As concerns mount over soaring fuel prices and the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, ethanol is emerging as a controversial balm for the nation’s growing energy problem. Politicians and automakers say the corn-based biofuel can reduce demand for gasoline.
If Wayne Rooney’s latest injury has got England fans worried, the use of new, lightweight football boots by some of the world’s top players could start alarm bells ringing. Four years after David Beckham’s foot injury first brought the words ”metatarsal bone” into common parlance, Rooney is facing the same injury agony as the England captain ahead of the 2002 finals.
The Royal Swazi Sun Golf Club in Swaziland’s majestic Ezulwini Valley promises a wonderful challenge for the Sunshine Tour field arriving for the R550 000 Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open, which tees off this week from May 3-6. The evergreen course, playing to an increased yardage of 5 983m, has now grown into several changes affected by course superintendent Gaerun Wilkinson over the last two years.
South African captain Graeme Smith said on Monday that New Zealand’s decision to bat into the third day took the possibility of South Africa playing positive cricket away from them. Smith was speaking to journalists after the second Castle Lager Test at Newlands ended in a draw.
The MTN Group and Investcom on Tuesday announced a landmark deal to create the pre-eminent mobile operator in the emerging markets of Africa and the Middle East. The transaction will build on the complementary strengths of each company to create a leader in the emerging-market telecommunications arena.
Darfur rebels have bickered among themselves, violated a ceasefire and even been accused of attacking peacekeepers. Now they risk being seen as standing in the way of a peace agreement before a deadline on Tuesday at midnight.
It has been acclaimed as the best German film of the year and nominated in 11 out of 15 categories for the German Prize, Germany’s version of the Oscars. But The Life of Others, a film about the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, is at the centre of a row after its lead actor said he had been a Stasi victim, spied on by his own wife.
Israel’s new government will be sworn in this week after the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, finally named a pragmatic coalition line-up on Monday designed to push through a major withdrawal from West Bank settlements. The knesset will be asked to approve the government on Thursday, after Olmert drew in enough parties to the Cabinet to get the support of 67 of the Parliament’s 120 members
The beleaguered French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, on Tuesday faces tough questioning in Parliament over his alleged role in a bogus corruption scandal dubbed French Watergate as opposition politicians questioned whether he could stay in office and called for early elections.
One of the biggest protests in United States history unfolded across America on Monday as more than a million demonstrators took to the streets to protest against proposals to toughen immigration law. From New York to Los Angeles and more than 50 cities in between, they streamed out in their numbers, waving US, Mexican and El Salvadorean flags.