On Thursday morning, if all went to plan, Saturn gained a new moon. At the climax of a seven-year, 3,2bn-kilometre journey, a giant United States-European spacecraft named Cassini-Huygens sailed between two of the outer rings of Saturn, turned, fired its rocket engine for 96 minutes, and slowed down to become a prisoner of the planet’s gravitational field.
The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said on Wednesday that the militias which have terrorised western Sudan ”must be broken”, and described conditions in the region as a ”humanitarian catastrophe”. After visiting a refugee camp in northern Darfur, Powell warned that the United Nations will take action if Sudan fails to disarm the Janjaweed militias.
In power, Saddam Hussein spoke of visions of his bloodied corpse being dragged from his palace and ripped down to the bone by a vengeful mob. It was a more decorous scene when the Iraqi authorities took legal control of him in a secret hearing on Wednesday.
How far it was from the triumphant departure of the much-hailed liberator, with young women blowing kisses and throwing flowers and children waving miniature American flags! A furtive ceremony behind acres of concrete, blade-wire and sandbags, and the liberator-in-chief hops into a helicopter and hot-tails it to safety. But of course it is not over — the Americans have not left Iraq, and real authority has not been transferred to the interim Iraqi government.
There is no torment of regret so fierce, no prostration abject enough, than those the moral columnist must undergo when he sees that his work has done cruelty to an entirely innocent party. Callous and cavalier, he has broken a true and honest heart, a heart that knew only love and hope before his cyanide paragraphs killed forever that irreplaceable spark of joy.
Portugal have already made history. Now they are looking for glory. A 2-1 win on Wednesday over The Netherlands put the Euro 2004 host nation into their first major final, bringing the Portuguese closer than ever to the silverware they have craved for so long.
The realisation of a rugby dream to pull together all the forces of Pacific’s rugby nations comes to fruition on Saturday when the Pacific Islanders take on the Wallabies in their first-ever international. The best players of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa will pool their immense talents and physiques to test themselves against Australia, who only last week overpowered World Cup champions England 51-15 in Brisbane.
Were it not enough to be dispatched in straight sets by an outsider in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, Tim Henman was waking up on Thursday to a near-unanimous press verdict that he will now never win his home tournament. Henman is now approaching 30, an age at which tennis players generally begin to decline.
Defending champion Roger Federer overcame 2002 winner Lleyton Hewitt in four sets on Wednesday to reach the Wimbledon semifinals, edging closer to a possible final against Andy Roddick. Federer prevailed in a high-quality centre-court match that ended close to dusk. It was his 22nd consecutive win on grass.
Bafana Bafana are determined to wipe away the memory of their recent 3-0 defeat against Ghana in Kumasi and get their 2006 World Cup campaign back on track. After a number of setbacks this week it was down to serious business in preparing for Saturday’s key World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso at the FNB stadium.