Passengers asked to fix train

Passengers on a broken-down train were shocked when they were asked if they could fix it.

The London to Manchester Virgin train was halted at Rugby station in Warwickshire when a windscreen wiper broke.

The train manageress pleaded over the tannoy for any passengers with nuts, bolts or cable ties to go to the front of the carriage.

Four men stepped forward to help, reports The Sun.

One of them, Damian Gaskin said: "It was unbelievable. I had a few basic tools with me so I went to help. One man had a foot on the platform with his other stretched across the windscreen.

"He was straddling the train. he told me he was a passenger and fixed the electrics on a service the week before."

A Virgin spokesman said: "After several repair attempts passengers got off the train and boarded a later service."

Man loses 16 stone - on Oxo cubes

A Cornwall man has lost 16 stone in a year on a diet of Oxo cubes.

Stephen Kay, 39, swapped fry-ups, pies, pasties and pints of lager for three bowls of hot broth a day.

The dad-of-three, who is 6ft 2ins, weighed 31.5 stone, reports the Daily Mirror.

He devised with his own diet made up of Oxo stock cubes, topped up with fruit and vegetables.

Within 12 months he had slimmed down to 15.2 stone and lost two foot off his waist as his belt size shrank from 60 to 36.

Stonemason Stephen said: "I'd read all the weight loss magazines and watched all the TV programmes - but I hate salads.

"I remember my grandfather eating hot Oxo broth soaked up by wholemeal bread so I went for that."

Stephen decided to fight the fat after constant pestering from wife Caroline and children Gary, 21, Claire, 14 and Jack, 11.

Caroline makes her husband's filling broths three times a day using two stock cubes, hot water and pepper. She also gives him three slices of wholemeal bread.

The 42-year-old part-time cleaner said: "This diet has totally transformed him. He used to get tired easily and spend all his time on the sofa. Now he is out playing badminton."

Japanese champ to defend burger title

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee - Japanese competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi will try to defend his title in a Tennessee hamburger-eating contest in which he is undefeated. He is among 13 finalists that are going to Chattanooga, headquarters of fast-food chain Krystal Co., to eat as many small, square hamburgers as they can in eight minutes. Kobayashi took the title in the contest's first year in 2004 and again in 2005.

Last year, Kobayashi swallowed 67 hamburgers to win the title and a check for $10,000.

The eating machine from Nagano fended off San Diego State University engineering student Joey Chestnut, who was tied with Kobayashi at 60 Krystals with 37 seconds left.

Chestnut finished with only 62, but he will return to challenge Kobayashi this year.

Now a project engineer living in San Jose, California, Chestnut said he has been training for the finals using frozen Krystal burgers because there are not any locations in California.

The 172-pound Kobayashi finished 69 Krystals during the first contest in 2004.

Kobayashi also holds the title of hot dog-eating champion, after eating 49 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest at Coney Island, New York.

Krystal, the oldest fast-food chain in the South, holds two-minute qualifying rounds in eight Southern U.S. cities in the months leading up to the championship.

The average person can eat four to six Krystal burgers in two minutes; Chestnut ate 28.

The Krystal finals are governed by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Founded by brothers Richard and George Shea in 1997, it regulates events for safety and keeps records on everything from meatballs to green chiles.

Thai funeral home offers quiet lodging

BANGKOK, Thailand - Cheap and quiet accommodation is available for visitors to Thailand's upcoming international horticultural show, but some may find it too quiet, the lodgings are in the funeral hall of a Buddhist temple.

Three million visitors are expected at the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006 which opens Wednesday in the northern city of Chiang Mai and lasts until Jan. 31, the Bangkok Post reported Saturday.

The yellow, five-petaled Ratchaphruek is Thailand's national flower. The event, being held in honor of the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is expected to strain the capacity of the area's numerous hotels and guest houses, so local temples are also throwing their gates open to visitors, the newspaper reported.

At least one temple, Wat Jet Yod, will allow guests to sleep in its funeral hall, where religious rites for the dead are held before the departed is cremated, also on the temple grounds.

The price is a bargain 20 baht ($0.54) per person per night. No alcohol is allowed on the temple grounds and guests must refrain from making noise, the temple's abbot, Phra Kru Baideeka Prasert Santipalo, was quoted saying.

