Tiger Woods admits he will be taking a step into the unknown at next week’s US Open as he returns to competition for the first time since the death of his father. Woods’s father Earl died on May 3 after a long battle with cancer and the American hasn’t played since the Masters in April.
They are as French as demonstrations, croissants and good railways; an essential part of any British tourist’s holiday and of the social and cultural life of the nation — and they are rapidly disappearing. France’s bistros are shutting so quickly that within 10 years they will all either have closed down, become ”theme bars” or have been swallowed up by large chains.
Forced off his land in Zimbabwe, 60-year-old Hunter Coetzee has farming in his blood, but it’s Nigerian soil under his fingernails now after the first harvest in his new home. ”Nigeria has offered us hope and succour. We are here for good,” he said contentedly, six years after he thought he had lost everything.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday [Saturday] called his people to a referendum that would in effect recognise the state of Israel, a move that was denounced by the radical Hamas government as a coup. Abbas called the vote just hours after dramatic scenes in Gaza when thousands of mourners expressed grief during the funeral of the family killed by an Israeli attack.
An Egyptian poultry trader found a four-legged cock among chickens he bought from a farm, the official Mena news agency reported on Saturday. The cock, which also had two excretory tracts, weighed 2,5kg, said the man from Kafr Saqr in al-Sharqiya province, 86km north-east of Cairo.
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Argentina took a huge step towards securing a berth in the second round of the World Cup finals by beating an unlucky Côte d’Ivoire 2-1, although the African Natons Cup finalists threatened the two-time winners at the end. The Ivorians, spearheaded by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, repeatedly and clearly troubled the South American defence.
North Korea’s Air Force Command on Sunday threatened to "punish" the United States for its spy flights over the communist state, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down 37 years ago. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the air force said that a US RC-135 reconnaissance plane had made flights over its territorial waters on June 6, 8 and 10.
South Africa is taking small steps to stop Aids from wreaking havoc on its key farming sector in a nation with one of the world’s heaviest caseloads. A few NGOs and farmers have launched testing programmes, but the government has no specific policy for the sector that is emerging as one of hardest-hit by the pandemic.
Nine people were wounded early on Sunday as three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Manila and the city of Lipa on the eve of Philippine Independence Day, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said.
Indonesia’s Mount Merapi continued to spew lava and searing clouds of gas and ash on Sunday as geologists maintained the top danger alert on the smouldering volcano. Despite losing a huge chunk of the lava dome forming at its peak on Friday, which lessened the danger of a major eruption, geologists said the volcano still posed a threat.