The Premier Soccer League (PSL) season, which gets into full swing this weekend, will be a gruelling one — particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Each of the 16 top division clubs must complete 20 league games and two domestic knockout cup competitions by December 22.
Four years is a long time in rugby. Four years ago, when South Africa last played a Test against New Zealand in Cape Town, Harry Viljoen was the Springbok coach and Wayne Smith was in charge of the All Blacks. Both teams have changed coach twice since then and both have suffered plenty of false dawns along the way.
Olympic champion Justin Gatlin goes into this weekend’s 100m at the world championships in Helsinki as firm favourite after the withdrawal of injured world record holder Asafa Powell. The 23-year-old American said he was disappointed by the absence of his Jamaican rival, who has been beset by groin injuries since setting his record 9,77second time in Athens in June.
Internet search giant Yahoo on Thursday trumpeted the release of a trial version of software that lets people seek out music, news, speeches and other audio files online. Yahoo’s service weighs into a competitive internet market where audio-file search programs are offered by companies such as America Online and Google.
The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) is again challenging the South African media on their coverage of National Women’s Day. For the past six years, the MMP has monitored media coverage during the period around National Women’s Day. Last year’s challenge was won by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
My always reliable mole in high places has told me that South African Airways is about to introduce what is described as an ”unavoidable” 10% levy on all air tickets. This levy has become necessary in order to fund the lifestyle and management needs of SAA’s chief executive officer, Khaya Ngqula, and also to pay for all future enormous double-page SAA apologies in the Sunday newspapers.
CNN suspended commentator Robert Novak indefinitely after he swore and walked off the set on Thursday during a debate with Democratic operative James Carville. The exchange during CNN’s Inside Edition came during a discussion of Florida’s Senate campaign.
America Online said on Thursday it has bought the online storage company Xdrive to meet the growing needs of consumers with rapidly expanding collections of digital music, photos and other files. AOL did not disclose financial terms but said it would operate Xdrive as a wholly owned subsidiary and continue to sell storage and backup services through Xdrive.com.
African leaders’ insistence at their summit on Thursday to drop demands for two permanent veto-wielding seats on an enlarged United Nations Security Council is a major setback for council aspirants Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, which had lobbied hard for African backing, diplomats said.
Chevron paid Nigerian soldiers who guarded the company’s oil rigs after they allegedly attacked two villages in the African nation, according to company documents that have surfaced during a lawsuit against the energy firm. The invoice asks Chevron to pay 15Â 000 naira, about , to 23 soldiers who responded to ”attacks from Opia village against security agents”.