Statue of Dennis the Menace stolen

MONTEREY, Calif. - The mischievous Dennis the Menace has gone missing - except this time, he's not hiding because he broke the rules.

A statue of the perennial pint-sized troublemaker that stood for almost two decades in a city park was unbolted and stolen sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, police said.

Police said the statue, which is 3 feet tall and weighs 125 pounds, is worth as much as $30,000. The city is offering a $5,000 reward for its safe return.

The statue was crafted by Carmel artist Wah Ming Chang. It was commissioned by Hank Ketcham, the cartoon character's creator who died in 2001.

Police aren't sure how the thief or thieves got the bulky statue out of the park but are asking the public for any tips about Dennis' whereabouts.

Gun blast ignites fireworks shop

LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. - A man attempting to rob a fireworks shop fired his shotgun, igniting fireworks and starting a blaze that destroyed the business, authorities said.

No injuries were reported at North American Fireworks, the Vilas County Sheriff's Department said in a statement Saturday. A 20-year-old man was being held in jail after being tracked to a home about 10 miles away.

The owner told deputies a male entered the business Friday wearing a ski mask and armed with a shotgun. He fired indoors, and a shot apparently ignited fireworks, authorities said.

The owner was able to wrestle the shotgun away and remove the man's ski mask, but the suspect fled on an all-terrain vehicle that had been idling outside, deputies said.

The fireworks began to burn out of control, destroying the rest of the building.

Boy takes stolen bus on route

FERN PARK, Fla. - A 15-year-old boy stole a bus, drove it along a public transit route, picked up passengers and collected fares, authorities said Sunday.

Ritchie Calvin Davis was already on probation for taking a tour bus and driving passengers around, authorities said.

In Saturday's incident, he took the bus from the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, where it was parked awaiting sale at an auction, a Seminole County sheriff's report said. The bus belongs to the Central Florida Transportation Agency, which runs LYNX public transit services in the Orlando area.

"I drove that bus better than most of the LYNX drivers could," the teen, who is too young to drive legally, told a deputy after he was stopped and arrested. "There isn't a scratch on it. I know how to start it, drive it, lower it, raise it."

Passengers and deputies noted Davis drove the bus at normal speeds and made all the appropriate stops on the route. One passenger, suspicious of the youthful looks of the driver, called 911.

The bus had two passengers when deputies stopped it in Fern Park, about 12 miles north of the fairgrounds. Authorities believe Davis picked up a total of three passengers and collected only a few dollars.

He was charged with grand theft auto and driving without a license. A court hearing was scheduled Tuesday to determine whether he will be charged as an adult.

A message left at the home of a man identified as a Davis relative was not immediately returned Sunday.

Woman crashes car after driving test

A US woman completed her driving test - then crashed into the examiners' office.

Jessica Krasek, 20, smashed into the Portage License Bureau office in Indiana, reports the Post-Tribune.

She wasn't hurt when her Ford Taurus car struck the front window of the license branch office.

But a bureau worker suffered a hip injury and was examined by paramedics.

Portage Assistant Fire Chief Mike Bucy said Krasek was pulling into a parking space when she hit the accelerator, instead of the brake.

Susan Williams, manager of the Amazing Travel shop next door, said she thought there had been an explosion.

"We jumped up and we went to the door and saw the car half in and half out of the license bureau," Williams said.

Fire station goes up in flames

A fire chief has told of his embarrassment after a station without a smoke alarm went up in flames.

The building and a fire engine were destroyed in the blaze at Arundel Fire Station in West Sussex.

Neil Odin, southern area commander for West Sussex fire service said it showed it could happen to anyone.

"Unfortunately, we had severe damage to our fire station, which is embarrassing," he told the BBC.

He said a brand new building would need a smoke alarm.

But he added: "Automatic smoke detection wouldn't have made any difference."

Nobody was injured in the fire which was tackled by 30 firefighters in six fire engines from neighbouring towns.

The station is served by retained firefighters, none of whom were in the building at the time.

Toddler gets stuck in vending machine

ANTIGO, Wis. - Three-year-old Robert Moore went fishing for a stuffed replica of Sponge Bob and ended up trapped in a vending machine. The toddler's adventure began with a Saturday evening shopping trip with his grandmother, Fredricka Bierdemann, and three siblings.

