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With traffic abnormally sparse, thanks to the acute fuel shortages caused by the Israeli blockade, he soon reaches the distinctly un-urban and pedestrian-scattering speed of 37 miles per hour (60kph).

But then Mr Annan is proudly trying to make a point that, while it might be electric, this Peugeot is no milkfloat. “It can do 100kph (62mph),” he says with a grin, as our knuckles whiten in the passenger seats. Whether or not Mr Annan’s friend Hesham Abu Sido, an electrical consultant, is justified in describing the electric vehicle as a “genius idea” which is “the most fantastic thing that has happened in Gaza”, it is certainly a case of turning adversity into opportunity.

It also proves that Gaza’s famous entrepreneurial spirit has not yet been snuffed out by the draconian economic blockade imposed by Israel after the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized full control of the Strip by force a year ago tomorrow.

Since then, Gaza has seen continuing conflict, ever-deepening poverty, shortages, unemployment and despair. Against that background, the white Peugeot has become a symbol of Gaza’s suppressed potential. “People who have seen it are even happier than we are,” says Mr Annan. “They see it as something to be proud of in Gaza, which they haven’t had in a long time.”

…

The electric Peugeot is the brainchild of Mr Annan, 42, whose family owns a white goods business, and his friend Wasseem Al Khazendar, 48, who runs the largest company in Gaza selling electrical motors and switchgear to industry.

“I had been wanting to do something like this for a long time,” said Mr Khazendar. “I wanted to make a car which was environment-friendly. Even if you aren’t adding cooking oil, diesel is bad for the environment and an electric car is much cheaper to run.”

Jose Olo Obono said that Mann, arrested in 2004 in Zimbabwe with 70 mercenaries en route for oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, will face three main charges: crimes against the head of state, crimes against the government and crimes against the peace and independence of the state.

“The maximum sentence would be the death penalty … but I don’t think in this case we will seek the death penalty,” Olo Obono told Reuters.

Mann said in a television interview in March that he plotted to oust Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the former Spanish colony since 1979. Mann was extradited from Zimbabwe in February.

Equatorial Guinean authorities have said Mann has also testified that Mark Thatcher, the son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, knew all about the scheme to topple the government of sub-Saharan Africa’s third largest oil producer, one of the continent’s most authoritarian.

Mark Thatcher has denied this.

The Iranians haven’t been shy about making clear what’s at stake. If the U.S. or Israel so much as drops a bomb on one of its reactors or its military training camps, Iran will shut down Gulf oil exports by launching a barrage of Chinese Silkworm missiles on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Arab oil facilities. In the worst case scenario, seventeen million barrels of oil would come off world markets.

One oil speculator told me that oil would hit $200 a barrel within minutes. But Iran’s official news agency, Fars, puts it at $300 a barrel. I asked him if Iran is right, what does that mean?

“Four-dollar-a-gallon of gasoline only reflects $100 oil because the refiners’ margins are squeezed,” he said. “At $300, you have $12 a gallon of gasoline and riots in Newark, Los Angeles, Harlem, Oakland, Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas.”

In either case, whether at $200 or $300, Bush does not want to be the President who leaves the White House on a mule-drawn cart. But Iran’s blackmail is not just about oil. The Iranians truly believe they have us hostage in Iraq — our supply lines, the acquiescence of the Shi’a in the occupation. It would all change in an instant, though, especially if we were to borrow Iraq to attack Iran. The way Fars put it: “In Iraq, fighters would rise up in solidarity with each other and begin … making the Tet Offensive in 1968 Vietnam.”

If this all sounds very alarming, Iran meant it to, and it seems to be working. On Tuesday Bush was talking about the prospect of new sanctions rather than attacking.

Which leaves Israel. Are the Israelis, who have a lot more on their minds than the price of gas in the United States, going to launch a pre-emptive attack? One hard and fast rule in the Middle East is never rule out Israel’s readiness to turn the table over. But an Israeli hawk on Iran, with close ties to Israel’s Ministry of Defense, told me to forget about it. “There’s not a chance Israel will do anything. Maybe there’s a window after the American elections and the new President but even that’s doubtful. Washington does not have the stomach for another war.”

In a worrying sign for other European countries that face rising discontent at the spiralling cost of diesel, a third day of strikes generated widespread mayhem and the mood turned ugly after the first casualties of the standoff: two strikers died in clashes on picket lines.

Tourists flying to Lisbon faced delays after the airport ran out of fuel. Some flights were diverted to Porto. Only emergency, military or state flights were allowed out of Portela airport, a spokesman said. Only emergency fuel stocks saved Spanish airlines from similar disruption.

Supermarkets, meanwhile, reported dwindling supplies. Authorities at Spain’s two biggest wholesale markets, Mercamadrid, in Madrid, and Mercabarna in Barcelona, reported deliveries of meat, fish and fruit were almost at a standstill.

In Barcelona, at a branch of Caprabo supermarket, there was no fresh fish or meat on the shelves. Shopper María Luz Martínez, 38, said: “The lorry drivers are looking after themselves while we are all suffering. But the government doesn’t appear to be that interested.”

