed their internal balloting process and discussed their decision with other unions

”We have reached a point of unanimity and we are comfortable that we are ready to discuss the future of the strike,” said Klopper.

But he was not willing to say what they had decided. Whatever the decision, the future of the strike still remains unclear.

A Tshwane metro police internal investigator on Sunday told Eyewitness News Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux may have been the victim of a corrupt trend which was first identified three years ago.

It emerged last week that Sergeant Ntshimane Mogale may have tried to blackmail the rugby player when an altercation took place. Roux, who claimed the officer was trying to rob him, then allegedly beat Mogale to death.

Eyewitness News understands the Tshwane Metro Police Department’s Internal Investigations unit has called for the Hawks to help them tackle corruption within the ranks.

 

The police’s Lindela Mashigo could not confirm the request on Sunday but said Mogale’s murder would land on the Hawks’ desk.

 

“The case is with our general detectives and will probably be taken over by our Organised Crime Unit,” said Mashigo.

 

Senior Tshwane internal investigators and several metro police officers said it was well known that some officers targeted drunk drivers for bribes, particularly in Hatfield and Sunnyside.

 

After stopping an intoxicated driver, they would offer to drive them home for a fee or they land up behind bars.

It is unclear if Mogale was driving Roux home or taking him to a police station at the time of the incident.

Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane on Sunday called on hospital staff to continue working despite another nurse being attacked.

 

Lynette Dube, who works in a surgery ward, suffered major injuries to her head and neck on Friday and remains in a critical condition at the Milpark Hospital.

 

Police said the evidence pointed to the attack being perpetrated by striking workers who are due to continue protesting this week.

After visiting Dube in hospital Mokonyane called on the police to boost security at hospitals to make sure such an attack does not happen again.

“The demand for a living wage has nothing to do with taking people’s lives. This was really an intention to kill,” said Mokonyane.

Mokonyane met Dube’s relatives and said they and the doctors are hopeful she can remain stable and leave the ICU ward soon.

The premier said her prayers were with Dube and her family, which received counselling. This was the second nurse to be attacked following a stabbing in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.

A nurse was also attacked in Germiston soon after the strike started.

Police appealed for help in tracking down those responsible.

Ottmar Hitzfeld and Fabio Capello, two of Europe’s most successful coaches at club level, will meet for the first time on the international stage on Tuesday, where both are finding life far less comfortable.

Capello’s England team, still under a cloud after their dismal World Cup display, visit Hitzfeld’s goal-shy Switzerland for what is expected to be the most difficult match in their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

Germany’s Hitzfeld, winner of an extraordinary seven Bundesliga and two Champions League titles, is under growing pressure over Switzerland’s failure to find the net.

Italian Capello, winner of four Serie A, two La Liga and one Champions League title, may take a long time to win back confidence after England’s lame display at the World Cup, although their 4-0 win over Bulgaria in their opening Group G match on Friday was a good start.

Both men showed signs of fraying nerves after their team’s matches on Friday.

Hitzfeld lost patience when the St Gallen crowd jeered striker and record Swiss scorer Alexander Frei after he missed a penalty in the goalless friendly draw at home to Australia.

"The way that a few fans treated him was embarrassing," said Hitzfeld, suggesting that Switzerland should avoid playing at St Gallen in the future. "Alexander Frei has given great service to the team."

Switzerland were widely criticised for their defensive style at the World Cup, where they went out in the first round despite a 1-0 win over eventual winners Spain in their opening game.

It turned out to be their only goal at the tournament, a problem throughout Hitzfeld’s two years at the helm.

Capello snapped after being asked if he deserved more respect. "Respect is not the right word because ’respect’ in Italy means something different. The word ’respect’ has a lighter meaning in English," he retorted.

Capello will look to ensure that his side hit the ground running, repeating the sharp passing and incisive running that tore through Bulgaria in the opening 20 minutes and which was such a filip after the fear-fuelled stodge of the World Cup.

His concern is that as the second goal failed to materialise the players lost their way somewhat and allowed their opponents to grab a toehold.

