South African rowers Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente won bronze with a time of six minutes and 33,40 seconds in the coxless pairs rowing at the Olympic Games in Athens on Saturday. The world champions, Australia’s Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, cruised to victory.
Schoeman takes bronze
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Seven people were killed and 70 to 80 injured on Saturday when a series of bombs ripped through an opposition party rally in the Bangladesh capital, an Awami League party official said. The explosions at the rally attended by party leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed sent people scattering in panic.
A complaint against the high prices charged for Aids drugs by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been taken to the Competition Tribunal in Pretoria, the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said on Friday. The AHF claims the drug manufacturer’s pricing is to the detriment of South Africans with HIV/Aids.
The last surviving British World War II gunboat in existence could be sold to collectors in Germany due to the lack of a domestic purchaser, its owner said on Friday. Phil Clabburn has spent the past five years and £500 000 (about R5,85-million) restoring the MGB81 boat, which saw action on D-Day in June 1944.
South Africa’s biggest trade union movement said on Friday it will work with major labour federations from Nigeria and Ghana to have a say in decisions taken by the African Union. Leaders from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) held two days of talks with the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Ghana Trade Union Congress.
A curious case involving 13 so-called ”miracle babies” and immaculate conception has sparked concern about the proliferation of new church groups in Kenya. The case, which has dominated newspaper headlines in Kenya, is prompting calls for the government to investigate suspect religious ministries.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: The follow-up to Before Sunrise, Before Sunset retains most of what was engaging about the first movie: it has its gentleness, its romanticism and, most importantly, its idealism. Peter Bradshaw reminisces and reviews.
American lesbians are up in arms over the ”exploitation” of lesbian lifestyles, depicted in Spike Lee’s latest film. She Hate Me stands accused of creating an extensive male fantasy of having sex with lots of women — women who are usually inaccessible to most men.” Gary Younge reports from New York.
The outcome of the recent disciplinary hearing of three National Arts Council staff members had better be worth the expense, says Mike van Graan. But the cost to the arts and to the NAC of what has happened over the past 10 months cannot be measured only in monetary terms.
Iraq’s United States-backed caretaker government cried victory on Friday in its 19-day standoff with Shi’ite Muslim militiamen in Najaf, but on the ground rebel fighters remained firmly in control of their stronghold in the city’s holiest shrine. "Not a lick of truth to [the victory claims]," said a US defence official on Friday.