Rafael Nadal’s blockbuster success story opened another chapter on Monday when the Spanish teenager set a new record of 54 successive clay-court victories. Defending champion Nadal, the second seed, brushed past Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 to get his French Open title defence off to a flying start.
Felix Moncada Suarez and his family had prepared themselves to board the flight from Roissy airport near Paris for the Ecuador capital Quito on the evening of May 19. It was not a flight they wanted to take. At the very last minute, the ministry of the interior reversed its ruling to expel the family from France.
Former champions Gaston Gaudio and Juan Carlos Ferrero, two of a host of men praying that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal lose their way at Roland Garros, reached the second round at the French Open on Monday. Argentinian 10th seed Gaudio, the 2004 champion, breezed past Croatian qualifier Roko Karanusic 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
Khat chewers are at greater risk of heart disease and liver damage, according to a paper published by Britain’s Royal Society of Medicine, which says doctors should be trained to spot harm caused by this habit. Sagar Saha and Clare Dollery of Londons Heart Hospital cite the case of a 33-year-old East African man, a daily khat-chewer, who was admitted to their hospital with a heart attack.
The French Open started on a Sunday for the first time and nearly ended quickly for Maria Sharapova. The former Wimbledon champion overcame a gimpy foot, a 5-2 deficit in the third set and three match points to beat Mashona Washington 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.
Roger Federer gained an early psychological edge in his eagerly awaited French Open duel against Rafael Nadal when he enjoyed the lion’s share of fortune in Friday’s draw. The world number one, bidding to become the first man in 37 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles, was handed a comfortable-looking passage to the quarterfinals.
Experts call it the ”oil curse”. In Africa’s oil-exporting countries, only a tiny fraction of revenues is used to fight poverty, and in many cases black gold has actually become a hurdle to development. Oil in Africa — from the Gulf of Guinea to north-western Sudan — lies at the heart of questions of good governance and development.
An al-Qaeda-linked umbrella group in Iraq on Wednesday denied any link to a suspect, whose alleged confessions were aired on Jordanian television, in an internet statement posted on an Islamist website. "We don’t even know the individual shown on Jordanian television," the Mujahedin Consultative Council said.
Amelie Mauresmo goes into the French Open as top seed for the first time, but her hopes of finally banishing the demons that have haunted her at Roland Garros are endangered by a new and unexpected threat. Twelve months ago, no-one would have given credence to the idea that former tennis queen Martina Hingis could still win the one Grand Slam title that has eluded her.
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.
The recent rock and punk revival is set to put guitar bands in the limelight again at this summer’s festivals across Europe, but the electronic music scene is fighting back with events of its own where vinyl and samplers rule. The undisputed leader is the Sonar festival in Barcelona, Spain, which runs from June 15 to 17.
Mittal Steel is to formally launch on Thursday a takeover bid for European rival Arcelor that would create the undisputed world champion of steel groups.
When trading begins on the Belgian, French and Luxembourg stock exchanges, Arcelor shareholders will have a chance to exchange their equity for Mittal shares and cash via an offer that currently values Arcelor at €22-billion $28-billion.
Late goals by Samuel Eto’o and substitute Juliano Belletti allowed Barcelona finally to overcome 10-man Arsenal 2-1 in a Champions League final of extraordinary drama at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday. Arsenal came close to pulling off what would have been one of the most unlikely triumphs in the tournament’s history.
Justin Gatlin’s world-record time in the men’s 100m has been amended from 9,76 seconds to 9,77sec, equalling but not bettering the previous mark, world athletics governing body IAAF announced on Wednesday. Gatlin was timed at 9,76sec at an IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Doha, Qatar, on May 12, a mark which was one-hundredths of a second faster than the existing world record.
Arsene Wenger believes fate is propelling Arsenal towards victory over Barcelona in the most-eagerly anticipated Champions League final in years. He seen his young side defy the odds on their way to a Stade de France rendezvous with Barcelona, the one side in Europe who can reasonably claim to combine entertainment and efficiency as attractively as his own side.
Inspired by the human cannonball of circus fame, United States defence researchers have patented a device to fire police officers, firefighters or special forces to the top of a five-storey building in less than two seconds, New Scientist reported on Tuesday.
