No image available
/ 1 November 2006
Australia is already feeling the heat from climate change with a five-year drought devastating rural life, severe early season wildfires and record unseasonal temperatures. Every four days, a farmer commits suicide under the stress of failing crops, dying livestock and debt as the worst drought in 100 years bites deep into the nation’s psyche and erodes economic growth.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
More than a decade after world leaders pledged to avert ”dangerous” climate change, a report card on their efforts so far might read: ”Must try harder”. Rising industrial emissions of greenhouse gases, acrimony between Washington and many of its allies over policy and a report this week that the world economy risks a 1930s-style Depression by failing to act are among reasons for gloom.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
Aid workers in risky environments may fear violence but they are more likely to die — and hurt the people they are trying to help — in a car crash, logistics experts say. These specialists are joining a growing initiative to make humanitarian groups more responsible with their gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive cars..
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
The glow from burning jatropha seed torches has often saved Maruti Chindu from treading on snakes, but now he carefully nurtures them for a use that he never imagined before — running cars and trucks. On the hilly grasslands of the western state of Maharashtra, near the village of Malegaon, Chindu and his tribe of about 40 men and women busily plant jatropha saplings.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
South Africa skipper Graeme Smith said on Wednesday adaptability would be the key to success against an unpredictable West Indies in the Champions Trophy semifinal. ”The unpredictable nature can count against them, but it can also be a major bonus for them. The key for us is to adapt to the conditions better than the other team,” Smith said ahead of Thursday’s match.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota reacted with outrage on Wednesday to reports that the defence force had lost millions of rands worth of equipment and vehicles during peacekeeping operations in Burundi. ”The disturbing thing about this report is that it is so grossly inaccurate as to suggest bad faith,” he told journalists in Pretoria.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
A Maine attorney who released information in 2000 about President George Bush’s drunken driving conviction was arrested on Tuesday after he dressed up as al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and waved a fake gun at traffic. Police in South Portland, Maine, arrested Thomas Connolly (49) of Scarborough, Maine, and charged him with criminal threatening.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
After the more moderate 8,7% increase in retail sales in August from the revised 9,6% in July, any further cooling in retail sales growth in September will be good news on the interest rate front, say analysts. Nedbank researchers Dennis Dykes and Magan Mistry say that growth in retail sales is expected to ease off a high base as consumers begin to react to rising interest rates.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
The trial of an ex-soldier accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe finally began on Tuesday in Mutare city, with a Zimbabwe army major drawing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party into the matter, claiming it was behind the plan to kill the president.
No image available
/ 1 November 2006
Zimbabwe’s ruling party has won the majority of seats in local elections held in the countryside on the weekend, confirming its continuing popularity in its traditional stronghold despite biting economic problems, it was reported on Wednesday. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced late on Tuesday that the ruling Zanu-PF party won 765 seats out of 849.