Bierdemann ended the trip by giving each child a dollar and telling them to have fun in a retailer's game room.

A stuffed Sponge Bob in a vending machine's bin caught Robert's eye. He tried without success to fish it out with a plastic crane.

"I told him I could get it for him," his grandmother said. "He's a character. He said, 'Oh no, I can get it.'"

When she turned her back to get another dollar for a second try, Robert took off his coat and squeezed through an opening in the machine. He landed in the stuffed animal cube.

"I turned around and looked for him, and he said, 'Oma, I'm in here," Bierdemann said. "I thought I would have a heart attack."

Store employees couldn't find a key to the machine, so Robert waited while the Antigo Fire Department was called.

"He was having a ball in there, hugging all the stuffed animals," Bierdemann said. "He was so good-natured, but I was shaking like a leaf."

Firefighters broke one lock but then spotted two latches inside the plastic cube. They passed a screwdriver to Robert.

"He stacked up all the stuffed animals and used that screwdriver to open the latch," his grandmother said. "You should have seen him go."

Eventually, Robert freed himself. But his mother, Marie Moore, and grandmother said they were lucky that he remained calm when another child might not have. He went home safe - but without a stuffed Sponge Bob.

Smile costs family £3,000 holiday

A family had to scrap a £3,000 holiday after their youngest daughter's passport photograph was rejected - because she was smiling.

Gareth and Lesley Edwards saved for months to go to Cyprus with children Megan, ten, and Alys, nine, reports the Sun.

But the night before they were due to fly out, Lesley, 46, realised she was the only one with a valid passport.

Travel agents booked them on to a flight a few days later and the family quickly filled out passport application forms and had photos taken.

But when he reached the Passport Office, in Peterborough, officials said their machine would not accept Alys's photograph.

Lesley said: "They told Gareth that because Alys's teeth were clearly visible the photograph was not acceptable."

Gareth, 47, got another picture of Alys taken and rushed it to Peterborough from their home in Grays, Essex, but got there too late.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The new biometric passports carry a scan of the holder's face. In this instance the machine which takes the biometric image would have rejected the girl's photo because her mouth was open."

Police find naked man stuck in window

FORREST CITY, Ark. - Authorities say a would-be burglar's plot was foiled when he got stuck - naked - in the window of a house. The man was caught before he could take anything from an apartment he was allegedly trying to rob, Forrest City police said.

Dennis Reed Jr., 19, was arrested Saturday when police found him stuck between an air conditioning unit and a window frame of the apartment, police said. Reed was nude when police found him.

Reed told police that he was forced at gunpoint to break into the apartment by a subject he only knew by his first name.

Officers and emergency personnel initially tried to free Reed, but were unsuccessful. Reed was finally freed after the fire department's rescue squad rescue personnel entered the apartment and removed the air conditioner.

Reed was charged with residential burglary and taken to the St. Francis County jail, police said.

Robbers break into empty bank

A gang of Romanian robbers broke into a bank's headquarters in a daring overnight raid - only to find it empty.

The three criminals expected to hit the jackpot with their raid on the bank in Constanta city centre.

But they did not know that the bank was relocating to new premises and the building was empty.

Police said the gang broke into the building, which had been closed for renovation work, by forcing the main doors.

A police spokesman said: "The robbers thought they would make the hit of their lives but instead broke into an empty building.

"They couldn't find anything to steal, not even some heating pipes they tried to remove from the walls."

The robbers were seen by neighbours when they left the building empty-handed but police couldn't catch them.

Officers said they have taken evidence from the scene and had already drawn up a list of suspects.

Toilet ice rips hole in couple's roof

CHINO, Calif. - An elderly couple believe a chunk of blue ice from the holding tank of an aircraft toilet ripped a hole in their roof and destroyed a bed.

William McElroy was watching a movie with his wife, Evelyn, when the ice crashed into the house Wednesday night.

"It was a huge crash. It shook the whole building, but we thought it was a car," McElroy said. The couple went outside to investigate but found nothing, so they returned to finish watching the movie.

They didn't discover the chunk of ice on the bed and the 2-foot-wide hole in the ceiling until Thursday morning.

"I think we had somebody extra looking over us," Evelyn McElroy said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said Thursday if the offending chunk of ice is from an airplane, then it is likely the cause of a leak in a holding tank of the aircraft's bathroom.