Two armed, masked men burst into a town hall north of Paris, taking 13 municipal councillors hostage and demanding tickets for Wednesday’s Champions League football final, officials said on Tuesday. ”As grotesque as it may seem, it appears that these people came with the intention of getting hold of places for the Champions League,” the police department said.
Ronaldinho will know where to celebrate if Barcelona wins the European Champions League title. There are not many nightclubs in Paris he hasn’t patronised. Ronaldinho spent a drama-packed two years in the French capital before leaving Paris Saint-Germain to join Barcelona for â,¬25-million after the 2002-2003 season.
President Jacques Chirac was further drawn into a dirty tricks scandal rocking the French government on Thursday, with the publication of leaked evidence showing he knew of a secret enquiry into his political rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Le Monde newspaper printed excerpts of hand-written notes kept by spy-master Philippe Rondot.
After a humiliating exit from the 2002 World Cup, a disappointing Euro 2004, and a lacklustre qualifying campaign, France are not exactly surfing a wave of optimism as they head to Germany. Which is strange, because any side boasting the likes of Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele would normally be considered strong favourites for the title.
A remarkable meteorite the size of a beachball, found in heat-forged crystals in one of the world’s largest impact craters, may push back the boundaries of knowledge about space rocks. The 25cm fragment has been found in the Morokweng impact crater in north-west South Africa, where a massive object slammed into Earth around 145-million years ago.
Aspirin, red wine and green vegetables, already famous for helping the heart, may also delay the onset of age-related deafness and reduce hearing loss caused by powerful antibiotics and loud noise, suggests the New Scientist. Indirect evidence for this comes from research into the effect of antioxidants on hair cells, the delicate hairs of the inner ear that are essential for hearing.
Shares in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) jumped by 1,19% in early trades on Monday on an upgrade by Merrill Lynch and a report that the Russian airline Aeroflot might shift a major order to EADS’s aircraft manufacturing unit Airbus.
It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts. The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available — and, experts say, virtually unstoppable.
Where once it was diamonds and other precious raw materials, now Europe is plundering Africa of the jewels in its footballing crown. Africa has long been a human resource pool that Europe has exploited, initially with the slave trade but now also in the football world.
They are among the most popular paintings in the world but for decades they were starved of natural light and displayed in a building likened to an oversized garden shed. Now, after six years of renovation work delayed by archaeological mishaps, Claude Monet’s giant Water Lilies are finally back on display at the Orangerie museum in Paris.
It had all the makings of a classic: the free-flowing football revolutionaries of Hungary against the flamboyant artistes from Brazil. Yet 90 minutes, three sendings off and several mass brawls later, and the 1954 World Cup quarterfinal between the two sides was jostling for top spot in the tournament’s hall of shame.
French philosopher, journalist, writer and academic Jean-Francois Revel, who died in hospital near Paris on Saturday night, was a brilliant nonconformist and bête noire of the French left. Revel, whose real name was Ricard, began his long and varied career as a teacher of philosophy in Tlemcen, Algeria.
Embarrassed by that tattoo with the name of that former lover? Or those characters in Chinese that you believed meant ”eternal love” but later found out to mean ”penguin hairball”? For those prepared to wait a little longer before going under the needle, help is on the way.
The French press were dreaming on Wednesday of a glorious World Cup send-off for Zinedine Zidane the day after he announced his decision to retire following this summer’s tournament. Leading sports daily L’Equipe dedicated five pages to the legendary 33-year-old Real Madrid playmaker’s comments on Tuesday confirming his decision to hang up his boots.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was in Paris for a medical examination on Thursday, five months after undergoing stomach surgery in the French capital, French and Algerian officials said. Algerian officials said 69-year-old Bouteflika, who was operated on for a bleeding stomach ulcer at a Paris military hospital last November, was in the country for a routine consultation.
The French navy made a red-faced admission on Wednesday that it had lost a multimillion-dollar sonar navigation device after its cable ripped in stormy waters. Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said an investigation has been launched into how the $3,7-million device was mislaid.