Stuttgart - Mercedes is introducing a new diesel engine generation this autumn starting with a four cylinder in the C 250 CDI that offers higher performance and lower fuel consumption, the car maker has announced.

The BlueEfficiency Prime Edition has an output of 150 kW/204 hp, accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in seven seconds on the way to a top speed of 250 km/h. At the same time, Mercedes lists an average fuel consumption of only 5.2 litres per 100 km with a carbon dioxide emission figure of 138 grams per kilometre.

Washington - The southern s

Kiev - Ukraine is a paradise for motorists addicted to chatting on mobile phones and driving at the same time, and the former Soviet republic's police face an uphill battle breaking the habit.

At a busy Kiev central city intersection on a sunny autumn afternoon, phone conversations audible through open windows displayed nothing less than epidemic violation of already-existing regulations banning phone calls behind the wheel. One in 10 drivers was on his or her mobile at any given moment, a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter estimated over a half hour of observation.

Washington - Democrat

Bangkok - Thailand has issued box jellyfish warnings for tourists visiting beach resorts on its southern coastlines where the killer invertebrates have recently been spotted, media reports said Tuesday.

The Marine and Coastal Resources Department has raised an alert for tourists that the highly venomous box jellyfish, not common in Thai waters, has been discovered off Phi Phi Island and Krabi province in southern Thailand, the Bangkok Post newspaper said.

Over the past six years, two deaths in Thailand have been attributed to box jellyfish, the first in 2002 at Phangan Island in the Gulf of Thailand and the most recent in April this year at Koh Lanta in Krabi on the Andaman Sea coast.

Washington - The Democrats have picked up four seats from Republicans in the Senate in elections on Tuesday and are poised to make significant gains to widening their majorities in both congressional houses, network projections showed.

The Democrats won two seats vacated by retiring Republicans in Virginia and New Mexico, while Democratic challengers ousted two of their Republicans opponents in New Hampshire and North Carolina.