Opera singer Anna Moffo, a soprano hailed for her glamorous looks as much as her singing, has died, the Metropolitan Opera said on Friday. She was 73, according to the Grove Dictionary of Music. Moffo made her debut as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in a 1955 television production.
The Nasdaq electronic stock exchange confirmed on Friday it had made a bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE), calling it an ”attractive offer” for shareholders. The news came hours after the LSE said it had rejected the unsolicited offer from the United States group as one that ”substantially undervalues” the company.
A record amount of spending in February pushed the United States government’s Budget deficit to the highest level to date for a single month, the Treasury Department reported on Friday. The government had a record monthly deficit of ,2-billion in February.
Behind a vale of trees lies the largest leper colony in the Middle East, a virtual oasis in Egypt for those who have been ostracised by society. The Abu Zaabal centre in the governorate of Qaliubiya, north of Cairo, hosts a hospital, pre-school, a prison and the adjoining village of Abdel Moneim Riad. It is home to 3 000 people.
The body of a dead United States hostage, abducted in November, has been found in Iraq as US President George Bush acknowledged the gravity of mounting unrest there and called on Iraqi leaders to form a national unity government quickly. The body was that of Tom Fox, a 54-year-old peace activist from Virginia.
The West Indies on Saturday batted and bowled themselves into a position to break a streak of six straight Test-match losses. On the third day of the first cricket Test against New Zealand, openers Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga kept their wickets intact for more than an hour before stumps to leave the tourists 48 without loss when play ended.
The Dolphins have taken a stranglehold on the second day of the Supersport cricket match against the Warriors at Mercedes-Benz Park. By close of play on Friday, the home team were struggling on 84 for three wickets, still 428 runs behind the Dolphins’ mammoth 512 for seven wickets declared.
Ralf Schumacher admitted in Manama on Friday that the lack of a third driver in Friday practice sessions could cost Toyota this season. Toyota finished fourth in last year’s constructors’ world championship, which disqualifies them from running a third car in Friday testing.
It had all the ingredients of a heartbreak defeat for Mvela log leaders Wits University as they succumbed to an opportunist 84th-minute headed goal from Collen Zimba to lose their first-round Absa Cup game 1-0 at Milpark on Friday night. Instead there were no tears in the promotion-seeking club’s ranks afterwards.
South Africa made major strides just by competing in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, despite getting outscored 38-12 in three games. Baseball officials in his country called upon 33-year-old Willem Kemp, the team’s oldest member, to lead this inexperienced squad half made up of teenagers.