Joe Hart, installed as first choice goalkeeper having been an unused number three in South Africa, was forced to make several good saves, not least on the hour at 1-0 when Bulgaria were really pressing.

The defence looked disorganised at times and, with regular centre back partners Rio Ferdinand and John Terry being joined by Michael Dawson on the injured list, Capello must throw together another untried pairing against the Swiss.

Phil Jagielka, whose pace and movement bely his insistence that he still does not feel worthy of an England shirt, is certain to be one of them with either Gary Cahill, who made his debut off the bench as Dawson’s replacement on Friday, Matthew Upson or Joleon Lescott alongside him.

Probable line-ups:

Switzerland: Diego Benaglio; Stefan Lichtsteiner, Stephane Grichting, Steve von Bergen, Reto Ziegler; Gokan Inler, Gelson Fernandes, David Degen, Xherdan Shaquiri: Alexander Frei, Eren Derdiyok

England: Joe Hart; Glen Johnson, Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Ashley Cole; James Milner, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry, Theo Walcott; Jermain Defoe, Wayne Rooney

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Sunday announced a new education trust fund will be set up for the children of slain police officers.

 

Families of 110 police men and women attended the annual commemoration day at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Sunday. Mthethwa and National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele saluted the fallen officers calling them the shields of the nation.

The minister said many officers killed on duty were young and had been with the police for less than 10 years. This meant the benefits they receive were not enough to support those they leave behind.

He said the trust fund will go a long way towards changing that.

“The best form of legacy we can implant is towards investing in their children’s education,” said Mthethwa.

Tears flowed as families laid flowers at the Wall of Commemoration honouring their loved ones. Some said while the event reminded them that the police service cared, it also brought back waves of pain.
 
The fund is due to be operational by January.

Tshwane Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa on Sunday said the family of a slain metro police officer will get closure once justice has run its course.

Ramokgopa attended Ntshimane Mogale’s funeral at the weekend. He was beaten to death, allegedly by Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux, last month..

Mogale’s brother Richard said they will wait for further court proceedings.

 

“We are very hurt by the way in which we hear our brother has been killed. We will definitely await the day when we have to go to court,” said Richard.

 

Residents at the funeral lashed out at Roux but Ramokgopa said not much was known about the incident at this stage.

 

“If a law officer is down on duty, it is a serious matter for the people. We will work with the justice system in general to bring closure to the family on this matter,” said Ramokgopa.

Martin Scorsese’s latest film pays a personal tribute to Elia Kazan, one of Hollywood’s and Broadway’s most influential directors but also a controversial figure who turned anti-communist informant in the McCarthy era.

In A Letter to Elia, an hour-long documentary screening at the Venice film festival, Scorsese credits Kazan and his emotionally-charged, raw and realistic style as the inspiration for his becoming a filmmaker.

He recalls in particular the huge impact that two of Kazan’s best-known films, On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando (1954) and East of Eden with James Dean (1955), had on him as a teenager.

"It’s almost impossible to say how deeply I was affected by Kazan’s films," Scorsese wrote shortly after Kazan’s death in 2003 at 94.

Scorsese discovered Kazan as a young boy going to the movies on his own in New York and was at his side with Robert De Niro when Kazan, whose films won 20 Academy Awards, received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999.

That special award was hotly disputed because in 1952 Kazan had handed over to the House Un-American Activities Committee the names of eight members of the Communist Party who had worked at the Group Theatre where he had started as an actor.

Naming names cost Kazan, himself a member of the party between 1934 and 1936 before resigning in protest, many friends in Hollywood and among U.S. intellectuals.

His reasons for doing so after previously refusing to testify is still debated.

In his memoir, Kazan wrote: "I’d hated the Communists for many years, and didn’t feel right about giving up my career to defend them. Was I sacrificing for something I believed in?

"I’ve repeatedly astonished people by what seem to be total reversals of positions and attitudes."

In the documentary, which features a long interview with Kazan, he says that what he did was "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong."

Kazan, the immigrant son of a Greek merchant, says his best films came after that experience, although by then he had already made his name on Broadway with "Death of a Salesman" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" and co-founded the Actors’ Studios.

