In the first move of its kind by any of the broadcasters that cover the Tour de France, German state television channels ARD and ZDF left the race on Thursday and, for the time being, stopped covering it, after a positive drugs test on German cyclist Patrick Sinkewitz.
Sergio Garcia slayed his Carnoustie demons and left Tiger Woods trailing in his wake as he stormed to the top of the leaderboard at the Open Championship on Thursday. The Spaniard, playing immaculate golf on a course that had reduced him to tears when it last hosted the Open in 1999, shot a superb six-under-par 65 to lead by two strokes.
Members of Angola’s main opposition party streamed into a conference hall on Thursday to cast ballots in a leadership race overshadowed by the ghost of Jonas Savimbi. The two candidates vying to lead the party, incumbent Isaias Samakuva and challenger Abel Chivukuvuku, both have claimed to be ”Savimbistas” of sorts.
Funny thing, this game called golf. The number one player plays the fewest games on offer and he keeps coming back to win, and if he doesn’t, he threatens to win all the time. The rest of the players go through an emotional and physical rollercoaster week in and week out.
Three New York rescue workers injured in the September 11 attacks got the best treatment Cuba can offer in Michael Moore’s film critique of United States healthcare. The 9/11 responders spent 10 days on the 19th floor of Cuba’s flagship hospital with a view of the Caribbean sea, a sharp contrast to many Cuban hospitals.
Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride appeared briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday morning and was granted bail of R1Â 000. McBride faces charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, defeating the ends of justice and fraud.
A French newspaper broke the embargo on the new Harry Potter book on Friday by revealing the fate of the principle characters. Le Parisien printed a brief summary of the conclusion of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows — but upside-down so that unwary readers could avoid the spoiler.
Riots, marches on Parliament and the lynching of a local official have highlighted growing unrest at the failure to improve the lives of South Africans who bore the brunt of apartheid. ”It is like we are not living in South Africa, we are not part of the democracy everyone enjoys,” says Ngethembi Myaka.
The protagonist of one of Portugal’s most gripping courtroom dramas has died after almost 20 years in which she fooled everyone, including her live-in companion, that she was actually a male army general. Maria Teresinha Gomes cut a dashing figure as the respectable and charming General Tito Anibal da Paixao Gomes.
The Mail & Guardian has been gagged. Again. In the early hours of Friday morning in the Pretoria High Court, a judge interdicted the M&G from publishing the details of an explosive final draft of an internal report into alleged corruption, abuse of power and intimidation at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).