Another two world records lit up the final night of the Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, Canada on Sunday. But it was also a night in which Suzaan van Biljon bagged South Africa’s first gold medal of the competition. Michael Phelps was the first to break his own world mark, set in 2003, in the 200m individual medley after reaching the wall in 1:55,84.
South Africa’s Lyndon Ferns cruised through the heats of the 100m butterfly at the Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, Canada, on Saturday morning. South Africa’s 800m silver medallist at these championships, Troyden Prinsloo, meanwhile, qualified for the 400m freestyle final.
Roland Schoeman has the rules of the Pan Pacific Championships to thank for his place in Friday night’s final of the 100m freestyle. The rules of the competition, currently taking place in Victoria, Canada, state that only two swimmers from each country can swim in a final.
South Africa will ”never achieve redemption” for its HIV/Aids policies, the United Nations special envoy to Africa told the closing session of the International Aids Conference in Toronto on Friday. Stephen Lewis accused the government of expounding HIV/Aids theories ”more worthy of a lunatic fringe”.
With people dying of Aids in far greater numbers than those who have access to treatment and prevention, male circumcision could be a promising tool in the prevention of transmitting HIV, scientists told the International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, on Thursday.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang should resign over her lack of leadership on HIV/Aids, the Aids Law Project told a conference in Toronto, Canada, on Thursday. ”I believe our minister of health should resign,” head of the project Mark Heywood said to shouts of approval from a packed session room at the International Aids Conference.
South African Aids activists have slammed the International Aids Conference for being a show of celebrities and philanthropists, instead of people living with HIV/Aids who could raise the real issues they face. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) members protested at the South African stand at the conference.
A shortage of about four million doctors and nurses in 60 poor, primarily African countries has become a major obstacle in fighting HIV/Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. In the announcement made on Tuesday at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, WHO said sub-Saharan Africa has been the worst affected by the shortage.
The safety and security of the country could be at risk if HIV/Aids among police in South Africa is not addressed and large numbers of them start dying, the International Aids Conference heard in Toronto on Tuesday. A preliminary report shows police work in an environment that increases their risk of HIV infection.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Tuesday night lashed out at the media for ”distortion” in reporting on South Africa’s exhibition of garlic, lemon and beetroot at the International Aids Conference in Toronto. ”We haven’t shocked the world; we have told the truth,” she said.
New technologies for HIV prevention could have a huge impact on the epidemic, possibly averting millions of new infections in the coming years, the International Aids Conference in Toronto heard on Tuesday. Gita Ramjee, of the HIV prevention research unit in South Africa, said there is a range of new and promising prevention technologies in advanced clinical trials.
There are 12-million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost one or both parents to Aids, and this number could grow to more than 16-million by 2010, according to a report released in Toronto, Canada, on Monday. An estimated 380 000 children under 15 died of Aids-related causes in 2005.
Studies showing that people in the poorest African villages take their medicines at a ”stunningly” high percentage are evidence that the poor ”will live if you give them the tools to live”, former United States president Bill Clinton said in Toronto on Monday. Clinton and Microsoft head Bill Gates discussed Aids issues at the International Aids Conference.
Gender inequities and labour migration in Southern Africa have been pinpointed as factors contributing to the spread of HIV/Aids in the region by an epidemiologist at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, on Monday. Chris Beyrer told the opening plenary session that migrant men were 26,3 times more likely to be infected by ”outside concurrent” partners.
World number one Roger Federer captured his seventh title of the season, rallying to beat France’s Richard Gasquet 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday in the final of the ,45-million Toronto Masters. The Swiss superstar was pushed to three sets in his three prior matches but reached his 17th consecutive final, one shy of Ivan Lendl’s ATP record.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang opened the South African Aids exhibition to a background of brightly coloured displays at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday. The exhibition showcases garlic, lemon and beetroot. The minister will be in Toronto until Thursday.
