Motorists should brace for another big hike in petrol prices next month of up to 40c a litre, according to media reports on Tuesday. Motorists swallowed the country’s biggest fuel price rise of 68c in April. Rampant oil prices are the culprit, with upward price pressure expected to continue until next month.
After months of delay, Sudan said it would let 3 000 United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur to reinforce an African Union force struggling to keep the peace, the most substantial agreement to date. But the new military personnel may take six months to recruit and deploy, UN officials said.
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Australia cruised to a seven-wicket win over an under strength Sri Lanka team on Monday in what could be a rehearsal for the World Cup final. With Lasith Malinga out injured and Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan rested, Sri Lanka’s second-string attack struggled to contain the Australian batsmen.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday decried the negative ”gun culture” in the United States after the deadly shooting spree at a US university, holding up tough gun laws in his own country as the answer. Howard introduced strict gun ownership laws after the shooting massacre of 35 people in the southern island state of Tasmania in 1996.
Virginia Tech students described the mayhem on campus on Monday and criticised officials for not shutting the university down quickly enough after 33 people were killed including a gunman. Andrew Gisch, a second-year student, was walking across a quadrangle listening to his iPod when he heard ”a big bang”.
For the thousands of students on this sprawling campus in rural south-western Virginia, the worst threats early on Monday seemed to be an unusual bout of blustery weather and looming final exams. ”I was going over to grab something to eat,” said Aimee Fausser, an 18-year-old international studies student, describing her morning routine.
Police and university authorities faced pressure on Tuesday to explain how a gunman apparently evaded detection after killing two people and then went on to kill 30 others two hours later in America’s worst shooting rampage. The man, whom police have not identified, killed himself in a classroom at Virginia Tech university after opening fire on students and staff.
For a company so steeped in tradition, Harley-Davidson sure broke the mould when it introduced its V-Rod back in 2001. Its liquid-cooled, fuel-injected engine was developed with the help of Porsche, and the new bike’s styling looked 10 years ahead of its time, rather than 40 years behind.
Kawasaki has always believed in delivering horses for courses. With their latest ZX-10R and ZX-6R superbikes they told the world that these uncompromising machines were designed to deliver the best possible racetrack performance for experienced riders, and those who wanted a bike more suited for everyday use should look elsewhere in their range.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told parliamentarians recently that, while fighting crime was a priority, she did not feel it should be an objective of government’s growth initiative, Asgisa. However crime is analysed, the truth is that business growth has been sharply constrained by crime levels.