South Africa 14 England 14
England avoided a series whitewash when they battled to a 14-14 draw with South Africa in the third and final Test at Port Elizabeth.
The visitors ended a nine-match losing streak against the Springboks as they secured only the second draw between the two teams.
Scrumhalf Danny Care notched the only try for England while flyhalf Toby Flood kicked one penalty and his replacement Owen Farrell booted two more.
The hosts responded with a try from wing JP Pietersen and three penalties from Morne Steyn but the flyhalf did not enjoy his best day with the boot as he missed two penalties and one conversion attempt.
South Africa had only themselves to blame for failing to win, committing a plethora of handling errors and producing some aimless tactical kicking against an England team who defended well. Flood and Steyn traded early penalties but England's ball retention was superior in the first quarter.
Care, recalled after Ben Youngs injured his shoulder in the second Test, caught South Africa off-guard with a quick tap penalty which led to the scrumhalf diving over for a try despite the attentions of two defenders. Flood missed the conversion as England went 8-3 up after 11 minutes.
Care's try seemed to invigorate the Springboks and Steyn reduced the deficit with a long-range penalty before another penalty in the 28th minute helped the hosts take the lead for the first time.
England struck the first blow of the second half when Farrell booted a close-range penalty. The home team's cause was helped when England captain Dylan Hartley was yellow-carded in the 51st minute for intentionally slowing the ball down at a ruck.
Pietersen then took a 62nd-minute pass from replacement scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar and touched down in the corner for an unconverted try. Farrell, though, saved the day for England by kicking his second penalty to make it 14-14.
New Zealand 60 Ireland 0
Sonny Bill Williams scored two of four tries in a first quarter surge sparked by fly-half Aaron Cruden that carried New Zealand to a nine-try 60-0 win over Ireland in the third rugby test on Saturday for a clean sweep of the three-match series.
Cruden produced an outstanding cameo before being forced from the field by injury, beguiling the Irish defense with his running and passing skills and creating tries for Williams, Sam Cane and Ben Smith to give the All Blacks a 26-0 lead after only 24 minutes.
Ireland, which had hoped to build on a competitive second test performance, never recovered and suffered their heaviest loss to New Zealand.
Australia 20 Wales 19
Australia relied on the boot of Berrick Barnes to edge Wales 20-19 on Saturday and secure a 3-0 whitewash in a series that was anything but one-sided.
Wales number eight Ryan Jones and Australia centre Rob Horne scored second half tries but in a match dominated by the whistle of referee Craig Joubert it was the five penalties from fly-half Barnes that gave the Wallabies a seventh consecutive win over the Welsh.
Australia had already wrapped up the series with victories in Brisbane and Melbourne and, as in those two tests, they were pushed to the limit by the Six Nations champions in front of 43,000 at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Wales, who had 14 points from the kicking of Leigh Halfpenny, were seeking just their second win over the Wallabies in Australia and a first since 1969 but will return home empty-handed.
Samoa 16 Scotland 17
Replacement Rob Harley scored a dramatic late try on his international debut to rescue Scotland from a shock defeat to Samoa.
With Scotland trailing 16-10 in the final game of their three-match southern hemisphere tour, incessant pressure finally told on the hosts' defence as Mike Blair sent the Glasgow Warriors flanker through a huge gap by the left-hand post.
Greig Laidlaw slotted the simple conversion to ensure a clean sweep for Andy Robinson's side, following previous wins over Australia and Fiji.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Where to Find Me by Alba Arikha
Alma Books