Blue ice occurs when waste leaks from a plane's bathroom onto the outside of the plane and freezes at high altitudes. The liquid begins to thaw as the plane descends, Gregor said.

Man builds haunted house out of balloons

IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. - Instead of clay or wood, sculptor Larry Moss prefers a highly malleable but far less durable material: balloons. Moss typically creates air-filled models of humans, animals and monsters, but his latest piece of performance art is even spookier: a 10-room, 10,000-square-foot, walk-through haunted house made out of 130,000 latex balloons covering everything but the floors and ceilings.

The Balloon Manor and its inhabitants - quirky, hilarious and somewhat creepy Halloween creatures - fill a wing of the Medley Centre mall in this Rochester suburb.

Its "boo-loon" show opened Friday and runs through next weekend. That's about as long as the artwork can last - with periodic infusions of air.

The entrance is a dragon's mouth, complete with a giant uvula that tickles visitors' heads. There's a motorized carousel of galloping insects, dragons and vultures, all ridden by undersized skeletons, and a Model T Ford that looks like it has long ghostly white arms.

In a nearby "beastro," two vampires hang upside down eating off an upturned table, and a ghostly chicken plays the role of "poultry-geist." In the kennel room, cages full of critters are trying to lock horns, claws and fangs through the bars. The crystal ballroom features both flying and disco-dancing skeletons.

The front end of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis has crashed through one of the walls - interlocking gray and black balloons that make the brightly colored characters stand out even more.

More than 50 balloon artists from across the country and as far away as Japan and Israel helped build the manor, all employing their own styles. A little ventriloquism adds a dash of devilry to the odd-looking crow with the quivering lips being carried around on the arm of Sheree Brown-Rosner, a Long Island photographer whose side job is making "magical balloons."

The tour is expected to draw up to 15,000 people and raise as much as $50,000 for a hospital cancer center and the Teens Living with Cancer support group. Moss' wife, Judy Mathers, was left physically disabled by treatments for Hodgkin's disease after their daughter was born three years ago.

Moss, a 36-year-old New York native, is renowned for his large and technically challenging sculptures. He earned an entry in the Guinness Book of Records when he and fellow artist Ryan Sorell constructed two 40-foot-tall soccer players out of 40,781 balloons in Mol, Belgium, in 2000.

"When you say balloon art, so many people think of dogs and cats," Moss said. "I want to see more people learn how to do this and to build an appreciation for what we do. I want them to know a balloon is my paint brush. If I can visualize it, I can create it."

Because the air eventually seeps out, balloon art has an ephemeral ingredient.

"When this is all over, what's left is a memory, a picture in everybody's minds. Usually when I talk to people later, they talk so expressively about what they saw - different things than I did.

"My background is as a stage entertainer. I like entertaining the audience and creating something for them that they can't necessarily hold in their hands and take away."

Officials probe finger-in-sandwich claim

CHOWCHILLA, Calif. - Health officials are investigating a woman's claim that she found part of a human finger in a Subway sandwich - an allegation reminiscent of the chili bowl finger hoax at a Wendy's restaurant last year.

Two health inspectors visited the Subway restaurant Thursday in Chowchilla after the woman reported finding what appeared to be a half-inch piece of a finger a day earlier, said Jill Yaeger, director of the Madera County Environmental Health Department.

The inspectors did not find any evidence that a restaurant worker had lost part of a finger, and they found no violations of food handling procedures there, Yaeger said. The purported human digit was sent to a laboratory for testing, and the incident was reported to police.

The Subway manager, Anita Munoz, said she was in the restaurant when the woman returned with what she claimed looked like a finger.

"It looked like a thick piece of fat," she told The Fresno Bee. "It doesn't look anything human to me."

Munoz said the incident would be investigated by Subway's national headquarters.

Subway spokesman Kevin Kane said the company was aware of the woman's claim but would not comment until Madera County officials completed their investigation.

"The Subway restaurant chain takes every customer comment seriously," Kane said Friday. "We don't know what the foreign object is yet."

Chowchilla is about 90 miles east of San Jose, where a Las Vegas woman claimed in March 2005 that she bit into a fingertip in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant. Anna Ayala's stomach-turning claim made headlines around the world.

