Formula one’s five leading manufacturers appear to be headed for a showdown with motor racing’s world governing body after announcing plans on Monday to form their own organisation and throw out the FIA’s international court of appeal. The five are unhappy that the current appeals panel is linked to the governing body.
Top-ranked Roger Federer won his first match after a three-week injury layoff, but some of his main challengers at the Hamburg Masters left the tournament on Monday. Second-seeded Andy Roddick was upset in the opening round by Nicolas Massu of Chile; Rafael Nadal pulled out; and Carlos Moya withdrew, citing a shoulder injury.
Jockey Felix Coetzee makes no bones about how good his record-breaking mount Silent Witness is. ”He’s the best horse you could ever hope to ride,” says the South African. ”I’ve ridden close to 3 000 winners and I will never ride anything like him again. He’s a superstar, a supreme athlete. He’s just a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
Narain Karthikeyan has Fernando Alonso as his role model. It’s not a bad choice. Alonso is the formula-one season leader after five races. Karthikeyan finished three laps behind Alonso on Sunday, far out of the points. But he finished, which is like winning for drivers on some of the also-ran teams.
”Constructionist” haute cuisine comprising weird and wonderful servings of limitless invention has won Argentinian chef extraordinaire Miguel Sanchez Romera a Michelin star, the first latino to receive such an accolade. Romera combined his prandial passions with a career as a neurologist until 1996, when he opened his restaurant.
Listed electronic equipment group Allied Electronics Corporation Limited (Altron) on Tuesday reported a 17% increase in headline earnings per share to 161 cents for the year ending February 28 2005, from 138 cents a year ago. The group declared an ordinary dividend of 63 cents per share — an increase of 21% from 52 cents previously.
Shares in Telkom soared almost 4% in early trade on Tuesday after the telecommunications group said in a trading statement before the opening that it expects a rise of 35% in basic earnings per share and a 55% surge in headline earnings per share for the year ended March 2005.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Monday it was wary of Barclays’ efforts to buy a 60% stake in Absa. ”We are concerned that this is not new investment but the takeover of existing capital, at a big profit to the existing shareholders,” Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said in a statement.
Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to its negotiating team to declare a dispute with employers’ organisations in the metal and engineering industry if no new offer was received from employers. Solidarity said this means that the trade union may approach its members for a strike mandate after Tuesday’s negotiations.
About 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet’s nations are slowly emerging from the waters of the Gulf, forming an exclusive and sandy world of their own just off the coast of Dubai. Less than two years after work began, 60% of the islands have been raised from the sea floor, says James Wilson, CEO of Nakheel, the company behind the project.