Spectators at this year’s Melbourne Grand Prix will have a new insight into Formula One race teams’ tyre strategy thanks to new rules for the 2007 season — if they can see it on a spinning tyre. Under new regulations, Bridgestone, F1’s sole tyre supplier, must provide two specifications of dry weather tyres at each round.
Democratic party hopes of tying United States President George Bush to a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq suffered a setback on Thursday when they were defeated in the Senate. The Democrats are proposing legislation that would force Bush to take most of the 150 000-plus US troops out of Iraq next year.
President Thabo Mbeki’s ”dithering, inaction and often tacit support” are largely to blame for the current bloody shambles in Zimbabwe, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. ”Let me put this bluntly: much of the blame for the present lamentable condition of Zimbabwe must be laid at President Mbeki’s door,” he said in his weekly newsletter on Friday.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has warned the public not to eat any shellfish or lobster liver found on the West Coast, following reports of three people becoming ill after eating shellfish collected in Lamberts Bay. The problem may be a result of a toxic red tide, said the department in a statement on Friday.
The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, will be in ”perfect shape” to stand for parliament again in a year’s time, the head of the country’s national assembly has said. ”I would nominate him,” said Ricardo Alarcon told reporters on Thursday. ”I’m sure he will be in perfect shape to continue handling his responsibilities.”
A family of four were washed away during a rain storm at the Bhambayi informal settlement in Inanda, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), police said on Friday. Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said nobody knew exactly when the incident happened but it was during Thursday night.
Disintegrating boxes of medical waste left out in the rain and rotting waste from abattoirs dumped in ditches in the veld were among the environmental hazards discovered by the ”Green Scorpions” during a nation-wide blitz this week. Inspectors from the environmental police force this week carried out a series of countrywide enforcement inspections.
Environment ministers from 13 nations responsible for most of the world’s greenhouse-gas pollution began a two-day meeting near Berlin on Friday, seeking a way forward in the global-warming crisis. The meeting at the Cecilienhof chateau gathers the Group of Eight countries and five major developing nations: Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels said on Friday they would return to peace talks in south Sudan if the government there increased security to keep the Ugandan army from attacking them. The rebels quit talks with Uganda in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, in January, denting hopes for an end to two decades of bloodshed in northern Uganda.
Africa was catching up with the rest of the world — although it was still regarded as the poorest region — but it needed two to three decades of rapid growth to make a substantial dent in the level of poverty, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said at Parliament on Friday.