The Bush administration on Tuesday put forward a plan to make the United States’s burgeoning fleet of pickup trucks, minivans and some sports utility vehicles go further on a gallon of gas in response to the soaring cost of petrol. But the plan, which would not be implemented until 2008, was condemned by environmental groups because the largest SUVs would not be affected.
Following statements on Wednesday by PetroSA, the state oil and gas company, that it will "have nothing to do" with Imvume Management in future and that Imvume has been ordered to pay back monies owed to it, the Democratic Alliance said in a statement that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) must now investigate Imvume.
Fires and floods continue to leave a trail of death and destruction across Europe, with some countries experiencing devastating floods, while authorities in Spain and Portugal battle raging wildfires. Record flooding in southern Germany surged downstream from the Alps on Wednesday as rescue workers raced to save cities and towns in its path.
Cooler temperatures and higher air humidity levels helped firefighters in parched Portugal on Wednesday contain more than a dozen blazes that raged across the country, but officials cautioned that the risk of new fires remained high. Five fires were burning out of control in the thick-wooded centre and north of the country.
Iraqi leaders tried on Wednesday to persuade furious Sunni Arabs to sign up to the draft Constitution, a day before the charter goes to Parliament where conservative Shi’ites and secularist Kurds can ensure its victory. Some Sunni negotiators have even called the country’s post-Saddam Hussein Constitution it ”illegal”.
Denel will have to make tough calls if it is to survive, its new chief executive, Shaun Liebenberg, said on Tuesday. Addressing the media in Pretoria on the company’s future plans, he said nothing is sacred and even pet projects such as the Rooivalk attack helicopter will need to perform or be canned.
At least 73 people have been killed, 45 wounded and tens of thousands displaced in clashes so far this year between Ethiopia’s rival Oromo and Somali ethnic groups, according to a local human rights watchdog. In the deadliest single incident in March, 14 people were killed, 10 wounded and 1 600 forced from their homes when a group of rustlers attacked a cattle herder.
Sudan’s new southern leader Salva Kiir issued a stark warning to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), urging the Ugandan rebels to reach a rapid peace deal with Kampala or leave Sudan at once. ”The LRA have to reach a settlement to their problem with the Ugandan government, if not, they have to leave the south, otherwise we are going to find other solutions,” he said.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived on Tuesday in Niger to ”see for myself” the impact of a devastating famine in the largely desert West African country after the United Nations was accused of bungling aid action. He said he would discuss with Prime Minister Hama Amadou measures to deal with the massive crisis gripping one of the world’s poorest nations.
Fraud and corruption convict Schabir Shaik and his wife, Zuleikha, were forced to evacuate their beachfront flat in Durban early on Wednesday due to a fire, emergency services personnel said. The fire started at about 2.10am in the Yarningdale block of flats on the Marine Parade.