The power to prevent HIV should be put in the hands of women, who depend on men to use a condom and can’t always choose to abstain, Bill Gates told thousands of delegates to the International Aids Conference in Toronto on Sunday. ”We need tools that will allow women to protect themselves,” Gates said.
World number one Roger Federer fended off a tenacious challenge from Fernando Gonzalez on Saturday, downing the 15th-seeded Chilean 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the Toronto Masters Series final. It wasn’t exactly the Federer Express, but the top-seeded Swiss finally chugged into his 17th straight ATP final — a streak dating back to his semifinal exit at Roland Garros in 2005.
Roger Federer battled through to the Toronto Masters semifinals with a 7-6 6-7 6-3 win over Xavier Malisse on Friday. Playing his first event since claiming his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title, the world number one has yet to slip into a comfortable rhythm and for the second consecutive night was taken to three sets.
Good nutrition could be the only available life-prolonging alternative to people living with HIV/Aids in rural areas, a senior officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday. He said the South African Department of Health can ”do more and do better” when it comes to fighting HIV/Aids.
Top seed Roger Federer and number four Ivan Ljubicic swept through into the third round while American James Blake fell flat to exit on an off-day at the Toronto Masters on Wednesday. Federer, playing his first event since winning his fourth straight Wimbledon title a month ago, rolled over Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-3.
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverly, a Jamaican poet and folklorist who popularised her country’s culture before its independence from Britain, died on July 27. She was 86. Known in her native Caribbean country as ”Miss Lou”, Bennett-Coverly advocated the teaching of Jamaican culture.
Top-seeded Swiss Roger Federer, playing for the first time since he captured a fourth straight Wimbledon title, picked up where he left off on Tuesday with a first-round victory in the Toronto Masters Series. Second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal defeated Chile’s Nicolas Massu 6-3, 6-2.
Wild buffalo have taken over a small town in Canada’s far north, but unlike stray cats, pigeons, and other nuisance animals, these massive bovine pests can smash a truck, a local official said on Tuesday. The so-called wood bison wandered into Fort Providence in the North-west Territories in May.
A company that sells software to correct irritating internet spelling mistakes has reissued its latest news release to correct a minor snafu. ”It’s very embarrassing,” said Pat Brink, public relations consultant for the Toronto-based company. ”I made the mistake, not TextTrust — they do a much better job, It’s certainly egg on the face of this public relations person.”
United States aerospace giant Boeing is well placed to win a multibillion-dollar deal to provide strategic transport aircraft and helicopters to Canada. The Canadian government last week announced plans to purchase 16 helicopters for Can,7-billion (,2-billion), and 21 military transport planes for Can,3-billion (,4-billion).
The last male child in a family of many boys is likely to be gay, Canadian researchers have found. The study found that ”the most consistent bio-demographic correlate of sexual orientation in men is the number of older brothers [one has]” and not social influences.
This was the race Michael Schumacher was supposed to close the gap on Fernando Alonso in the chase for the Formula One championship. After all, Schumacher had won the Canadian Grand Prix seven times. Alonso never had anything but trouble at the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve.
Defending world drivers’ champion Fernando Alonso stormed to pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Saturday. Spaniard Alonso (24) fended off a later surge from his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella to take the top spot in one minute and 14,972 seconds — more than two-10ths of a second ahead of the Italian.
German Michael Schumacher has targeted victory in this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix as he attempts to close in on the lead of the drivers’ world championship. Schumacher (37), who drives for Ferrari, has 51 points — 23 fewer than defending world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain — and knows that he must start a dramatic turnaround in Montreal.
A suspect in an alleged plot to bomb Canadian buildings had applied to a flying school and considered using a plane for an attack, according to court documents revealed by Canadian radio. But the suspect, Amin Mohamed Durani (19) did not attend the flying lessons, fearing that he would draw attention to himself.
More arrests were expected following the detention of 17 people over an alleged al-Qaeda-inspired plot to bomb high-profile targets in Canada. Amid media reports that the Canadian Parliament was on the group’s hitlist, Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: ”This investigation is not finished.”