Defending world drivers’ champion Fernando Alonso believes that this weekend’s French Grand Prix will see him bounce back from his disappointment in America last time out. The 24-year-old Spaniard could only finish fifth in his Renault at the United States Grand Prix as his title rival Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari to cut his championship lead to 19 points with eight races left.
Retired France captain Zinedine Zidane can do no wrong, according to his peers in the football world following his public apology on television for headbutting Italy’s Marco Materazzi. The 34-year-old great went on Canal+ and then TF1 TV stations in France to apologise to the world for losing his temper over jibes from the Italian centre-back in the World Cup final on Sunday.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s future with Manchester United was still up in the air on Thursday, despite the club insisting he was not for sale. The Portuguese winger has retracted slightly from his claim that he would be moving away from Old Trafford after the rumpus surrounding his role in the World Cup sending off of Wayne Rooney.
The European Union will start patrolling the West African coast from July 18 in an attempt to stem illegal immigration to the Canary Islands, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was on Thursday quoted by press reports as saying. Zapatero made the announcement on Wednesday on Tenerife, where he visited immigrant reception centres.
Australia flanker George Smith has reacted angrily to suggestions South African players are offering each other rewards for pulling out his dreadlocks during their Tri-Nations clash this weekend. The Sydney Morning Herald asked Smith about Joe van Niekerk’s comments that a colleague offered ” to the man who came off the field with one of Smith’s dreadlocks” during a 2004 Test.
A leading Zimbabwean rights group on Thursday demanded the "immediate release" of 220 protesters arrested across the country as they marched to press for a new Constitution. "Lawyers will be seeking the immediate release of the activists because they are being held by police illegally," Ernest Mudzengi, a senior official of the National Constitutional Assembly, said.
Elite cyclist Floyd Landis has Tour de France fans and even many physicians stumped. How can a guy whose hip is falling apart hop on a bike, let alone be a contender in this most grueling challenge? His degenerating condition has crumbled the ball of his hip joint so that it no longer fits neatly into the socket, his doctor says.
More than 100 volunteers have come to the aid of a stricken wild elephant who has been stuck in mud for a week in eastern Thailand, local officials said on Thursday. The elderly pachyderm, called Plai Khun Song, was unable to stand up after he took a rest in a mud hole in a sanctuary in Chanthaburi province, 245km east of Bangkok, district chief Viwat Chantanurak said.
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.