Croatia’s Duje Draganja edged out home favourite Mark Foster to smash the world 50m freestyle best as records tumbled at the world short-course swimming championships in Manchester on Friday. Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry took the individual honours with her third title of the meet.
Trevor Immelman emerged as the halfway leader at the Masters on Friday as Tiger Woods used an incredible finish to keep alive his bid for a fifth Augusta crown. Immelman, who has had an arduous recovery from surgery, birdied 17 and 18 en route to his second straight 68 and an eight-under total of 136.
On one floor is a bullet-scarred car used by American journalists in the Balkans. On another is the phone Rupert Murdoch used to make multibillion-dollar media deals. And in between there is one of the biggest remaining chunks of the Berlin Wall and the mangled remains of a communication tower from the 9/11 attack.
Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for war crimes in former Yugoslavia, has unleashed a storm of recrimination with allegations of a trade in human body parts in Kosovo and Albania after Nato bombed Serbia in 1999. Del Ponte’s claims are based on what she describes as credible reports and witnesses.
He told his wife he’d gone fishing. But when a photograph of Dick Cheney, the United Vice-President, appeared on the White House website, the smile on his face and the reflection in his sunglasses left some questioning his catch. The reflection appears to show the double image of a naked woman cavorting before him.
Police have banned political rallies and the opposition has accused the authorities of waging a violent crackdown as Zimbabwe’s political crisis deepens nearly two weeks after a presidential election that produced no official winner. Zimbabwe’s neighbours hope to find a resolution on Saturday at an emergency summit in Zambia.
A Metrorail passenger train derailed early on Saturday morning at Durban’s Merebank railway station, injuring 135 people — 21 of them seriously. The Umlazi-bound train derailed at 6.30am. While none of the carriages overturned, a steel support of the overhead electric power cables buckled on to the second of the train’s six coaches.
Mozambique and South Africa on Friday agreed to speed up work on new energy-production projects to benefit both countries, South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said. This was among several issues discussed at a one-day binational commission in Maputo, also attended by President Thabo Mbeki.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Friday accused President Thabo Mbeki’s government of deliberately seeking to emasculate the African National Congress. A new style of political leadership is required, he told the National Union of Metalworkers in the Eastern Cape.
Militant youths occupied an oil installation in restive southern Nigeria on Friday, shutting down its production of 5 000 barrels a day, officials said. The oil installation — a so-called flow station installation near Yenagoa, the capital city of Bayelsa state — is operated by a Royal Dutch Shell joint venture in Nigeria.