Roger Federer’s dream of becoming the first man in 37 years to hold all four grand-slam titles will be at the mercy of Mallorcan muscleman Rafael Nadal when the French Open gets under way on Sunday. In the history of the game, only five men have won Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Australian and United States Open crowns.
Dracula’s castle is to be returned to its rightful owner — who is not, it should be emphasised, a vampire, but an architect whose other home is in the suburbs of New York. At a ceremony on Friday in Transylvania, Bran Castle will be handed back to Dominic Habsburg, the grandson of Romania’s former Queen Maria.
Do Hillary and Bill Clinton have a happy marriage? The New York Times evidently thinks so. In a 2 000-word piece that began on Tuesday’s front page, the newspaper printed the results of an investigation into the state of the Clintons’ marriage, noting that reporters had interviewed 50 people close to the power couple.
A mid-air collision between jousting Greek and Turkish fighters in disputed airspace over the Aegean Sea on Tuesday threatened to reignite age-old rivalries. At first both governments tried to play down the collision, which took place over the Aegean island of Karpathos.
The death of Aids-infected Nozipho Bhengu was unnecessary and premature, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Wednesday. ”It is highly likely that she would still be alive and well today if she had chosen to take anti-retroviral treatment when she developed Aids,” the TAC said in a statement.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has described his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo’s acceptance of the scrapping of a plan to extend his tenure as an outstanding act of statesmanship, an official statement said on Tuesday. Obasanjo (69) must step down in May 2007 after serving two four-year terms.
China’s ambassador portrayed his country on Tuesday as a benign force in Africa that dispatches doctors and teachers to the continent, opens trade opportunities and steers clear of political interference. Zhao Wenzhong said China-Africa trade leaped from -billion in 2000 to -billion last year.
The United Nations holds the key to solving an economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki told a British newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday. South Africa’s leader threw his weight behind a planned visit to Zimbabwe by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Tow-truck companies are bribing police officers to ensure they are first at accident scenes, according to a report commissioned by Ekurhuleni’s police chief, Robert McBride. The report discovered, among other things, that some companies offer police free cellphones as an incentive to tip them off.
United States President George Bush urged Israel on Tuesday to resume direct talks with the Palestinian president and put on hold plans to withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank. In his first official visit to Washington, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received little support for immediate movement on his plan to redraw Israel’s borders.