America’s Andy Roddick and Nadia Petrova of Russia became the first major casualties of the 2006 French Open on Tuesday. Roddick, the fifth seed, retired from his first-round match with Spanish journeyman Alberto Martin trailing 6-4, 7-5, 1-0, still feeling the effects of the ankle injury he picked up at the World Team Cup in Germany last week.
After its slide at the opening on the back of weaker United States markets, the JSE was well off its worst levels in noon trade on Wednesday, following a turnaround on European markets. Overall, sentiment remained on the negative side, however. By 11.57am, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were 0,69% and 0,71% lower respectively.
The global economy has entered a strong growth trajectory, and sustainable economic recoveries in regions such as the Euro zone and Japan are adding impetus to the process, says Chris Hart, Absa Group treasury economist. However, serious global economic imbalances are a blight on the otherwise positive outlook in the global economy.
Four police officers have been arrested over a burglary from the serious and violent crime unit’s safe in Benoni on the East Rand, media reports said on Wednesday. The reported arrests come a week after millions of rands in foreign currency were stolen from the safe last Wednesday night.
Zimbabwe’s central bank will issue a new Z$100Â 000 banknote after inflation topped 1Â 000% last month, one of the world’s highest rates, a state daily reported on Wednesday. The new banknote, worth US98c, will go into circulation on Thursday and will hold tender until December, the <i>Herald</i> newspaper said. Zimbabwe started introducing bearer cheques with a temporary validity three years ago.
Photographer Peter C Borsari, whose celebrity snapshots over three decades included candid moments of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Nicholson, has died. He was 67. Borsari died on Monday due to complications from elective knee surgery, long-time friend Laura Luongo said.
Indonesia on Wednesday defended the earthquake relief effort as aid agencies said survivors are still in desperate need of medical care and water four days after the disaster. The scale of the disaster became clearer as the death toll rose to 5Â 846, the social affairs ministry said on Wednesday.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz on Wednesday congratulated African nations for launching a campaign against corruption but said rich countries have to cooperate to stamp out graft. In a speech to businessmen in Seoul, South Korea, Wolfowitz said rich countries are deeply implicated in corruption in Africa.
HIV/Aids is a global emergency and urgent action needs to be taken rather than spewing out words about the pandemic, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane said in a statement on Tuesday, on the eve of a high-level United Nations meeting on HIV/Aids in New York from Wednesday.
Cocooned in rural seclusion, Donsol, a placid little town, long kept a big but unintended secret: In the first half of the year, the sea swarms with the world’s largest fish. Whale sharks — some as big as a bus — have put on an annual show for local folks for generations, roaming close to shore and seemingly unafraid of humans, who left the fish alone.