'Start pushing', passengers asked

An Indian train driver came up with an original idea when the train he was driving broke down unexpectedly.

Rather than face the prospect of scores of frustrated passengers launching a chorus of complaints, the driver instead asked them to get out and push.

Many chose to get out of their seats and do just that, officials say.

It took them more than half an hour to move the electric train 12ft (4m) so that it touched live overhead wires and was able to resume its journey.

Momentum

"In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident," Deepak Kumar Jha, a spokesman for Indian Railways, told the Reuters news agency.

Officials say the extraordinary display of passenger power occurred on Tuesday in the eastern state of Bihar after a passenger pulled the train's emergency chain, bringing it to a halt in a "neutral zone".

This is a short length of track where there is no power in the overhead wires.

Correspondents say that a train's momentum usually allows it to continue moving through neutral zones.

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10 things we didn't know last week

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Boris Yeltsin lost a thumb and index finger on his left hand while playing with a hand grenade as a child.

2. Runner's World, Wilfred Owen poetry and Uncle Tom's Cabin are restricted in Guantanamo Bay, lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith says.

3. Neighbours is the most watched daytime telly show other than the BBC's One o'clock news.
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4. Scouting for Boys by Lord Baden-Powell is the fourth bestselling book of the 20th Century, after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book.

5. We each get a completely new skeleton every 10 years, because of cell renewal.

6. Smoking will be banned in police interview rooms in England when the new law takes effect, although it is not banned in Scotland. More details

7. Kryptonite exists. More details

8. Nearly half of all cases handled by top divorce lawyers last year involved a private detective to check on alleged infidelity.

9. £26m of pennies have been lost on UK streets since 1971.

10. North Korea is the least visited country in the world – only 1,800 Westerners make the trip each year.

Sources: 1 - the Daily Telegraph, 24 April; 2 - the Guardian, 21 April; 4 - the Observer, 22 April; 5 - The Human Footprint, Channel 4; 8 - the Times, 23 April; 9 - the Metro, 23 April

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Skippy in his blue doggy shirt

Some pictures of Skippy, taken during one lazy afternoon at Penney Avenue, Mt Roskill, Auckland.

You click on the picture to get a larger view.

Cool and Amazing Stereo 3-D Pictures

These are some pictures I "harvested" while surfing the net! Email if you have to contribute or leave your note at http://i.am/davidlim

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Gunman opens fire at Virginia Tech, killing 32

A gunman opened fire in Virginia Tech campus on Monday morning. The shooting rampage was registered in the dormitory and in the academic building. According to the preliminary reports, 33 people were killed, including the gunman, and 28 were injured, REGNUM-KNews reported.

Investigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released. It is known that was a young man of Asian appearance having a lot of ammunition with him. Law enforcement officials told ABC News they believed there was a single gunman who fired at least two 9mm semi-automatic pistols. They said he might have been wearing a bulletproof vest, and that he killed himself on the back of his head after opening fire on his victims.

The law enforcement officials undertaking the investigation are to establish why the university's heads did not close the area down and handle the emergency after the first burst of gunfire. The gunman first shot down two students in the dormitory and two hours later opened fire outside in the other part of the campus, which led to a real tragedy, and the toll rose greatly.

U. S. officials called Monday tragedy in Virginia the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. U. S. senators and the House of Representatives stopped their sessions to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy in a minute's silence, Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

President Bush said from the White House the Americans were "shocked and indeed horrified" with Virginia tragedy and offered to render assistance of the presidential executive office to all the injured. "Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary in learning," the U. S. president said. "When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community."

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