So it looks like Arsenal are finally going to pay the price for their lack of financial clout. For too many years the North London club have kept pace – and more – with the moneybags European powers but something has to give. Last season’s unbeaten champions could be about to see the heart of their side ripped out by Real Madrid.
Sir Bobby Robson, easily the oldest boss in the Premiership, is entering his last season in charge at St James’s Park. Alan Shearer is in his final season of goal-getting after 15 years of successful plundering at Southampton, Blackburn and his beloved Newcastle. Neither is likely to blow it on his swansong.
The Postage Stamp, the eighth hole at Royal Troon where the Open Champhionship is under way, is the most famous short hole in Europe. It is the Penny Black of the album but, given any weather, it morphs seamlessly into a penny dreadful. It has lured many a great player to destruction.
It is what the French call un coup de jeune — an influx of youth — and, as well as Lance Armstrong’s effervescent form, the usual series of horrendous crashes, and heavy rain, it is what has set the opening phase of the Tour de France apart. It is many years since so many young riders made such an impression.
If a week is a long time in politics, then three weeks is an eternity, but that is all the time it’s taken to change the shape of southern hemisphere and, possibly, world rugby. The Pacific Islanders close their five-match campaign in Gosford, Australia, on Saturday against South Africa.
The bomb attack in Tel Aviv last weekend highlights the desperate need to achieve a peace settlement. It highlights, too, the futility of the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land, a wall condemned by the International Court of Justice last Friday. What action is needed to put an end to this dance of death?
Every month, Melissa Howard attended district meetings at Hooters, trying to talk profits and stock volumes while her co-workers focused elsewhere. But as the only woman among 10 store managers at a Wal-Mart store in Indiana, she feared losing her job if she objected. Now US supermarket giant Wal-Mart is facing a historic class action by 1,5-million female staff.
Almost 12 years after Angolans last went to the polls, prospects of an election are becoming brighter. Earlier this month, Angola’s Council of the Republic — the highest presidential advisory body — advised President José Eduardo dos Santos to exercise ”judicial influence” on Parliament to approve the legal framework for elections in September 2006.
There comes a time in many United States presidential elections when things begin to get really tough. And then there is only one thing for it — the candidates bring out their children. Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards can fill whole podiums with their offspring. Now, the White House has struck back with a double whammy — the Bush twins.
Former Mail & Guardian journalist Farouk Chothia and his Cameroonian colleague Ange Ngu Thomas were still under house arrest in Limbe, Cameroon, on Thursday. Chothia, a producer for the BBC, was detained on Sunday together with BBC reporter Ngu Thomas on accusations of spying.