Facing its 21st Champions League game in a little over a year, defending champions Liverpool look certain to reach the lucrative group stage of Europe’s premier soccer competition on Tuesday. Then Rafa Benitez’ players hope to celebrate on Friday by beating CSKA Moscow in the European Super Cup.
A mysterious patient at a British hospital who did not speak to doctors and nurses for months but loved to play the piano has been discharged, health officials said on Monday. A spokesperson for the West Kent National Health Service said the condition of the patient dubbed ”Piano Man” had shown a ”marked improvement” and he no longer needed medical treatment.
Everton won 1-0 at Bolton in the Premier League on Sunday to recover from last week’s season-opening loss to Manchester United. Ruud van Nistelrooy scored from close range in the 66th minute on Saturday to help Manchester United get another shut-out victory, beating Aston Villa 1-0.
Didier Drogba overshadowed debutant Michael Essien to poach a fluke winner for Chelsea’s first league victory over Arsenal in 10 years in Sunday’s Premiership clash at Stamford Bridge. Drogba once again outmuscled Philippe Senderos to latch on to a Frank Lampard free kick and bundle the ball past Jens Lehmann.
In the spectrum of corporate incentives, the cabbage and the cauliflower don’t figure too prominently. Except in Scotland, where managers at two branches of the Bank of Scotland made staff sit the vegetables on their desks to try to prompt improved performance. The move prompted outrage instead.
Western governments heard a faint echo from the 1970s recently as the escalating cost of petrol contributed to higher inflation. And with tension in the Middle East providing another reminder of life three decades ago, the message was that consumers can expect more of the same over the coming months.
It is the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians who think that meat is murder: a revolution in processed food that will see fresh meat grown from animal cells without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed. Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new technique, which they hailed as the answer to the world’s food shortage.
South Africa is often considered to be in the unfortunate position of having some of the world’s best laws and poli-cies to protect women and children but an inability to implement them. Take the roll-out of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rape survivors to prevent HIV infection, a lot of dissatisfaction with the programme has been widespread.
British troops combating the heat and dust of Iraq and Afghanistan have a new weapon in their armoury, defence officials announced on Thursday — germ-fighting underwear. The antimicrobial underpants have been introduced by the ministry of defence as part of a new desert uniform for soldiers.
The Brazilian shot dead by police on a tube train in mistake for a suicide bomber had already been overpowered by a surveillance officer before he was killed, according to secret documents revealed this week. It also emerged in the leaked documents that early allegations that he was running from police at the time of the shooting were untrue.
British Airways resumed hundreds of flights at one of the world’s busiest airports, while pleading for continued patience from thousands of passengers stranded by a ground-crew walkout. The airline said 420 out of its 500 scheduled flights were taking off on Saturday from London’s Heathrow airport.
The number of dead Iraqi civilians counted at the Baghdad morgue hit 1Â 100 in July, the highest toll in recent history, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday, blaming the daily violence. The Independent said the figure was just 700 short of the total number of United States soldiers killed in Iraq since April 2003.
Loch out! Hundreds of stunned tourists were duped into thinking they had seen Scotland’s famous Loch Ness monster, the television pranksters behind the stunt revealed on Tuesday. The legendary creature, said to live in the Highland lake’s murky depths, has attracted Nessie-hunters to the shoreline for decades.
Lions at a safari park in the north of England are prowling after Smart cars, in the apparent belief that the boxy little two-seat European city cars are worthy prey. Visitors to Knowsley Safari Park in Smart cars have discovered that the lions are paying them particular interest.
New Arsenal skipper Thierry Henry is dreaming of breaking the team’s goal-scoring record at Highbury in the club’s final season at their historic ground. Henry’s penalty against Newcastle moved him within three goals of Ian Wright’s all-time club-scoring record of 185 goals.
England is going crazy for cricket, with newspapers pushing football coverage off the celebrated back pages on Tuesday to agonise over the country’s dramatic draw against Australia in the third Ashes Test. The centuries-old game is enjoying a massive revival thanks to the heroics of England captain Michael Vaughan and his teammates.
