When Roger Federer clinched his latest berth in the Wimbledon final, he tossed his sweaty bandanna toward the crowd, leaving a mussed moptop as he walked off Centre Court. Unruly hairdo aside, the top-ranked Federer looked impeccable on Friday as he beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the semifinals.
A monumental struggle for control of America’s judiciary was set in motion on Friday when Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the United States supreme court, announced her retirement. President George Bush quickly emerged into the Rose Garden to say he would announce a successor in time for the next court session in October.
Australia and New Zealand agreed on Saturday on a range of new measures to increase pressure on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to respect human rights, including referring him to the International Criminal Court.
The Bush administration has decided to retain control over the principal computers which control internet traffic in a move likely to prompt global opposition, it was claimed on Friday. The United States had pledged to turn control of the 13 computers known as root servers — which inform web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct internet traffic — over to a private, international body.
Microsoft on Friday agreed to pay IBM -million to settle a long-running dispute arising from a government antitrust case. The companies said the payment settled claims arising from the federal government’s landmark antitrust case against Microsoft in the mid-1990s, in which IBM was identified as having been affected by certain Microsoft practices.
Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa will announce the successful bidder for the R8-billion Gautrain rapid rail link in Pretoria on Saturday. Shilowa failed to meet three announcement deadlines; the first in April, the second in May and a third at the end of June, to announce which of the two consortia — Bombela and Gauliwe — had won the bid.
An attack by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown on the ”hypocrisy” of Europe and other rich countries for pledging aid to Africa while imposing unfair trade barriers was today dismissed by the head of the European Union’s executive arm.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma could stand for the presidency of the African National Congress in 2007, and might be earning an unprecedented party salary before long, it emerged on Friday.
One out of three Africans suffers from malnutrition and a total of 852-million people in the world suffer from hunger, the United Nations said in a report issued Friday. The World Food Programme said they had received less than 20%, or -million, of the -million it needs for its operations in Southern Africa from now until 2006.
Roger Federer ruthlessly destroyed Lleyton Hewitt in a breathtaking Centre Court semi-final demolition to move just one win away from a third successive Wimbledon title on Friday. The 23-year-old world number one will face either last year’s runner-up Andy Roddick or Thomas Johansson in Sunday’s final.