The Sharks beat the Falcons 46-17 in the Currie Cup rugby series on Friday night in Brakpan after leading 17-3 by half-time. The men from KwaZulu-Natal got their campaign back on track after two losses with a perfect tally of five points. They outscored the Falcons by seven tries to two.
German cyclist Jan Ullrich was supplied with a potent cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs by the Spanish doctor accused of running a doping ring that has left the sport in crisis, it was reported in Germany on Saturday. The allegations were made by anti-doping campaigner Werner Franke in a newspaper interview.
Tiger Woods got off to a quick start to share the lead on Friday when darkness stopped play in the second round of the ,8-million Buick Open. Being in contention here is nothing new for Woods, who has finished in the top four in each of his past four visits, including a victory in 2002.
Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos landed near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on Saturday, Lebanese security sources said. At least five people were killed in the night raid, which occurred as world powers edged slowly toward a deal aimed at ending the 25-day-old war in Lebanon.
Internet betting sites are offering odds on when Fidel Castro, the Cuban President, will die, as members of the Cuban government report that his condition is stable and he is recovering from an intestinal operation. The Costa Rica-based BetUS.com gambling site claimed on Friday that it had taken ”thousands” of bets.
Iraqi soldiers arrested 64 suspected insurgents, mostly in northern provinces, as three people were killed in the country’s raging sectarian and political violence, officials said on Saturday. In the latest violence, Hassan Wannas, a former member of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday.
When Douglas Adams wanted the answer to life, the universe and everything, he arrived at the number 42. Now, a few decades later, astronomers have caught up, choosing that number as the diameter — in metres — of a proposed new telescope that could reveal whether life exists anywhere else in the cosmos.
There was some good news this week for Mel Gibson as he attempted to rescue his career from the firestorm provoked by his anti-Semitic outburst a week ago. He will not have to go to court and will thus avoid the public walk so beloved of United States cable channels, a second act to the ritual of the star’s mugshot.
A major oil slick was spreading north from Lebanon along the Syrian coast on Friday night and could devastate beaches as far away as Turkey and Cyprus, local ecologists and the United Nations have warned. The slick follows the bombing by the Israelis of fuel tanks at the Jiyyeh power station south of Beirut.
The premiere of Oliver Stone’s movie about 9/11, the studio bosses had promised, would be low-profile: a restrained affair, designed to show sensitivity towards the tragedy. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have passed that message to the throngs of people that colonised half a Manhattan block for the launch of the film.