On the Waterfront and East of Eden, among others, broke the mould of sugar-coated characters that were Hollywood’s main fare until then, bringing to the screen unconfessable passions, troubled family ties and the criminal underworld, Scorsese says.

"They extended the limits of what was emotionally and psychologically possible," he says.

"These were the people I saw every day, the people I knew. It was as if the world I lived in mattered."

Andy Murray hobbled out of the U.S. Open Sunday, beaten 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-3 in the third round by Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka after his ailing body let him down.

Struggling to run at full speed after requiring treatment to his legs, elbow and neck, a clearly frustrated Murray appeared powerless to stop Wawrinka, who was battling his own injury problems but still played superbly, from pulling off the biggest upset of the championship.

"I was struggling physically and I got frustrated with that," Murray said.

"Maybe I felt like my chance of doing well here was slipping away. I’ve worked very hard to give myself a chance of winning tournaments.

"It happens to everyone in life at different points."

It was another disappointment for the Scotsman, who arrived at Flushing Meadows seeded fourth, in great form, and holding genuine hopes of ending Britain’s 74-year wait for a men’s grand slam singles champion.

"I’m very disappointed, obviously, but I think I’ve been more disappointed," Murray said.

"In other Grand Slams, when you get closer to winning the tournament, it becomes a lot harder to take."

Wawrinka, seeded 25th, advanced to play American Sam Querrey in the fourth round although the big winner could well be Rafa Nadal, who was drawn to face Murray in the semi-finals.

Nadal, playing before Murray’s defeat, had sent an ominous warning to his rivals about his intentions to win the U.S. Open and complete his collection of grand slam titles but Murray was looming as one of his biggest obstacles.

The Spaniard, getting better with each match on the back of a new and improved serve, overpowered France’s Gilles Simon 6-4 6-4 6-2 to steam into the fourth round without dropping a single service game in three matches.

"It was important not to lose without dropping a set," Nadal said. "Every day I seem to play much better which is good for my confidence."

VENUS ADVANCES

Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters passed their first real tests of the championship with flying colours to safely book their places in the women’s quarter-finals.

The pair could hardly have been more impressive as they swept past tricky opponents to remain on course for a blockbuster semi-final showdown when the last grand slam of the season enters the second week.

Williams, the champion at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001, defeated Israeli 16th seed Shahar Peer 7-6 6-3 in an ideal test for the more difficult matches ahead of her.

"It’s always good to have a tougher match, a kind of a match where you have to challenge yourself against your opponent and the conditions," Williams said.

"We always have had very competitive matches, so I know it’s not going to be something I just walk through when I play against her.

"I have to stay focussed and ready to take every point or else she will. It was a good challenge."

Clijsters, who won the title in 2005 and again last year, thrashed Serbia’s former world number one Ana Ivanovic 6-2 6-1 in just under an hour. Like Nadal and Williams, she is yet to drop a set in the championship.

"You always want to do well at tournaments where you’ve done well, and obviously, the U.S. Open is a special tournament for me," Clijsters said.

"Tennis wise, I feel that I’ve been improving every match. I want to try and keep it going."

SCHIAVONE CRUISES

Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, brimming with confidence after winning her maiden grand slam title at this year’s French Open, also cruised through to the last eight, beating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-0.

Schiavone will play Williams in Tuesday’s quarter-finals while Clijsters will face the winner of Sunday’s late match between Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Elena Dementieva of Russia.

"I feel better than when I was in French Open, but just because I know how to do it and how to win a match like this," Schiavone said.

"So I’m very curious, I’m interested to see (if I can) write a new history."

Spain are already assured of at least one men’s semi-finalist after Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Felciano Lopez joined their countryman Nadal in the same section of the draw.

Nadal will face Lopez next with the winner to play either Ferrer or Verdasco.

Another two Spaniards, Albert Montanes and Tommy Robredo, are also through to the last 16, giving Spain a total of six, easily the most by any one country this year.

"It’s always nice to see all the Spanish winning and being in the last rounds," said Verdasco, who advanced with a four set win over Argentine David Nalbandian.