As panic buying among motorists continued, petrol stations were running dry. Drivers in Lisbon trying to fill up their cars were turned away. In Spain, “empty” signs hung from pumps at hundreds of stations across the country. Three car firms, Seat, Nissan and Mercedes, suspended production because of parts shortages.

Some ferries from the Balearic islands to mainland Spain were cancelled due to lack of fuel. José María Pozancos, director of Spain’s fruit and vegetable export federation, said the strike was costing the industry €25m (£20m) a day.

The action is being closely watched in France, Italy, Britain and other countries where the threat of a similar strike looms. Diesel prices have shot up on average around 40% over the past year amid record jumps in oil prices, and truckers say profits have been all but wiped out. Italian hauliers are planning a five-day strike at the end of the month, while their British counterparts are targeting central London again on July 2.

With unions talking of coordinated action in several countries at a time and policymakers in Brussels refusing to countenance tax breaks, the fear is that the action in Spain and Portugal could spread. Yesterday truckers in Thailand used a half-day strike to demand financial help.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that corn and soybean growers in several Midwestern states are behind schedule on their planting. A cooler and wetter-than-average spring has left Illinois and Indiana furthest behind on planted corn and soybeans. Several other states are lagging behind their normal planting schedules, but by a lesser margin.

In Illinois, 95 percent of the corn is planted and 88 percent has emerged, but less than half of that is reported to be in good or excellent condition. Fully 14 percent of the acres planted are in poor or very poor condition, with another 38 percent reported as fair. Those acres in poor or very poor condition may have to be replanted. In Illinois, the corn was 7 inches high as of June 9, compared to an average of 17 inches by this time in recent years.

Illinois crop sciences professor Emerson Nafziger says cool temperatures and the third wettest January-April since 1895 in Illinois have led to delays that are undercutting potential yields.

“This has been a bad spring by most measures,” said Illinois crop sciences professor Emerson Nafziger.” We keep seeing forecasts that look favorable and then that doesn’t happen. The chance of having above-average yields has diminished greatly.” Cool temperatures and the third wettest January-April since 1895 in Illinois have led to delays that are undercutting potential yields. Nafziger’s analysis of previous years’ corn planting data in Illinois determined that “we can expect 50 percent of the maximum yield when planting is done around June 15 to 20.”

Those growing soybeans in southern Illinois may get 50 percent of their maximum yield if they plant no later than June 25 to 30, he said.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court’s liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The administration opened the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hold enemy combatants, people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The Guantanamo prison has been harshly criticized at home and abroad for the detentions themselves and the aggressive interrogations that were conducted there.

The court said not only that the detainees have rights under the Constitution, but that the system the administration has put in place to classify them as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a Parliamentary chamber packed with legislators and aboriginal representatives that there could be no excuses for what happened at the church-run schools, which mainly operated from the 1870s to the 1970s.

“The government of Canada sincerely apologises and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly. We are sorry,” Harper said in a 15-minute address, at one point fighting back tears.

Native leaders said they hoped the apology would lead to a new era of reconciliation between Canadians and the often marginalised aboriginal population, which routinely suffers from poor living conditions and high unemployment.

The residential schools were initially set up to educate native children but later became part of a government campaign to assimilate aboriginals and eradicate their culture — “to kill the Indian in the child”, as some put it at the time.

“There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian residential schools system to ever again prevail,” Harper said.

Contemporary accounts suggest up to half the children in some institutions died of tuberculosis and other diseases.

The documents, including one marked Top Secret, are believed to be detailed and up-to-date assessments by Whitehall’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

They were found on Tuesday and handed to the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, who reported the loss. The BBC said the documents were left on the train by a senior intelligence officer.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said last night that the documents’ high security classification meant they would have had a limited circulation. “There has been a security breach, the Metropolitan police are carrying out an investigation.”

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said its counter terrorism squad would be heading the investigation. “We can confirm that we are making inquiries in connection with the loss of the documents.”

Gardner said the documents were left in an orange cardboard envelope on a train from London Waterloo to Surrey by a “very senior intelligence official” working in the Cabinet Office. A police search was launched when it was realised that they were missing, as officials were concerned at the possibility of such sensitive papers getting into the wrong hands, he said.

The envelope was picked up by a fellow passenger, who found a seven-page document inside setting out the latest government assessment on the Islamist terror network al-Qaida, along with a “top secret and in some cases damning” assessment of Iraq’s security forces, said Gardner.

The al-Qaida document, commissioned jointly by the Foreign Office and the Home Office, was classified “UK top secret”, he said. Each page was numbered and marked: “For UK, US, Canadian and Australian eyes only.” The document on Iraq was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence. Gardner said: “This was a clear breach of government rules. They should be sealed in a briefcase if taken out.”

The BBC said the two reports were JIC assessments. A British intelligence assessment of the strength of al-Qaida in Pakistan would be sensitive and potentially damaging if read either by hostile interests or the Pakistan government. An assessment of the efficiency of the Iraqi security forces could be embarrassing if seen by the Iraqi government or insurgents.

The intelligence officer had permission to take the documents out of the office as long as sufficient security was provided, meaning a locked box, Whitehall officials said.