Bafana Victory Day, Take 2, 16 June 2010
Want to win some World Cup tickets? Yes, there are a couple of catches, but we don’t think they’re too bad. You need to sell your soul in order to promote First Thing or Maverick Monitor, you need to be able to make your way to Ellis Park in time for the Slovenia vs USA match this Friday, and you have to let us buy you coffee in Hyde Park on Thursday to pick up your tickets.
In return, you can win a pair of Category 1 tickets for the match (one pair via Twitter, and one pair via e-mail), in awesome seats, compliments of Emirates, our new favourite airline.
Sound good? Then click here for all the details.
15 June: Brazil turns to voodoo Bavaria outwits Fifa in ambush marketing wars; Nehawu demands the repayment of departmental funds spent on tickets; New Zealand squeak home with a 1-1 draw against Slovakia; Ivory Coast and Portugal game ends in goal-less draw; Brazil beats plucky North Korea 2-1; Brazilian website sells voodoo soccer effigies.
While you were sleeping
Ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan seemed to subside, with no new reports of violent clashes, making for a shift in focus from peacekeeping to humanitarian aid. Four days of fighting and raging mobs have left tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands, according to some estimates) as refugees. RIA Novosti, The Hindu
Low level warfare continued in Mexico, with 15 people dead after a firefight between soldiers and suspected drug gang hitmen in a cemetery in Taxco. That is the same town where a mass grave with 55 bodies was recently discovered. Drug violence has now claimed more than 160 lives in less than a week. AP, CNN
US President Barack Obama vowed to make BP pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its cleanup – in so many words – during his much-anticipated American prime-time speech from the Oval Office. BP immediately issued a statement saying it hoped for “constructive discussion about how best to achieve these mutual goals” at a meeting with Obama today. Wall Street Journal, Sky
At least six people died and hundreds were trapped on rooftops in flash floods in southern France. The water rose high enough that cars and lorries were floating through the streets of some towns and more than 175,000 homes were left without electricity. AFP, Le Parisien (French)
Filipino businessman Charlie Reith, abducted by Muslim insurgents two months ago, was rescued by government troops as his captors were moving him to a new location. The 72-year-old was being held for ransom, but for once not by the notorious Abu Sayyaf group; authorities say they battled members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to retrieve Reith. GMA, Mindanao Examiner
A Brazilian judge denied permission for a legal abortion to a woman whose fetus is developing without a brain, saying the circumstances do not trump the right to life enshrined in the Catholic country’s Constitution. The incident may provide the leverage President Lula da Silva needs in his (to date utterly failed) battle to decriminalise abortions in the country. AFP
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