Brazilian Felipe Massa ended Lewis Hamilton’s two-race domination of Formula One by taking pole position ahead of the young Briton on Saturday for Sunday’s French Grand Prix. The Latin-American Ferrari driver clocked a fastest lap in the final segment of qualifying with a time of one minute, 15,034 seconds.
Seven-time world champion Italian Valentino Rossi, riding a Yamaha, won the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen on Saturday ahead of championship leader Casey Stoner of Australia and American reigning champion Nicky Hayden. It was a remarkable victory for Rossi, who started 11th on the grid.
Protectionism is making a comeback. At least, that is the fear of many influential figures — from senior officials at finance ministries to politicians and independent economists. These experts are, generally speaking, pointing their fingers from West to East, from the United States and Europe to China, Russia and the Persian Gulf.
Australia stunned New Zealand with two second-half tries to storm home for a 20-15 win in the Tri-Nations rugby tournament in Melbourne on Saturday. The Wallabies looked second-best to the World Cup favourites for more than an hour before unleashing two converted tries to keep their hopes alive.
Polish gay rights groups claim thousands of homosexuals have fled the country to escape increasing persecution. Robert Biedron (27), the head of the Polish Foundation against Homophobia, said "huge numbers" of Polish gay people have left the country following the rise to power of the right-wing government.
Nowhere, perhaps, will be more important than Shanghai. One of eight cities hosting Live Earth concerts for Al Gore’s crusade against climate change on Saturday, it will help deliver a vast audience across China. And with the world’s most populous country on board, organisers believe they can reach two billion people.
Air strikes in the British-controlled Helmand province of Afghanistan may have killed civilians, coalition troops said on Saturday as local people claimed that between 50 and 80 people, many of them women and children, had died.
Media group Primedia’s national anti-crime campaign has led to 33 arrests since its launch three weeks ago, Primedia spokesperson Yusuf Abramjee said on Saturday. Successes include recovering four stolen vehicles at a complex in Winchester Hills, south of Johannesburg, and arresting two people.
Two suspects rammed a petrol-filled, four-wheel-drive vehicle into Glasgow airport on Saturday in what police described as a terrorist attack linked to a twin car-bomb plot foiled in London. Britain’s Home Office announced it had raised the national security alert level to ”critical”, the highest ranking and one that indicates further attacks are expected imminently.
Saturday morning. Launch of biography last night downstairs in the Albert Luthuli Memorial Log-Bar and still as giddy as a schoolgirl. Slept in my tux, just didn’t want it to end. Mistake, though: forgot I had smuggled out crème brûlée in breast pocket for celebratory nosh-up in bed after lights out and presidential duvet now covered with ants.