Jesus Christ is having trouble convincing United States courts to let him keep his name. It’s not the Messiah who is facing this problem, of course, but an American business-owner who, about 15 years ago, adopted the name of the Christian God’s son. The man, born Peter Robert Phillips Jnr, started his legal battle in 2003.
Attention, time travellers: Amal Dorai hopes you enjoyed the party he’s throwing this weekend. Dorai, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is hosting a time-traveller convention on campus this Saturday. Make plans now, because it’s the last such party. "You only need one," he said.
Karl Rove watched the early returns trickle in on a big screen at the British embassy on Thursday night, and then when the shape of result began to emerge, he donned a red rosette and walked away. It was a suitably ambivalent gesture for United States President George Bush’s ever-present political mastermind.
Pixar Animation Studios more than tripled its earnings in the first quarter on strong DVD sales of its Oscar-winning film The Incredibles. The computer animation company reported net income of ,9-million, or 67 cents a share in the quarter ended April 2, compared to ,7-million, or 23 cents a share in the same period last year.
An explosion shattered windows outside a building that houses the British consulate in New York City in the early hours of Thursday, but there were no injuries or structural damage, CNN said. The blast came as Britain is holding general elections, and police are investigating its origins, CNN said.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s transitional government still has a long way to go before it will be ready to hold national elections, but a credible vote is possible and registration will begin next month, United Nations officials said. he DRC was supposed to hold elections on June 30 as part of a peace plan that ended a five-year war.
Two teenagers who drifted at sea for six days in a small sailing boat without food or water told on Monday how they prayed to be rescued from the shark-infested waters of the Atlantic. Josh Long (17) and Troy Driscoll (15) were found on Saturday off Cape Fear in North Carolina, having drifted for more than 160km.
Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox gaming console will be more of a digital entertainment hub than its predecessor, making it even more of a PC hybrid than ever, Bill Gates has told a meeting of business journalists. The console, code-named Xenon, is due to be previewed on the music cable channel MTV later this month.
Top-seeded Andy Roddick was broken twice in the first six games on Saturday before charging back to dominate Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 6-2 and reach his fifth straight final at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships. In Sunday’s title match, Roddick will face France’s Sebastien Grosjean.
Google’s earnings are growing so rapidly that not even the stock-market bulls can keep up. Blown away by the online search engine leader’s first-quarter profit, securities analysts raised their already high expectations for Google and investors scrambled on Friday to buy a piece of the company.
The Bush administration is considering forcing foreign airlines to check against government surveillance lists the names of all passengers on flights that go through United States airspace, officials revealed this week. About 500 foreign flights pass through US airspace every day.
Music lovers in North Carolina are due for a strange treat next month. They will hear two piano virtuosi in concert … but both musicians are long dead. The music will be played on a grand piano that has been specially programmed to give a note-perfect, live rendition of ancient made by Alfred Cortot in 1928 and Glenn Gould in 1962.
A United States juror got a rude awakening when an angry judge fined him $1 000 for letting out a loud yawn during an attempted murder trial, a media report said on Wednesday. The juror’s ennui interrupted the selection of the panel ahead of opening arguments in a trial in Los Angeles.
South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on Monday for the Vatican to name Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze as pope to facilitate a better understanding of the poor in developing countries. He was writing in the newspaper USA Today as Roman Catholic cardinals began deliberating on their next pope.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged donors who pledged ,5-billion for war-torn Sudan to provide the cash quickly, and the African Union to send peacekeepers to prevent more death and suffering. In the past, ”we’ve learned that donor pledges often remain unfulfilled”, he said.
Most Americans believe there is nothing wrong with openly gay male athletes participating in sports, but nearly 24% think an openly gay athlete would hurt their team, according to an NBC/USA Network poll. The mixed results of the survey on American attitudes toward gay athletes appear in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.
Former United States president Bill Clinton this week announced that the Clinton Foundation is pledging $10-million to provide Aids treatment.
