After the Second World War, a nimble little car joined America's ponderous landcraft on our expanding roadways. Narrow, with tall wheels and the distinctly separate fenders typical of cars decades older, the MG TC was a different form of transport. But it was fun.

The elegant if dated TC sold more than its manufacturer could have guessed, so MG followed with slightly refined TD and TF models.

Policeman apologises for death of football fan

An Italian policeman accused of killing a football fan on Sunday was placed under formal investigation for manslaughter yesterday. Riots broke out at football grounds across Italy after a highway patrol officer shot Gabriele Sandri, a Lazio fan, at a motorway service station in Tuscany.

The worst unrest, seen on television around the world, occurred outside the Olympic Stadium in Rome, where the night game had been cancelled. Fans angry over the killing of Mr Sandri laid siege to a police barracks, injuring 40 officers inside, and vandalised cars, motorcycles and rubbish bins.

'Ban all cars that do less than 35mpg'

It estimated that more than one in three models would fail the proposed fuel efficiency threshold. They include some versions of popular cars such as the Volkswagen Beetle, Citroen C4 and Peugeot 307, though diesel engined cars have lower fuel consumption than the equivalent petrol models.It is also thought that the 35mpg limit would be tougher than the 130g/km carbon dioxide emissions limit for cars proposed by the European Commission from 2012.Sir Mark, chairman of the United Nations' Foundation for the Global Compact, which raises money to improve sustainability, said: "We need very tough regulation saying that you can't drive or build something less than a certain standard. You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin – but only if it did 50-60mpg."He said making people with less fuel-efficient cars pay more in road and fuel tax would simply let the rich avoid taking responsibility for tackling climate change.Sir Mark, who left Shell in 2001 and is now also chairman of mining group Anglo American, said of his plan: "You can buy the roomiest, vroomiest car, as long as it meets the efficiency standard.

Little Fiat sexiest car ever

Top Gear magazine has voted the humble Fiat 500, which looks like a cross between a Mini and a VW Beetle, No 1 for setting pulses racing.

Amargosa track sets '08 debut for Feb. 9

Auto racing will return to southern Nye County in 2008, according to Rick VanBuytene.

VanBuytene, for years one of the standout drivers at the Pahrump Valley Speedway, is the director of racing at the Amargosa facility, located just off Highway 373 near the Ash Meadows turnoff.

Harper's 12

It's a crucial test for a man with two failed leadership bids (the PCs in 2003, and the merged Conservatives in 2004), who is thought to have ambitions of greater things. "If he wants to get credentials to be a prime-ministerial candidate in the future, then an economic portfolio is a vital thing," says a well-connected Ottawa government relations consultant. "Industry is a good place to be. It's Finance with fun."

BY JONATHON GATEHOUSE

The Globetrotter: Susan Cartwright

Outside the senior federal public service's subculture, Susan Cartwright is perhaps the least well-known of the key players in Stephen Harper's administration. Yet no other bureaucrat and few political staffers have worked as intensively as Cartwright on such diverse, high-profile files over the past two years.

Cars and curries: Salmond in ‘brotherhood of naan’

The failure of the First Minister's diet plans is laid horribly bare in the latest information disclosure which shows him taking limousines several times a day, and regularly to his favourite curry house, the Raj restaurant in Edinburgh.