A last-gasp Hernan Crespo goal saved Chelsea’s blushes on Sunday as the champions beat newly promoted Wigan 1-0 to avoid a stuttering start to the defence of their English Premiership title. Earlier on Sunday, late strikes from Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie clinched an opening win for Arsenal over Newcastle.
The African state of Angola, emerging from 27 years of civil war, is attracting increasing quantities of foreign investment in its oil industry and is on the path to becoming one of the world’s biggest crude exporters. Angola is set to double its production of oil in the next three years to reach two million barrels per day in 2008.
Wayne Rooney scored against his former Everton teammates as Manchester United launched their latest Premier League challenge with an impressive 2-0 victory at Goodison Park on Saturday. United began with three useful away points against an Everton side that finished fourth last term.
Former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, wife of England football captain David, confessed she has never read a book, a newspaper said on Sunday. Despite struggling for a hit record for some time, Beckham said she never had a spare moment to leaf through anything more challenging than fashion magazines.
British Airways said on Saturday it will operate 85% of its medium-haul flights and 80% of long-haul journeys as it returns to normal following a devastating strike that grounded more than 70Â 000 passengers since Thursday. A spokesperson said it will take several days to get operations completely back to normal.
A French amateur psychic’s powers of prediction were under sharp scrutiny after his crystal ball started an inferno that burnt out his flat, a British newspaper reported on Friday. The fortune-telling device caused a fire that destroyed two other flats and rendered several more uninhabitable, <i>The Times</i> said.
British Airways cancelled all long and short-haul flights due to depart from London’s Heathrow airport and diverted arriving flights after an industrial dispute escalated. The company said flights would remain grounded until at least 6pm on Friday.
Whatever happened to the cast-iron principle that high oil prices are bad for the stock market? A day after oil touched -per-barrel, the FTSE 100 (the index of top 100 British companies) recorded another three-year high on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 index, supposedly a broader measure of the health of corporate Britain, is doing even better, hitting all-time highs.
Entertainment on your home computer is about to become more than just gaming and music. Within a year, computer owners should be able to download movies and hit television shows and then watch them on TV. The first steps in cutting out the trip to Blockbuster are already being taken, although the web content is still ”locked” to the PC.
Salman Rushdie’s novel Shalimar the Clown, about a Kashmiri boy who becomes an Islamic terrorist, has made the 2005 longlist for the prestigious Booker Prize. The yet-to-be-released book was named on Wednesday alongside 16 others in the running for the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
A new bikini which beeps every 15 minutes to prevent holidaymakers from sleeping in the sun was to be shown off in Britain on Thursday. The invention could stop the traditional ghastly seaside sight of bright-red Britons on beaches across the world.
Terrorists are sizing up the City of London, Europe’s premier financial centre, and an attack on the teeming district is only a matter of time, its chief of police warned on Wednesday. A debate continues to rage over how to deal with hard-line Islamists suspected of promoting terrorism among Britain’s 1,6-million Muslims.
A puppeteer in Britain has been rapped for portraying Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein as villains, a report said on Wednesday. American-born Brent de Witt (41) has been scolded for using the pair’s characters in the traditional children’s puppet play <i>Punch and Judy</i>.
Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Hungarian champion Debrecen in a Champions League qualifier on Tuesday put Malcolm Glazer’s club in a commanding position to reach the main stage of Europe’s number-one club tournament.
With 138 days until Christmas, Father Christmas swapped Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer for Dino the seaside donkey on Tuesday for a mid-summer publicity stunt at London’s famed Harrods department store. Santa Claus presided over the unveiling of Harrods’ special Christmas range.
The summer transfer window does not close until the end of August, but despite some frenetic wheeling and dealing it will be the tried and trusted players that the big clubs rely on as they look to win the title. For a team with a billionaire owner, champions Chelsea have been relatively frugal this summer.