Johannesburg- The three killers of South Africa's reggae star Lucky Dube were sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.

Dube, 43, was shot dead in Johannesburg in October 2007 when the three men tried to rob him of his car.

In handing down sentence, the judge in the High Court in Johannesburg described his murder as "senseless" and "callous."

The three were also sentenced to an additional 15 years for the botched car-jacking and received further time for additional crimes.

Durban, Apr. 2 : South Africa have decided to rest injured star all-rounder Jacques Kallis from the opening one-day international against Australia.

The 33-year-old pace bowler and No. 4 batsman is likely to make his return from a groin-muscle injury in Sunday''s second ODI match at Centurion.

"Jacques hasn''t come through quite for Friday so he''s going to be missing out," Fox Sports quoted captain Graeme Smith, as saying.

"Roelof (van der Merwe) is going to be missing out and Vaughan Van Jaarsveld and Wayne Parnell."

Johannesburg  - South Africa's presidential frontrunner Jacob Zuma on Thursday appealed to the leaders of the country's Afrikaner minority, telling them Afrikaners were the only "truly African" whites.

Zuma is campaigning for general elections on April 22 that his African National Congress (ANC) party is expected to win.

This election is more exciting than previous elections since democracy in 1994 because of the emergence of a breakaway party of former senior ANC members.

Durban (South Africa), Apr. 2 : Proteas coach Mickey Arthur has described South Africa's first one-day-international (ODI) against Australia on Friday as "huge", and believes that it serve as a key indicator as to which way the series will go.

Durban (South Africa), Apr. 2 : Australia''s pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson has said that he is ready to take on South African skipper Graeme Smith in Friday''s opening one-day international to be played here.

Johnson was the player of the series in Australia''s 2-1 triumph in last month''s Test matches in South Africa and returned refreshed to training on Wednesday after being rested from last Sunday''s second Twenty20 international against the Proteas at Centurion.

Johannesburg  - Football fans applied for over 1.6 million tickets for the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa in the first phase of ticket sales that ended Tuesday night, world football body FIFA announced Wednesday.

The biggest chunk of the 1,635,136 applications - 30 per cent - came from the host nation, followed by the US, the UK, Germany, Italy and Australia, FIFA said in a statement. Some 740,000 tickets were up for grabs.