Maoists tightened their grip on Kathmandu on Friday when two powerful bombs were detonated and a police officer seriously wounded by suspected guerrillas who have blockaded Nepal’s capital for a third day. The two blasts, just hours apart, destroyed a police post and caused considerable damage to a government building.
Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia still occupied their mosque stronghold in Najaf on Saturday despite handing the keys to a top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, and fought a fierce battle with United States forces in the twin city of Kufa. Two mortar bombs were fired on US positions 200m from the Imam Ali Shrine at about 9.50am local time.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=19686">’Death after death, blood after blood'</a>
Inside the pockmarked entrance of Najaf’s Imam Ali Shrine, there were no police to be seen on Friday afternoon. Only hours earlier a senior Iraqi government official had claimed that Iraqi police had secured the shrine, apparently bringing to an end the two-week standoff with Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=120807">’No truth’ to Najaf victory claims</a>
Jacques Freitag did everything he possibly could to compete at the Athens Olympics and at least in that he succeeded. But though he went out to take on his strongest rivals in the high jump at the Olympic Stadium cauldron with a painful ankle, he will always consider Friday night a failure.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
It was not pretty, but it was pretty effective. A spirited second-half fight-back by the Springboks turned a close-run match into a thrilling 23-19 victory over Australia and with it Tri-Nations triumph at a packed King’s Park on Saturday afternoon. It was a hard-fought, nail-biting and at times ugly game.
South African men’s rowing pair of Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente added a bronze medal to the three earned in swimming. Down at the Olympic stadium, South African discus throwers Frantz Kruger and Hannes Hopley went through to the final and Estie Wittstock came fourth in the third-fastest 400m heat of the day.
United States swimming sensation Michael Phelps took centre stage at the Olympics in Athens on Friday by bagging his fifth gold medal of the Games as two new drugs cases emerged. Phelps produced a lung-bursting late surge to snatch victory by his fingertips in the 100m butterfly.
Roland Schoeman added bronze to his gold and silver in the swimming to keep South Africa’s medal tally afloat at the Olympics, but world high-jump champion Jacques Freitag sunk out of contention. Schoeman may have missed becoming South Africa’s swimming sprint king of the world by 0,15 seconds.
Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia won the Olympic Games men’s 10 000m gold medal in Athens on Friday to take the first step towards the possibility of becoming the first athlete since compatriot Miruts Yifter in 1980 to do the 5 000m and 10 000m double. Two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie took fifth place.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Chaminda Vaas produced timely efforts with both bat and ball as Sri Lanka scored a three-wicket win over South Africa in the first one-day international at the Premdasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday. Vaas took four wickets to restrict South Africa to 263-9 and then chipped in with a useful 18 runs.