Designers have been using the latest materials and technology to improve tennis rackets for decades. Now, some are looking back a couple of millennia to Roman civilisation for inspiration. Prince, which has been making rackets for 30 years, has expanded the traditional pin-size string holes on the rim into ovals — a design based on the principal of the arch.
Bryce Easton of Kloof Country Club, a 17-year old Westville Boys High matric student, roared his way to a course record of 64 over the testing Durban Country Club Beachwood course on Sunday. Easton won the the men’s section of the second annual 36 holes SwedoCar Natal Invitation golf tournament by eight shots.
A regional Kenyan hospital overwhelmed at the weekend with patients made violently ill by adulterated moonshine appealed for assistance on Monday as the death toll from the poisonous brew hit 46. Simon Mueke, superintendant of the Machakos District hospital southwest of Nairobi, said his small facility was stretched to the limit and could barely cope with the influx of sick drinkers.
Nasa hopes to give astronomers their first peek at the inside of a comet by blasting a stadium-sized hole through one of the heavenly bodies. If all goes as planned, the Deep Impact spacecraft will release a wine barrel-sized probe on a suicide journey, hurtling toward the comet Tempel 1 — about 130-million kilometres away from Earth at the time of impact.
Hundreds of workers and tourists have lodged complaints about ”icy” air conditioners in hotels, offices and shopping malls around Hong Kong, a news report said on Monday. While summer temperatures climb into the high thirties, the temperature in one Kowloon Bay restaurant toilet was just 16C, the Hong Kong Standard reported.
Princess Diana had a passionate affair with John F Kennedy Jr, according to a new book on the late former wife of Prince Charles. Diana and Kennedy, who both died in tragic accidents in the 1990s, met in in New York in 1995 when the son of the assassinated United States president sought an interview with her for his magazine George, the Sun newspaper reported on Monday.
President Thabo Mbeki paid tribute on Sunday to the ”mighty legions of the freedom fighters” who sacrificed their lives to free South Africans from apartheid. Mbeki said it would take time to see the demands contained in the Freedom Charter become fully realised in the same way as it took a long time to achieve liberation.
An envoy for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has arrived in Zimbabwe to investigate a so-called urban renewal campaign that has destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans. Opposition parties say the blitz is intended to punish its supporters who voted against the government in recent parliamentary elections.
The Democratic Alliance has written to President Mbeki asking him to answer questions about two encrypted faxes concerning arms deal tenders the party was in possession of. The DA says the faxes imply that the President had guaranteed the arms deal contract before the tender process was complete.
Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Sunday she was not concerned about public money ending up in ANC coffers during the so-called Oilgate scandal. ”That’s none of my business. That’s a transaction between Imvume,” she told the South African Broadcasting Corporation in an interview on Sunday.