Johannesburg, Feb. 25 (ANI): South African middle-order batsman AB De Villiers has warned the visiting Kangaroos to get prepared to have some smell of leather in the first Test starting Thursday as the Wanderers pitch is supposed to help pace bowlers.

De Villiers said Aussie openers will face some fiery spells from the Proteas fast bowlers if Ricky Ponting wins the toss and decides to bat first.

“I definitely won''t mind seeing Australia bat and having Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel running in on the first morning,” Fox Sports quoted De Villiers, as saying.

Johannesburg, Feb.

Johannesburg  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was scheduled to discuss the global financial crisis, Zimbabwe's fragile power-sharing government and climate change with South Africa's leadership at the start of his five-nation Africa tour Wednesday.

Ban arrived in South Africa on Tuesday evening on his first visit to the African powerhouse as United Nations chief. He was met on arrival in Johannesburg by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Hamburg - The Munich Chief of Police Wilhelm Schmidbauer was targeted by would-be-robbers in the South African city of Cape Town, German media reported on Tuesday.

Ironically, Schmidbauer was in South Africa to discuss, amongst other things, co-operation between Bavaria and South Africa for the
2010 World Cup, with one of the areas of co-operation being security.

The sueddeutsche website said that the car in which Schmidbauer and an official of a foundation where traveling after a visit to a police station was surrounded by five youths, who tried to open the car doors and the boot.

When the driver noticed what was happening, he immediately sped of.

Johannesburg, Feb. 24 : Australian cricket selector David Boon has hinted that pace could be best option for the visitors in the upcoming first Test against the South Africans in Johannesburg.

Boon isn''''t so sure that the Wanderers pitch will suit a leg-spinner such as Bryce McGain.

Boon said all 14 members of Australia''''s touring party were in the mix for spots in the side, although off-spinner Nathan Hauritz appears a rank outsider.

Seoul  - South Korea and Iraq on Tuesday signed a 3.55-billion-dollar deal to support Bagdad in rebuilding the country in exchange for substantial oil rights.

Seoul agreed to aid in reconstruction efforts and rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure in exchange for the rights to about 2 billion barrels of Iraqi oil produced in the region around Basra in southern Iraq, the office of President Lee Myung Bak said.

"With this agreement, our side can now acquire rights to develop oil reserves in Iraq's Basra region, where most Iraqi oil is produced," the presidential office said in a press release after the deal was signed by Lee and his visiting Iranian counterpart Jalal Talabani.