Phil Mickelson, bidding for his third straight major title, fired a one-under 69 on Saturday to seize a share of the third-round US Open lead along with England’s Kenneth Ferrie. The 27-year-old Ferrie, a two-time winner on the European tour, is playing in his first US Open and just his fourth major championship.
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He has a goal-scoring record that not even Pele could match, but age may finally be catching up with Iran’s evergreen striker Ali Daei. Coach Branko Ivankovic said what some Iranians have been saying for years: Daei, now 37, is simply too slow.
The Alan Paton Award for 2006 has been jointly won by Adam Levin for his book AidSafari and Judge Edwin Cameron’s Witness to Aids. ”The five judges believed strongly that both Levin and Cameron displayed exceptional integrity and bravery in laying bare as public testimony the details of their experience and their struggle with Aids,” said awards convenor Michele Magwood.
A 21-year old Zimbabwean man is in police custody after holding a hypodermic needle to an air hostess’s throat on a South African Airways flight on Saturday. Police said the man had apparently wanted to force the pilot to fly to Maputo. Cape Town resident Yunus Ismail told the Mail & Guardian Online he was sitting in his business class seat when he saw the man walking towards the cockpit with an air hostess.
It started out as a flight of whimsy, a tongue-in-cheek radio variety programme in front of a live audience of 12, at first broadcast only in Minnesota. Since then the programme launched in 1974 by Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion, has snowballed into an American phenomenon with four million listeners a week on 600 radio stations.
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A high-ranking Fifa official was sent home from the World Cup in disgrace on Saturday after admitting he sold World Cup tickets for three times face value. Fifa president Sepp Blatter said he was ”furious” after Botswana’s Ismail Bhamjee confirmed he sold tickets at inflated prices.
South Africa’s trade relations with juggernaut China will be put to the test this week when Premier Wen Jiabao jets into Cape Town for talks centred around China’s mighty textile industry. The SA economy has been hit hard in its own textiles sector by cheap imports from China and President Thabo Mbeki’s government has come under increasing pressure to deal with the problem.
In the atmosphere of despair that hangs over Liege, the biggest shock is to see children innocently enjoying themselves. As Adrienne, five, launches herself for the umpteenth time down a playground slide, her grandmother, Christine Maertens, sits on a bench thinking back.
North Korea directed its people to hoist the national flag and await a state message on television on Sunday, a Japanese newspaper said, amid reports the North was planning a new missile test. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said North Korea’s reported instruction might not be linked to the missile launch, saying it could be preparations for another national event.
A 21-year-old man was arrested on Saturday morning after he allegedly threatened a South African Airways (SAA) crew member with a syringe shortly after a plane took-off from the Cape Town International airport. Cape Town resident Yunus Ismail was sitting in his business class seat when he saw the man walking towards the cockpit with an air hostess.