For 90 minutes, Svetlana Kuznetsova kept Maria Sharapova on the run, dashing from corner to corner in vain pursuit of a championship. As a weary Sharapova found herself on the verge of defeat, she went scrambling yet again after a shot and exclaimed: ”Ai-yi-yi.” The crowd laughed, and Kuznetsova won the exchange.
Spain’s Fernando Alonso won the Australian Grand Prix in a dominating drive in Melbourne on Sunday as the Renault world drivers’ champion led for all but a couple of laps. McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen was behind him 1,8 seconds off the pace with Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher third a further 22,9 seconds back.
Miracles in France are not, apparently, what they were. Or not according to the critics of a new initiative in Lourdes, the famous centre of Christian pilgrimage in the mountains of south-west France, known for the scores of Catholic believers who, it is claimed, have recovered from serious illnesses there.
Celebrities always complain about invasions of privacy, so when the gossip website Gawker allowed fans to post sightings of their favourite stars on a street map of Manhattan, it was bound to cause a stir. But one of Hollywood’s biggest names, George Clooney has taken the battle back to the stalkers.
A convoy of cars, their roof racks piled high with boxes and bags, inches along the hairpin bends of the mountain road, passing men on foot bent double under the weight of sacks of belongings. Passengers point at piles of rubble where their homes stood before the Pakistani earthquake ripped them apart six months ago.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Saturday as he wound up a three-day state visit to South Africa and headed home to face factional violence in Gaza. Abbas paid tribute to the African National Congress veteran as the ”father of all liberation movements”.
The African National Congress has accused the Democratic Alliance of illegally trying to purge Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi from his post. ”It has been clear from [mayor Helen] Zille’s media comments that she is determined to fire Dr Mgoqi by any means,” Matthew Parks, an ANC deputy secretary in the metro, said on Saturday.
More than a month has passed since authorities in Kenya pledged a fresh drive against high-level graft in the corruption-riddled East African country, but no assets have been seized, as promised. The first group of high-profile Kenyans suspected of looting public coffers recently appeared in court on related charges.
An African National Congress meeting at Schweizer-Reneke in the North West was abandoned after an exchange of blows among branch members, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Saturday. The meeting was about the election of a mayor who has been surrounded by controversy, the station said.
Rivers swollen by recent rain and melting snow flooded towns in the Czech Republic and Germany, and forced evacuations of thousands people from their homes on Saturday. Eight cities in Germany were affected by floods, with 1 300 people forced to leave their homes.