| Porsche challenges smog tax charge
LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone will contest luxury car maker Porsche's threatened legal challenge over his plan to tax gas guzzling cars driving in the city centre. In launching its proposed challenge last week, Porsche said the $A53 daily charge was unfair, would not cut emissions of carbon dioxide and would deter businesses from moving to the city. "Porsche's claim - that it is illegal for the Mayor to introduce this policy - is wrong," a mayoral spokeswoman said after Livingstone received a letter from Porsche setting out its proposed legal challenge. "The Greater London Authority Act 1999 gives the Mayor the power to do this. "Porsche has a vested interest in seeking to prevent London government from exercising its powers to improve the environment.
The Republican implosion
This revulsion at "corruption" was more than the sordid wheeling and dealing of the Republican congressional barons. It was disgust at the moral hypocrisy and false sanctimony of the cultural warriors and the transparent fakery of Bush's imagery. The fate of the Senate turned on many contests, including crucial ones in Missouri and Virginia. In Missouri, an initiative that would authorise embryonic stem-cell research that could lead to cures of many diseases divided the candidates. Actor Michael J Fox made a TV commercial for the Democrat, Claire McCaskill. Looking straight into the camera, with no imagery other than his constantly swaying body, racked with the effects of his medication for Parkinson's disease, Fox made a simple appeal wholly on the basis of the stem-cell research issue.
Car bomb kills long-sought Hezbollah militant
Car bomb kills long-sought Hezbollah militant Detroit News wire services BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Imad Mughniyeh, a senior but shadowy Hezbollah commander accused by the United States and Israel of masterminding suicide bombings, hijackings and hostage-takings that spanned 25 years, was killed by a car bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Shiite Muslim group and other officials said Wednesday. Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out the attack on Mughniyeh, a charge that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied. In the past, Israeli officials have rarely confirmed or denied their involvement in assassinations abroad. Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Spice Girls: From A to Zig-a-zeg-ahhh
B: Beckham, David. Posh's ultra-famous soccer stud husband. Together, the duo caused quite a stir when they moved to Los Angeles last year after he inked a deal with Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. C: Cool Britannia. The Spice Girls were at the forefront of the late '90s U.K. revitalization movement, which coincided with the 1997 election of Tony Blair. D: "Dancing With the Stars." In 2007, Mel. B competed in season five of the reality dance competition, and finished in second place behind IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves. E: Emma Bunton. The baby of the group -- both literally and in name -- Bunton turned 32 last month. (In "Spice World," Bunton laments, "You know, I'm always gonna be known as Baby Spice, even when I'm 30!" F: "Forever." The title of the group's ill-fated 2000 breakup album, recorded after Halliwell's 1998 exit from the group due to "creative differences" (or a spat with Mel.
City to experiment with a new kind of bollard
With cyclists concerned about the possible danger of hitting bollards, the city plans to conduct an experiment with the posts intended to keep cars off bike and pedestrian paths. Following the nod of the city's Internal Affairs subcommittee Tuesday morning, the city will look into new kinds of flexible material for the short poles placed where a bike path meets a road. After hearing from cyclists concerned about the possibility of getting hurt by hitting the posts and another resident concerned about the city spending time and money pursuing something for one group, interim Assistant City Manager Dennis Beardsley suggested the city do an experiment. A new bollard is already planned and budgeted to go in during the expansion of an upper Bidwell Park bike trail, he said, and the city could simply look into new materials for the bollard without spending any new money.
Boarder slapped with hefty fine for sidewalk skating
HAYWARD Mason Francouer would have had to be driving a car pretty fast to earn the kind of ticket he picked up last fall for riding through downtown on a skateboard. The 17-year-old's first brush with the law happened after school one day. He was rolling down a B Street sidewalk when a police officer on a bicycle pulled him over and fined him $560. "I was going like 3 miles an hour and, I don't know, I got a ticket. It was kind of lame," said Francouer, a shaggy-haired high school senior who has been plying downtown on wheels since seventh grade. His parents were infuriated by the ticket, and his father, electrician David Francouer, took several hours off work to join his son in court. "We just thought it was kind of bogus," the teen said. "I don't mess up the sidewalk.
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