Chinese officials have expressed concern that the media furore surrounding world record hurdler Liu Xiang could harm his career, state media reported on Thursday. They quoted athletics official Yu Weili as calling for more privacy for Liu, who set a new world record in the 110m hurdles with a time of 12,88 seconds in Lausanne on Tuesday.
Colin Montgomerie has turned to a sports psychologist to put him in the right frame of mind to finally slay his major tournament jinx at next week’s British Open. The big Scot suffered his most agonising near miss yet when he left a seven iron from the centre of the fairway short of the final green in last month’s United States Open, running up a double-bogey that allowed Geoff Ogilvy to claim the title.
The implementation of a large-scale anti-retroviral treatment (ART) programme will not only extend the lives of HIV-positive South Africans, but will also significantly reduce the adverse economic consequences of the HIV/Aids epidemic. This is according to an in-depth study of the macro-economic impact of HIV and Aids in South Africa under alternative treatment scenarios.
The aerospace industry will be in sharp focus next week when one of its biggest shows opens near London amid a crisis at the European group Airbus that has helped boost the standing of United States rival Boeing. The Farnborough International Airshow comes as Airbus is caught in a storm of bad publicity after revealing production problems in June.
Eurotunnel was to "place itself under the protection of the Paris tribunal of commerce" after the failure of negotiations on its debt with its creditors. Subordinate creditors headed by Deutsche Bank "rejected the last effort to reach a consensual agreement with all the Eurotunnel creditors," said a spokesperson.
Microsoft on Wednesday was calling on users of its Windows and Office 2000 software to install security patches that prevent hackers from taking over their computers. The Redmond, Washington, software giant also made available monthly installments engineered to remove malware.
Cool bottled water in three delicious flavours — beef, chicken and bacon. Not tempted? Your dog will be. An Australian man has taken pooch-pampering to the next level with the launch of Aqua Dog. With one canine for every five Australians, the country has one of the world’s highest dog ownership rates and a pet food industry worth Aus$1,2-billion a year.
South African mobile phone operator MTN has extended its offer for Investcom until further notice and said on Thursday 99,5% of Investcom’s shareholders had accepted the deal. MTN, Africa’s largest cellular operator, had previously said the second closing date of the offer to shareholders of Investcom LLC was July 12 2006.
Zimbabwean police arrested more than 200 activists in three cities on Wednesday as they marched to demand a new Constitution to replace one seen entrenching President Robert Mugabe’s rule, a lobby group said. The National Constitutional Assembly said about 1 060 people took to the streets at midday in the capital Harare as well as in Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru and Masvingo.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to join the G8 to secure multilateral deals on trade, climate change and Iran, The Guardian newspaper said on Thursday. The British premier reckoned that the first fruits of closer engagement could be a break of the logjam in the ailing Doha round of world trade talks.