Two weeks after Claudia Losch of West Germany won a 1984 Olympic gold medal with a shot put of 67 ft. 2 1/4 in., Natalia Lisovskaya took that event at the Soviet bloc's boycott-inspired Friendship Games with a throw almost 5 ft. longer. Barred by politics in 1984 from a chance at world sport's most enduring honor, Lisovskaya began training at Moscow's Brothers Znamensky Sports School for Seoul in 1988. In 1980, when Greg Louganis was favored to become the ...

Peru is a mining country. Mining accounts for far more than half of the country's exports; taxes paid by mining companies equal more than 10% of the government's annual budget. Peru is the world's top silver producer, second in copper and in the top six of a long list of other metals, including gold. So, when someone tinkers with mining — or even talks about tinkering with it — the country's economic drivers go haywire. President-elect Ollanta Humala, ...

Chemists located the treasure long ago, and the knowledge that many valuable elements, including gold, are found in sea water has nourished a long dream of riches. But try as they would, no seawater miners could recover precious metals in practical quantities. Germany's famed Chemist Fritz Haber spent years after World War I trying to extract gold from the ocean to pay off his country's war reparations. He failed, and finally gave up the struggle. But in Angewandte Chemie ...

While eager prospectors searched for oil all around the world, beneath the sea and in the mountains, high-living Houston last week took a look under its garbage and found black gold. An independent driller, Trice Production Co., brought in a rich well from 8,000 ft. below the city dump, and gave it an appropriate label: "Houston City Dump No. 1."Dump No. 1 is the latest strike in the old Pierce Junction salt dome, where wells are pushing ever closer to Houston's city limits. ...

Chefs of the Future! This is the third of a three-part series examining how restaurants may work in the years to come. Ludo Lefebvre has plenty of admirers. Jonathan Gold, the country's most respected restaurant critic, is a fan. So are millions of Top Chef: Masters devotees, who find the tattooed young French chef either downright dreamy or totally insufferable — or both. He has won Mobile 5-Star awards at two previous restaurants. And his current eatery, Ludo ...

12 Die as Gunmen Storm Baghdad Gold Shops At least 12 people died when gunmen invaded a row of gold shops in the Mansour District of western Baghdad on Sunday and ended up in a gunfight with security forces, police and military officials said. The gunmen used hand grenades and small arms to kill three shop owners. When they emerged, two gunmen, two police officers, a soldier and four civilians were killed in the shootout.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board has approved the sale of up to one-eighth of its gold holdings -- about 403.3 metric tons -- with proceeds going toward a new income model and financing for low-income nations. Such gold sales would be done in a "responsible and transparent" manner to avoid disruptions of the international gold market, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said, according to a statement from the IMF on Friday. The 186-member institution is the third largest official holder ...

New 800 meters world champion Caster Semenya received a rousing welcome after touching down in Johannesburg with her South African team-mates on Tuesday. The 18-year-old, who made global headlines last week after doubts were raised over her gender at the World Championships, was accompanied by the country's two other medallists from Berlin -- men's 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and long-jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena. Thousands of supporters crammed the OR Tambo International Airport -- waving placards, singing, dancing ...

The case of South African athlete Caster Semenya has sparked worldwide interest following reports that she will be tested by sporting officials to determine whether she is male or female. The 18-year-old won gold in the 800 meters race Wednesday but she may be forced to return the medal if she fails a gender-verification test imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). According to media reports, the IAAF are testing to see whether Semenya has a ...

Usain Bolt broke his own world record in the 200 meters as he completed the sprint double in the world championships in Berlin in sensational style. The remarkable Jamaican took gold in 19.19 seconds, shaving just over a tenth of a second off the mark he set in winning the 200m at last year's Beijing Olympics. Bolt also smashed his own 100m world record with a 9.58 seconds clocking in claiming gold in the shorter sprint on the second day ...