Kelly Holmes (born: April 19, 1970) is a British middle distance athlete. Regarded as the best female middle distance runner Great Britain has ever produced, she won gold medals in the 800 metres and the 1,500 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Early Life and Army Career Holmes was born in Pembury, Kent, the mixed-race daughter of Derrick Holmes, Jamaican-born …

The baobab tree is to be found in tropical Africa. It is a most strange-looking tree. Its barrel-like trunk can reach 30 feet or more in diameter, although its height is not proportionately great. It is a large gourd-like, woody, fruit containing a pleasant, cool tasting juice. A strong fibre obtained from the bark is used in Africa to make …

K. S. Chithra often credited as Chitra, is a six time National Film Award winning playback singer who has made her mark in the Indian (film) music playback industry. Known as the Nightingale of South India, she has lent her voice to Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali films. Personal Life Born on July 27, 1963, in Thiruvananthapuram …

Justine Henin (born 1 June 1982), formerly known as Justine Henin-Hardenne is a professional Belgian tennis player. At the age of 12 she lost her mother, who died of cancer. Her family is pretty numerous: she has also two brothers and one sister. Another child of her parents died before she was brought to life. The relationship with her father …

In Beijing Justin Anlezark joined countryman Scott Martin in the shot put, making it the first Olympics since Melbourne in 1956 that Australia was represented by two male shot putters. A solid opening throw (19.91m) put Justin in a strong position to make the final of the Olympics. However, unable to improve on that mark, he exited the competition in the …

John Maxwell Coetzee is an author and academic from South Africa (now an Australian citizen living in South Australia). A novelist and literary critic as well as a translator, Coetzee won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. Coetzee is known as reclusive and eschews publicity to such an extent that he did not collect either of his two Booker Prizes in …

The largest single block of stone in the world is in Mount Olga National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. It is Ayers Rock. This huge monolith is over 2.5 km long and rises 348 m above the sand and gravel plains of the Great Plateau. It is oval-shaped and is built of water-worn pebbles of granite cemented by finer sands. Aboriginal …

Rocks that were formed in the last 2,800 million years can be found in every continent, but rocks more than 3,500 million years old are extremely rare. Some rocks in the American Minnesota River valley and others in western Greenland have been dated at about 3,800 million years. The world’s oldest rocks, however, are probably in Australia, where, in 1983, …

Because of continental drift, the world’s surface is always changing. About 300 million years ago, there were two continents. One, called Gondwanaland, contained parts of South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica, which were then joined together. The other, called Laurasia, was made up of North America and Eurasia. About 275 million years ago, Gondwanaland and Laurasia collided and joined …

It is the built-in skew or twist in a boomerang combined with its spinning motion that makes it return to the thrower. At first people believed that air, pressing on the lower flat surface and passing over the upper rounded face, was responsible for the return flight. But T.L. Mitchell, a Scottish explorer of Australia, gave the true explanation early …