Australia’s Adam Scott seized the first-round lead at the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday, continuing the solid form that saw him finish tied for third at the PGA Championship. Scott (26) nabbed nine birdies in his last 12 holes en route to a seven-under 63 in the -million limited field event.
Champions Barcelona and English league winners Chelsea will renew their stormy rivalry after they were drawn in the group stages of the Champions League on Thursday. It was the third time in three years that Barcelona, who beat Chelsea in the second round of last season’s competition, have been paired with the London club.
Newcastle and Marseille scraped into the Uefa Cup knockout round on Thursday but did little to raise the profile of a tournament slumbering in the shadows of the Champions League. Newcastle drew 0-0 with Latvian minnows Ventspils but went through having won the first leg of the second preliminary round tie 1-0.
A pre-Ashes boot camp at which Australia’s top cricketers underwent commando training in a Queensland forest was ”absolute garbage”, Test great Neil Harvey said on Friday. ”Can you imagine [Don] Bradman or [Keith] Miller or [Ray] Lindwall, or any of those blokes going on one of those?” Harvey said, referring to some of his more notable former Australian teammates.
The public protector’s report on the investigation into allegations of unethical and improper conduct by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, which cleared her of any of any improper behaviour regarding her Christmas holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates, said she is free to take leave and travel to any destination in terms of the government’s policy guidelines.
Like a small black football, it lies in the dirt not far from Haitham Daaboul’s front door in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil. It looks innocuous, but a careless kick from a passing child would detonate this cluster bomb, one of thousands of unexploded devices Israel scattered over the towns, villages and hillsides of south Lebanon.
Of all the down-home bits of nitwit advice offered up by hillbilly philosophers, perhaps the most grating is the one that demands participation before it will allow criticism. Invariably delivered with a wry, slightly superior feyness that is intended to look like wisdom but comes off as constipation, it is the last line of defence for a certain kind of cultural collaborator, and it goes something like, "Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it."
Absa was voted the top banking brand in South Africa in the <i>2006 Sunday Times/Markinor Top Brands Survey</i>, announced in Johannesburg on Thursday evening. The <i>Top Brands Survey</i> is considered to be the country’s leading study of an organisation’s brand strength and competitiveness.
South African platinum miner Impala Platinum on Friday reported a 39% increase in diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) to 5 989 cents for the year ended June from 4 322 cents a year ago. Basic HEPS were also up 39% to 6 006 cents from 4 325 cents before.
Six opposition parties urged President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday to sack Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, while her ministry said she had no plans to quit. ”The ministry of health reiterates its position that the minister of health will not resign,” read a statement issued in the afternoon by her spokesperson, Sibani Mngadi.