Cape Town

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- After yelling to his brother that a great white shark was swimming his way, Achmat Hassiem watched as it changed course - toward him. The 13-foot shark bit his foot, shook violently and took him under. Seconds later, Hassiem was pulled into a nearby boat, alive but missing his right foot. The August episode in False Bay was the most recent in a string of great white incidents around Cape Town that have stirred emotions about a creature often demonized, intensifying a debate over how to balance safety and conservation.

Nearly three weeks into the Whitbread Round the World Race, the leaders still are some 3,600 miles from Cape Town, while the back of the 10-boat fleet have more than 4,000 miles to go, and there is continuing concern that the first leg will become truly a race for survival."

Paraguay couldn't score against New Zealand. Then again, it didn't need to. Despite being held to a 0-0 draw by the All Whites on Thursday in Polokwane, South Africa, Paraguay won its World Cup group and moved into the round of 16. Neither team created much in the way of scoring chances — the Kiwis had zero shots on goal. New Zealand now heads home unbeaten, and winless, after 1-1 draws with Slovakia and Italy. In Group E, Japan advanced to the next round along with the Netherlands.

Defending World Cup champion Italy was far from proving itself as a contender for a second straight title Monday. The Italians, who came into the World Cup in South Africa with an aging squad and questions about whether they could again win consecutive tournaments as they did in 1934 and '38, were held to a 1-1 draw by Paraguay in Group F in Cape Town. Antolin Alcaraz gave Paraguay the lead with a header in the 39th minute and Daniele De Rossi equalized for Italy from close range in the 63rd.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A tactical gamble by navigator Mark Rudiger brought the Swedish yacht EF Language across the line here at the head of the fleet yesterday in the first leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race.The 12-member international crew, led by American skipper Paul Cayard, sailed their 64-foot-long boat, designed by Bruce Farr & Associates of Annapolis, to victory 30 days, 16 hours, 54 minutes and 26 seconds after leaving Southampton, England, on Sept. 21.They finished more than 100 nautical miles ahead of the second boat Merit Cup, from Monaco, which arrived late last night.

A growing number of group tour operators are rolling out options for travelers who don't like to follow the herd. Mountain Travel Sobek (mt sobek.com) is starting Explorations, 27 private adventures to 20 countries designed for families, couples or friends traveling together. The trips are shorter than its group tours, which typically run 12 days or more, and offer more flexibility. Travelers may choose departure dates, for example, and can modify itineraries to suit their needs. If you feel like sleeping in one day instead of going on a five-mile hike, no problem.

Can you recommend an agency that specializes in travel to Africa? I'm looking for a specialized trip to Namibia, Cape Town and Kruger National Park in South Africa. Mountain Travel Sobek in Emeryville, Calif., and Big Five Tours and Expeditions, based in Stuart, Fla., can arrange customized tours. We asked them to suggest possible itineraries for you. Nadia Le Bon at Mountain Sobek (mtsobek.com) suggested beginning your trip at Cape Grace (www.capegrace.com), a small luxury hotel in Cape Town and a good base to visit Robben Island and the wine country.

A Time of Angels By Patricia Schonstein. William Morrow. 224 pages. $24.95. Magical realism, a technique used so evocatively by Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, separates literary masters from the mere journeymen who attempt to employ it. While creating a world both fantastical and recognizable is a worthy enough goal, it requires a subtle gift to pull off successfully. Done right, magical realism adds dimension and meaning to a story, but used inexpertly, it allows an author to take shortcuts, cheating readers out of the true parsing of experience and emotion they expect from a novel.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A major mistake, a brilliant move and then an unlucky break combined to put Chessie Racing in fifth place at the end of the first leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race."

Geographers and cartographers label it with different names, but blue-water racers know it as the Southern Ocean, that expanse of chaos and calamity that girdles the globe beneath the five great capes of the Southern Hemisphere.The Track Chart of the World published by the Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Center in Washington terms the regions of the Southern Ocean as the South Atlantic, South Pacific and Indian oceans. The fleet in the coming Whitbread Round the World Race will have close encounters with each of them.