BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) – South Africa have brought on live wire winger Gio Aplon as one of four changes to their starting side for the Tri-Nations clash with the Wallabies here on Saturday.

The Springboks have called up Aplon, scrum-half Ruan Pienaar, flanker Ryan Kankowski and prop BJ Botha as they look to recover from two consecutive losses to New Zealand.

Botha takes over from CJ van der Linde, Aplon comes in for Jean de Villiers, Piennar replaces Ricky Januarie while Kankowski is in for Francois Louw as the South African selectors look to inject some pace.

“We have to bring some speed into our team,” coach Peter de Villiers said.

The Springboks also have injury problems with giant lock Andries Bekker ruled out of Saturday’s match following a back injury he suffered in South Africa’s 31-17 loss to New Zealand in Wellington last weekend.

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LONDON (AFP) – Public sector borrowing was higher than expected in June, official data showed on Tuesday, in a blow to government hopes of slashing the huge public deficit.

The public deficit, known here as the public sector sector net borrowing requirement, the government’s preferred measure of public finances, stood at 14.5 billion pounds, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

The reading was higher than market expectations for a deficit of 13.5 billion pounds, but was a slight improvement from 14.7 billion in June 2009.

“The public finances were worse than expected, providing a blunt reminder to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne of the major task that he faces in returning the public finances to health,” said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.

“Indeed, the PSNBR was an eye-wateringly high 14.5 billion pounds in June, although at least this was marginally down on the shortfall a year earlier.”

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BOULDER, Colo. – Civil rights advocates in Colorado are urging a city council to reconsider a set of proposed roles that would bar people from taking off their clothes, stomping their feet and shouting at council meetings.

Boulder’s so-called “rules of decorum” were inspired by an incident earlier this year when a man stripped down to his boxer shorts while speaking before the council. He was protesting a proposed anti-nudity law.

The proposed rules would also prohibit people from addressing comments toward individual council members, jeering or otherwise disrupting a meeting. The mayor would have the authority to remove people from the room if they’re thought to have violated any of the rules.

The Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the measure as too vague.

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HANOI (AFP) – Southeast Asian foreign ministers met in Vietnam on Tuesday for discussions dominated by concerns over the sinking of a South Korean warship and elections in military-ruled Myanmar.

Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Hanoi ahead of the region’s main security forum Friday, which also gathers major powers including China, the United States and the European Union.

A draft statement prepared ahead of Tuesday’s talks said the 10 ASEAN member states supported a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and urged a resumption of six-party disarmament talks “as soon as possible”.

“We deplored the incident of the Cheonan ship sinking and the rising tension on the Korean peninsula,” the draft statement said, referring to an explosion that ripped apart a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors.

It said the six-party talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia were still the “main platform to achieve long-lasting peace and stability”.

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LONDON – The judge leading the British inquiry into charges that his country’s intelligence services colluded with the torture of suspected terrorists abroad has had his impartiality compromised and must be removed, a leading human rights group said Tuesday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier this month that he was appointing former appeals court judge Peter Gibson to investigate allegations that British spies were complicit in the mistreatment of terror suspects held by the U.S. and other allies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But Reprieve noted that Gibson has served as Intelligence Services Commissioner, Britain’s spy watchdog, since April 2006. The rights group said the government was effectively asking Gibson to “judge whether his own work was effective.”

Reprieve — which represents several former Guantanamo Bay inmates — has long demanded an official inquiry into alleged British involvement with rights abuses abroad and initially welcomed Cameron’s announcement that he intended to “clear up this matter once and for all.”

British spies have not been accused of torturing detainees, but several former suspects have alleged that British officials were complicit in their mistreatment while they were held by agents from the U.S., Pakistan and other countries.

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