Mike Tyson is returning to the ring. The former heavyweight boxing champion will fight for the first time in nearly a year, facing journeyman Kevin McBride on June 11 at Washington’s MCI Centre, a boxing source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Monday.
Formula-one champion Michael Schumacher, NBA All-Star LeBron James and sailor Ellen MacArthur are among five sportspeople who appear in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. The eclectic list, which hits newsstands on Monday, ranges from the Dalai Lama to Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.
Michael Jackson’s prosecutors on Friday were set to wrap up a week of explosive testimony in which jurors heard how the star allegedly performed oral sex on a young boy and fondled others. Jackson is on trial for allegedly fondling another 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch two years ago, but the prosecution hopes the prior cases will show a pattern of child abuse in his past.
Michael Jackson’s legal team braced for more damaging testimony on Thursday, after a former maid recounted seeing the pop star with young boys in the shower, the bathtub and in bed. The so-called ”King of Pop” is on trial for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old cancer survivor two years ago.
Star Wars fans will have to find the right theatre before they can leave for the dark side. Seven weeks before its release, Star Wars fanatics started lining up outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the sixth instalment of the movie series. But there’s a problem: the film won’t be showing at the Hollywood landmark.
Scientists have developed a potentially revolutionary technique to permanently rewrite any gene in the human body. The breakthrough brings hope to millions of people with genetic diseases but campaigners have warned that the technology could be abused by parents who want to alter the physical characteristics of their children after they are born.
Swiss superman Roger Federer rallied from two sets to love down to subdue Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal 2-6, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-1 in Miami on Sunday and claim the ATP Masters Series title at Key Biscayne. Federer, the world number one, won his 22nd straight match and extended his 2005 record to an astonishing 32-1.
An amazed Kim Clijsters, who added Miami to another Masters trophy she lifted a fortnight ago in California, was revelling on Saturday in a resounding comeback from injury after defeating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5. Trophies at the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami miracle over Sharapova has assured a return to the top 20 in Monday’s rankings.
The religious groups that had pleaded with government officials to keep a severely brain-damaged woman alive in Florida are now vowing to push for stricter legal standards when it comes to denying life-sustaining measures to ailing patients. They believe Schiavo’s death could spark off a moral tsunami engulfing other families in similar situations.
Ms Wheelchair Wisconsin has been stripped of her title because pageant officials say she can stand — and point to a newspaper picture as proof. Janeal Lee, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a scooter, was snapped by The Post-Crescent newspaper standing among her high school maths students.
Stewart Butterfield launched Flickr, the online photo-sharing system, somewhat quietly at last year’s Emerging Technology conference in San Diego, California. One year later, at the same show, Flickr is running on almost everybody’s laptop, Butterfield has become a star and, we suspect, a multimillionaire.
Former world number one Kim Clijsters crushed top seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-1, 6-0 at Key Biscayne on Thursday to reach the finals of the ,5-million (about R40,3-million) WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament. Clijsters needed just 62 minutes to end Mauresmo’s hopes of a first title at Key Biscayne.
World number one Roger Federer, seeking his first Miami Masters Series crown, cruised into a semifinal showdown with Andre Agassi, the man who has captured six titles at Key Biscayne, both advancing with straight-set victories on Thursday. Henman, one of the few players boasting a winning record against Federer, couldn’t improve on that on Thursday.
Two images dominated US television screens during the prolonged battle over Terri Schiavo, who tragically plunged into an acrimonious national debate on right-to-die ethics. One showed a pretty brunette smiling into a camera for a family snapshot. The second shows an emaciated woman unable to control her grins and grimaces, blissfully unaware of the arguments over her fate.
Terri Schiavo, the severely brain damaged woman at the centre of a right-to-die controversy in the United States, died on Thursday in a Florida hospice almost two weeks after her feeding tube was cut off, a spokesperson for her parents said.