Justine Henin joined the Roland Garros greats by defeating Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2 on Saturday to complete a hat-trick of French Open titles. In what was an embarrassingly one-sided 65-minute final, the 25-year-old Belgian became just the second woman in the post-1968 Open era to win three in a row after Monica Seles in 1990/92.
The government’s firing of striking nurses will anger workers and their unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday. ”All the trade unions will be extremely angry at this provocative and quite unnecessary move by the government,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.
New Zealand inflicted the heaviest defeat suffered by France in more than a century of international rugby when they strolled to a 61-10 in the second test on Saturday. Inspired by a dominant forward display, the All Blacks followed up last week’s 42-11 win in Auckland with a ruthless nine-try demolition.
Shosholoza will be back for the next America’s Cup whether it is in Europe or New Zealand, the head of the South African syndicate said on Saturday. Shosholoza was the team everybody loved to love in Valencia, a group mostly made up of South Africans of all races who invited everybody into their base to join ”One team, one nation, one dream”.
Australia thrashed Fiji 49-0 in Perth on Saturday to chalk up their biggest Test victory in nearly 11 months and earn a timely confidence boost ahead of the World Cup in France. The Wallabies followed back-to-back wins over Wales by overwhelming their Pacific island neighbours with eight tries, five in the first half.
South Africa registered five tries to win a bruising encounter with Samoa 35-8 on Saturday. The Springboks used their entire bench as wing Ashwin Willemse, centre Wayne Julies, scrumhalf Enrico Januarie and flanker Luke Watson all left the field through injury in the one-off Test.
Vladimir Putin, whose term as Russian president ends next year, does not rule out running again in 2012, a leading Russian daily reported on Saturday. The future plans of the 54-year-old Putin, by far Russia’s most powerful and popular politician, are the hottest topic of the Russian presidential succession.
Radical changes are set to sweep through South African rugby following the World Cup in France later this year. According to media reports the first Springbok team of 2008 will consist of at least 10 black and coloured players. National coach Jake White will also be replaced by the country’s first black Springbok coach — Peter de Villiers.
A court has ordered Malaysia’s national airline to pay a Brahmin Hindu 20 000 ringgit ( 775) to compensate him for mental anguish suffered as a result of being served a chicken meal during a flight, local media reported on Saturday.
September 4 1988 was a day like any other in late Soviet-era Poland. Weary queues formed outside grocery stores. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the head of state who attempted to crush the anti-communist Solidarity movement, led a debate on the theme ”sincerity for sincerity”.