AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti says he knows everything about FC Barcelona, his team’s opponent in the semifinals of the Champions League. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is just happy to be playing Villarreal this late in the tournament. Six-time champion Milan hosts 1992 winner Barcelona in the first leg of the semifinals on Tuesday, and Arsenal hosts Villarreal on Wednesday.
Jonny Wilkinson has admitted he has struggled to cope with a series of injuries since kicking England to World Cup glory. The 27-year-old made his sixth comeback from injury since landing the drop-goal that won England the Webb Ellis trophy, coming on as a second-half replacement in Newcastle’s 32-21 Premiership win over Sale at Kingston Park.
Jose Mourinho has warned that the Premiership title race is not yet over, despite Chelsea establishing a commanding nine-point advantage over second-placed Manchester United with just four games remaining. The combined effects of Chelsea’s comfortable two-goal victory over Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United’s inability to beat bottom club Sunderland mean the Premiership trophy will almost certainly remain at Stamford Bridge.
She lives in splendid palaces with servants forever at her beck and call, and meets thousands of people every year, but in her private life, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II leads a reclusive, solitary, sometimes ordinary life. During a regular day at Buckingham Palace, her official London residence, Queen Elizabeth is woken at 7.30am by a chambermaid who brings in her tea tray.
Britons, Europe’s biggest chocoholics, were set to have a cracking good time over Easter by splashing out on about 80-million Easter eggs, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said on Good Friday. A total of £520-million (-million) was to be spent on chocolate over the four-day weekend as the BRC forecast that Britons were set to blow £2,8-billion in total on food and drink.
A fetus lies scrunched inside a jar near the dissected corpse of a woman and an array of human organs. All are from China and all feature in an exhibition that is causing a stir in London. The organisers of <i>Bodies … The Exhibition</i> say the use of real specimens provides a unique opportunity for people to learn more about the human anatomy.
A schoolbook containing some of music legend John Lennon’s earliest thoughts, drawings and poems could be sold for £100 000 when it is auctioned later this month. The 10-page red exercise book, entitled My Anthology, dates back to when the ex-Beatle was just 12-years-old and includes an illustration of a walrus, from Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter.
Premiership players’ salaries have reached an all-time high after jumping by 65% since 2000, a new survey released on Tuesday revealed. The average top-flight player now earns £676 000 basic pay, a rise from the approximate £410 000 which clubs paid their stars six years ago.
England captain David Beckham would like to end his career playing Major League Soccer in the United States, a British Broadcasting Corporation report said on Tuesday. The Real Madrid midfielder, who still has one year to run on his contract in Spain, said he was attracted by the country’s passion for sport.
Alex Ferguson believes that Manchester United’s trip to Chelsea on April 29 will decide the outcome of the Premiership title race after Wayne Rooney’s dazzling display inspired United to a 2-0 victory over Arsenal here at Old Trafford. Having slashed Chelsea’s lead from 18 points to seven since the beginning of March, the veteran United manager is convinced his players can pull off an amazing comeback.
Alex Ferguson insisted he had no qualms with Wayne Rooney’s lifestyle after a Sunday newspaper report alleged the England striker had a major gambling hambit. Rooney put the claims from the Sunday Mirror tabloid that he’d lost £700 000 since the start of the season firmly to one side by scoring United’s first and creating their second in a 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Tottenham boosted their bid for Champions League football next season with a 2-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday as rivals Blackburn saw their push for fourth place stalled by Portsmouth’s battle for Premiership survival. Goals from Canadian defender Paul Stalteri and England midfielder Michael Carrick either side of half-time allowed fourth-placed Spurs to pull four points clear of Blackburn
Irish raider Numbersixvalverde won the Grand National in Liverpool on Saturday giving jockey Niall ”Slippers” Madden victory with his first ride and Ireland their fifth win in the world’s most famous race in the last eight years. The Martin Brassil-trained 11-1 shot beat home last year’s winner and topweight Hedgehunter (5-1) while Clan Royal (5-1) was third and Nil Desperandum (33-1) fourth.
In a verdict worthy of a thriller, Britain’s High Court on Friday rejected a claim that author Dan Brown stole key elements of his blockbuster The Da Vinci Code from an earlier book by two other writers. Brown had been accused of breach of copyright by plagiarising passages from The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, for his 2003 novel.
