Russian oil giant Yukos on Wednesday increased the stakes in its battle with the Kremlin when it filed for bankruptcy in the United States in an unusual move possibly intended to pitch Washington against Moscow. The world’s second-largest oil producer filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston, Texas.

There were perhaps a dozen men by the grave, and they did their work in silence and in secrecy, hidden from possible onlookers by four strategically parked fire tenders. They worked swiftly, breaking up the large flat stones that had been placed there only hours before, and lifting out a heavy, locked coffin: Yasser Arafat’s coffin.

Swaziland’s diminishing indigenous tree species will be exhausted within 20 years at the current rate of exploitation, nature conservationists warned this week. "This disappearance of Swaziland’s fuel wood is imminent in some areas, while other areas face the extinction of all indigenous trees in a matter of years, based on the rate of current consumption," said a leading nature conservationist.

Bush Bucks shared the points with Dynamos in a two-all entertaining Castle Premiership league match at the Absa Stadium, East London, on Wednesday night. The home side were the first to settle down, giving the visitors an early scare. Bucks opened the score in the eighth minute.