The world’s fastest and strongest women were crowned at the Olympics in Athens on Saturday as United States swimming sensation Michael Phelps etched his name into history with a sixth gold medal. Doping controversies and wrangles over judging bubbled away on the sidelines but for once it was sporting stories that dominated.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Joe Cole’s strike maintained Chelsea’s perfect start to the season but it was no easy ride in their 1-0 win at Birmingham City on Saturday. Manchester United, 1-0 losers at Chelsea last week, beat newly promoted Norwich City 2-1 at Old Trafford thanks to an impressive volley from new striker Alan Smith.
Frantz Kruger — the discus bronze-medal winner in Sydney 2000 — and Hannes Hopley got through to the discus final at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. In men’s hockey, bolstered by the Springboks’ win, South Africa put everything into their game against the Aussies, but conceded 3-2 in the end.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
President Robert Mugabe has rejected an extradition request for 70 alleged mercenaries accused of plotting a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, a state newspaper reported on Saturday. Mugabe and his minister of home affairs met with two envoys sent by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of the oil-rich West African nation.
A machine that lets drinkers inhale shots of alcohol has gone on display in New York, even as one local lawmaker warned the device is ”a disaster waiting to happen”.
The Alcohol without Liquid vaporiser mixes the alcohol with pressurised oxygen. Makers say it gives drinkers the effect of alcohol without the drunkenness, or hangover.
A key transit point for the untold numbers of Africans ripped from their homes and sold into slavery from the 15th century, Saint Louis these days seems blanketed by a collective amnesia. Similar legacies burden much of coastal West Africa, from massive Mauritania to the tiny archipelago of Cape Verde.
An ambulance rushing a dying man to hospital in an outlying suburb of the capital lost control and hit and killed his elder brother, district police said on Saturday by telephone. Police said that the family tragedy began when Khut Vit (34) was shot by unknown assailants as he rode his motorbike home at about midnight.
The African National Congress on Friday asserted its authority in Umtata — the last town the United Democratic Movement had any control over in the country. After by-elections in June, the UDM refused to abdicate power and resorted to the court for protection. The court ordered that the parties should resolve their problems.
South Africa and China should have a relationship on environmental issues that will last forever, visiting Chinese vice-minister Zeng Xiaodong said on Friday. Xiaodong, Vice-Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration of the Republic of China, is in South Africa on a five-day visit.
A South African woman has pleaded not guilty to immigration charges in a case that has raised concerns about whether terrorists could enter the United States by way of Mexico. Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed (48) was arrested on July 19 after being stopped by the border patrol at McAllen-Miller International airport in Texas.