In a tale reminiscent of the last <i>Wallace and Gromit</i> movie, furious villagers in north-east England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit. Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit.
Suspense was riding high on Friday as a judge in London prepared to deliver his verdict in a sensational lawsuit in which United States author Dan Brown stands accused of lifting parts of another novel to write his global best-seller The Da Vinci Code.
Manchester United have done a record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with American insurance giant AIG but it is Premiership leaders Chelsea who are in the market for some protective cover this weekend. Jose Mourinho’s side are in need of the nerve-calming tonic that a victory over West Ham in Sunday’s London derby would provide.
British defence and aerospace giant BAE Systems said on Friday it was holding negotiations on the sale of its 20% stake in aircraft maker Airbus to Franco-German counterpart EADS. "Discussions are at an early stage and a further announcement will be made if and when appropriate," said BAE.
Thousands of youngsters stood in line on Thursday to audition for the roles of the Von Trapp children in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new stage production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. By early Thursday, more than 2 000 youngsters were standing in line outside the Palladium Theatre.
Fear of bird flu again swept Britain on Thursday as scientists confirmed that a wild swan found dead in a Scottish seaside village had the H5N1 strain that can be fatal to humans. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the swan — found a week ago on a harbour slipway in Cellardyke, Fife — perished from the same H5N1 strain that has killed more than 100 people.
Motorists using satellite navigation around the sleepy English village of Crackpot are finding themselves being directed to the top of a 30m cliff, local residents said on Wednesday. Cars, minibuses and even big trucks often take the steep, twisty road used by holidaymakers, walkers and sightseers.
United States singer and songwriter Gene Pitney, a pop-music star of the 1960s whose chart-topping hits included Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa and Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart, died on Wednesday during a tour of Britain, his agent said. He was 65.
United States singer and songwriter Gene Pitney, a pop-music star of the 1960s whose chart-topping hits included Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa and Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart, died on Wednesday during a tour of Britain, his agent said. He was 65.
With smiles all around and a well-timed pat on the back, the two most powerful figures in British politics made a carefully choreographed attempt on Wednesday to dispel talk of a bitter rift between them. Prime Minister Tony Blair and his heir apparent, Gordon Brown, put on a show of solidarity as they launched the start of the Labour Party’s campaign for the May 4 local-council elections.
A British museum visitor was arrested on Wednesday despite claiming to have accidentally smashed three 17th-century Chinese porcelain vases after tripping over a shoelace, police said. Nick Flynn (42), from Fowlmere, southern England, was arrested at his home on suspicion of criminal damage.
As clouds gather over British Prime Minister Tony Blair with feverish speculation on when he will hand over power, he joins a motley group of Western leaders whose terms in office are ending much less auspiciously than they started. Like United States President George Bush, Blair suffers from a perception that he has become a lame duck.
Playboy, the United States-based adult publisher and broadcaster, is considering using Britain as a testing ground for moving into the gay market for the first time, The Times newspaper said on Monday. Playboy wants to launch a new gay brand to boost revenues, the daily said.
Defending champions Oxford won the 152nd University Boat Race against Cambridge here on Sunday. Oxford, led by Canadian Olympic oarsman Barney Williams and with Bastien Ripoll, the first Frenchman to row in the event for more than 150 years at stroke, got off to a fast start — thought to be Cambridge’s strength.
Manchester United won 2-1 at Bolton on Saturday to cut Chelsea’s Premier League lead to seven points after the champions were held 0-0 by relegation-threatened Birmingham. Substitute Ruud van Nistelrooy scored the winner at the Reebok Stadium after United had trailed to Kevin Davies’s 25th-minute goal and Louis Saha equalised.
Penguins in the River Thames, oak trees in the shape of the queen, the door to 10 Downing Street being repainted red and biscuits being used to resurface roads: could it be April Fool’s Day in Britain? The national press hit the stands with a range of nonsense exclusives on Saturday.
Apple Corps is like a doting parent when it comes to The Beatles, looking after their interests and promoting their recordings, but it also makes sure no one tries to bully the Fab Four — and straightens out anyone who messes with the band’s legacy. The company is in court again this week with Apple Computer.
JK Rowling, author of the internationally successful Harry Potter series, said the seventh and final book about the schoolboy wizard ”is coming along nicely” as she won Britain’s Book of the Year award. Her sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, received the accolade at the British Book Awards on Wednesday night.