After months of breathless anticipation, the Athens Olympics got under way last Friday, presenting a worldwide television audience of billions with an opening ceremony that, in the tradition of Greek drama, had us howling in a mixture of belly-laughter and gut-wrenching pity.
Mining group BHP Billiton’s financial results this week were in line with market expectations, but the dividends were disappointing, one analyst said. The Johannesburg-based analyst, who refused to be named, said while the earnings of the world’s largest diversified resources group were "broadly" as the markets had expected, no special dividends were paid.
Mining magnate Patrice Motsepe this week unveiled the first full-year results of his new company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) while revealing the next, and probably most interesting, chapter in his career. The results show how far Motsepe has come as a mining entrepreneur — and the hard work that lies ahead in turning ARM into a world-class diversified resources company.
It is called the "paradox of plenty". Although it is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, Nigeria has been hit regularly by fuel shortages over the past two decades. Corruption in the oil sector is seen as the culprit. Analysts point to mismanagement of the country’s four refineries, run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Iraq’s national conference has finally chosen the country’s first post-Saddam Hussein assembly. After a day of wrangling and confusion, the presiding judges at the conference declared that a government-backed list should be adopted. "This conference is the best thing to happen in Iraq since liberation, but if we muck it up now then the future will look even less rosy," said delegate Ismael Zayer.
As we celebrate 10 years of our democracy, we cannot escape the fact that many women and children find it difficult to make sense of such celebrations because they continually face the grim reality of gender-based violence. Such violence makes a mockery of our democratic and "civilised" society, and remains an ugly blot on the fabric of our new social order.
In September 1994 Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson paid £250 000 for a young South African called Lucas Radebe (and his pal, Philemon Masinga) to help his side recover the form that had won the championship in 1991. Ten years later, “The Chief” is about to bow out, his reputation unsullied but his legs spent.
Eidur Gudjohnsen has become a member of the old guard at Chelsea. Having lasted four years, he is among an elite few whose memories stretch as far back as the days when Gianluca Vialli was manager and Ken Bates owned the Bridge. The great survivor recently signed a new four-year, £55 000-a-week contract.
Just for once, let’s forget about the megastars. Sure, the Real Madrid pair of Michael Owen and David Beckham scored two of the goals in England’s 3-0 friendly win over the world’s 71st-best side, the Ukraine, on Wednesday night. But the real star of the show at a worryingly empty St James’s Park was Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Sri Lanka haven’t been cricketing rabbits for a decade, but still, as the South Africans poked through the ashes and cinders of the Test series, one couldn’t help recalling a certain Pythonian fuzzy bunny, one moment grazing sweetly in a pasture, the next tearing the throats out of screaming knights errant.