Economy Minister Christine Lagarde urged French people yesterday to walk more and drive less, given the increase in oil prices.
"From time to time, you should forget your car to the benefit of your two legs and your two wheels," Ms Lagarde told Le Parisien daily in an interview.
"I'm appealing to French people's intelligence," she said, calling on compatriots to drive more slowly and to use public transport. "I'm ready to be an example," Ms Lagarde said.
Robot cars for the road
Robotic cars were a technological success at a race of driverless vehicles this weekend. Now the technology heads for real roads after cars with Volkswagen AG and General Motors Corp decals were the first to finish the final of the US Defence Department's Urban Challenge; a six-hour, 100-km course for driverless cars using only onboard computers and equipment to plot paths and steer themselves.
Robot-steered cars sprouting racks of laser sensors and warning sirens drove through an abandoned military base like super-careful student drivers, scrupulously trying to follow California traffic rules but moving with the jerks and occasional ventures out of lanes.
The US military sponsored the race as part of its effort to replace soldiers with robots driving supply vehicles.
Fatal martial arts attack
A teenage boy has died in hospital after being attacked with a martial arts weapon outside a party, police said yesterday.
The 15-year-old suffered serious injuries in the attack in Horsham, West Sussex on Saturday. A boy of 16 was taken to hospital with head injuries. Police said the victim was attacked with a pair of "nunchuks", a weapon made up of two wooden sticks connected by a short metal chain.
"This was a very serious assault involving a number of people who had been at a party," said Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert, leading the investigation. "We would like to hear from anyone who attended the party."
An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Pirates release vessels
Pirates have released two South Korean-owned vessels held since May off Somalia in one of the world's most dangerous waterways.
The two fishing boats, both registered in Tanzania's Zanzibar islands, were released yesterday afternoon with about 24 people on board. A Kenyan spokesman said, "We understand they were demanding $1.5 million, but the ship owner said he could not afford that. We think some sort of ransom must have been paid, but that information will not come out until the ships reach safe water."
Gunmen attacked the ships off the Somali coast in mid-May as they were on their way to Yemen. After an upsurge of attacks this year, pirates are still holding three other boats, including a Japanese-owned chemical tanker taken last week.
Smaller heart pump for women
A small, implantable device that helps the heart pump blood offers the promise of keeping alive more women with advanced heart failure until a donor heart is available for transplant, researchers said yesterday.
The device performed as well in women as in men and it has the advantage of being much smaller than the bulkier devices that now perform the same function. Those devices, intended to keep alive patients in need of a heart transplant, previously were too large to be implanted in many women and some smaller men, researchers said.
The device is about the size of a D battery and it is powered by a battery-run unit outside the body. It is an implantable left ventricular assist device for people with severe congestive heart failure and few medical options.
Kidnapped journalist released
A kidnapped Baghdad correspondent for a US-funded radio was released after two weeks in captivity.
Jumana Al-Obaidi, 29, went missing while on her way to an interview in Baghdad on October 22. Her driver was shot and dumped in the street.
Ms Al-Obaidi works for the Arabic-language Radio Free Iraq service of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The station did not say who the kidnappers were nor if they demanded any ransom.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 123 reporters and 41 other people working as support staff for the media have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.
Rabin killer celebrates
Twelve years to the day he assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, the late Israeli Prime Minister's killer held a ritual circumcision for his new son yesterday.
Yigal Amir, who shot Mr Rabin at a peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, became a father last week. Jewish tradition dictates circumcision should be performed seven days after a son's birth. The child was named Yinon Eliya Shalom.
A court ordered prison authorities to arrange for Mr Amir, an Orthodox Jew, to hold the ceremony in jail after his request to be granted leave and have the circumcision conducted on the outside was turned down.
Mr Amir has said he shot Mr Rabin to stop him from handing parts of the biblical "Land of Israel" to the Palestinians in peace negotiations.