WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that irresponsible budgets were a thing of the past as he promised bold action to help the United States emerge from the current economic crisis stronger than before.

In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said his administration had inherited a US$1.3 trillion budget deficit - and a budgeting process that he called 'irresponsible as it is unsustainable'. He argued that for years Washington as well as Wall Street had used accounting tricks to conceal real costs of programmes.

HARARE - ZIMBABWEAN Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife was killed and he suffered injuries in a two-vehicle crash near the capital Friday that sent their car rolling over three times, officials said.

Mr Tsvangirai was travelling to a weekend rally in his home region, south of Harare, when their car sideswiped a truck, said his spokesman, James Maridadi. No other details were immediately available and Mr Tsvangirai's aides refused to elaborate.

GAZA CITY - ONE Palestinian militant was killed and two wounded on Saturday in an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical service officials said.

The Islamic Jihad militants were hit in the strike near the town of Beit Lahiya, they added.