Maria Sharapova overpowered her Spanish opponent in the second round of the Italian Open, but the top-seeded Russian still has a long way to go before claiming the top ranking in women’s tennis. The Wimbledon champion needs to win the ,3-million tournament in order to overtake Lindsay Davenport for the number-one ranking.
Chelsea rewrote the Premiership record books with a 3-1 win away to Manchester United as goals from Tiago, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole cancelled out Ruud van Nistelrooy’s opener at Old Trafford on Tuesday. Chelsea, secured a record 29th league win in a season and broke United’s record of 92 points in a season.
Upbeat Pakistan cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said his team are confident of winning a series in the West Indies for the first time as they flew out to the Caribbean early on Wednesday. Pakistan are on a high after their tour of India where they squared a three-match Test series 1-1 and won a six-match one-day series 4-2.
The FBI and the United States secret service were on Wednesday morning investigating a report that a hand grenade had been thrown towards US George President Bush as he was making a speech in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. According to Jonathan Cherry, a secret service spokesperson, the device hit someone in the crowd and fell to the ground without detonating.
Gold Fields is to appeal against a decision by the Competition Tribunal granting approval for rival Harmony’s proposed merger with the mining group. The tribunal on Tuesday approved the proposed transaction, subject to conditions designed to ameliorate "certain potentially negative public interest consequences" arising from the merger.
Denel’s new chief executive, Shaun Liebenberg, will this week move into the state arms manufacturer’s top office, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. He was supposed to take the reigns on June 1, but with the agreement of outgoing CE Victor Moche, the date has been advanced, Denel said.
It’s a directive that promises to give a new meaning to the expression ”corporate relations”. In a move that has caused horror in boardrooms across Spain, the country’s stock market regulator has demanded twice-yearly disclosures about the love lives of business leaders.
New Zealand will bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup after the rugby union secured government backing, New Zealand Rugby Union chairperson Jock Hobbs said on Wednesday. Hobbs said the New Zealand bid, which will be lodged with the International Rugby Board before Friday’s deadline, will be ”comprehensive and compelling”.
The French national assembly launched a campaign on Tuesday to raise pay for women, who despite laws dating back to the early 1970s still earn on average 25% less than their male counterparts. ”This gulf is unacceptable morally and it is unacceptable economically,” the state secretary for equality, Nicole Ameline, told Parliament.
Homer described how to make feta in the Odyssey. Aristotle delighted in its briny, crumbly texture. For Greeks, the biggest cheese-eaters in Europe, feta is the heart and soul of Hellenic cuisine, and on Tuesday the European Union’s highest court took a decisive step to ensure it stays that way.