The claim was found to be a hoax and Ayala was sentenced to nine years in prison. Her husband was sentenced to more than 12 years for getting the finger from a co-worker who lost it in a workplace accident.

Wendy's, based in Dublin, Ohio, said it lost $2.5 million in sales because of bad publicity and had to lay off dozens of employees at its Northern California franchises.

Subway, which has more than 26,000 restaurants in 85 countries, is owned by Doctor's Associates Inc., based in Milford, Conn.

Panda bites off part of woman's thumb

BEIJING - A panda cub bit off part of the thumb of an American visitor who was feeding it at a reserve in southwest China, state media said Thursday.

The 50-year-old woman, identified only as Lisa, had registered in the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan province as a volunteer, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

She was wearing gloves and feeding the panda bamboo on Tuesday morning when "suddenly, the panda bit into her thumb," Xinhua said.

"When she cried out, the cub became excited and gripped more tightly," it said. "Lisa finally managed to wrench herself free."

About 20 percent of the thumb had been bitten off, Xinhua said.

A man who answered the telephone at the center's administrative office said it had no comment.

The center has been recruiting volunteers since 2004 for stints that last from one day to more than a month, Zhang Hemin, the center's director, was quoted as saying. They can prepare food, feed pandas under supervision and clear the enclosure with the help of professional keepers, he said.

More than 1,200 volunteers from America, Japan, Switzerland, France and Spain have already worked in the center, Xinhua said.

Last month, a drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it.

Woman finds black widow spider in grapes

HARTFORD, Conn. - Price Chopper removed a brand of black seedless grapes from the shelves at its Newington supermarket Thursday after a woman said she found a poisonous black widow spider.

Sheryl Rosen of Rocky Hill bought a bag of Autumn Royal black seedless grapes on sale Tuesday. It wasn't until Thursday, when she was eating some grapes at work, that she found the spider in the bag.

"I couldn't believe it," said Rosen, who was not injured. "I never thought I'd see a black widow around here."

The spider was taken to the Connecticut Poison Control Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where Rosen works, and verified as a black widow.

"Right now, we have it in a jar and we will wait until we hear if anyone is investigating further about the source," said Bernard Sangalli, toxicologist and administrative director of the center.

Though a black widow's venom is not usually fatal to humans, the bite is extremely painful. The spider is best known for a distinctive red hourglass shape on its abdomen.

Mona Golub, Price Chopper spokeswoman, said the grocery chain confirmed the incident and removed the grapes as a precaution. She said they came from California.

Golub called the incident "rare" saying the supermarket chain has had only a few such cases over the past 20 years.

Paul Hutcheon, director of health for the Central Connecticut Health District, cautioned consumers to stay alert.

"I think it's important for consumers to know this is a possibility and to keep your eyes open and look at what you're doing," he said.

Tree limbs form cross on Jesus statue

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Last week's snowstorm in Buffalo brought down countless tree limbs, causing widespread damage to homes and other property. But two large limbs that fell on a statue of Jesus Christ landed in such a way that they formed a cross.

The statue is located behind a former Catholic school in Buffalo.

After the worst of the storm subsided last Friday, neighbor Georgianna Verrastro says she looked out the window and was amazed at what she saw.

Two tree limbs had landed on the right shoulder of the statue, which depicts Jesus with his arms upraised. The limbs caused only minor damage, knocking off the fingers on the statue's right hand.

Video shows the branches leaning against the statue in such a way that it appears Jesus is carrying a wooden cross.

Verrastro told a TV station that her home didn't suffer any damage or lose power during the storm, and she believes the nearby Jesus statue is proof that a higher power was watching over her family last week.

Prize cat does 14-hour disappearing act

NEW YORK - A champion cat was not exactly gracious about his win: He bolted for 14 hours. Evgeny Plushenko, named after the Olympic gold medal-winning Russian figure skater, jumped from a judge's arms after being named best of its breed at the Cat Fanciers' Association Cat annual show. He beat out 200 other felines at the Madison Square Garden event on Sunday.

The "Best in Show" Russian Blue with emerald eyes was found Monday, after 14 hours, huddled in a carpenter's room.

"They love small spaces and can fit themselves into areas that you would not believe could make a cat feel comfortable," the association's Web site explains.

The 15-month-old bolted after one judge handed him to another.

Apparently, this member of a breed - called "clever and extremely agile" by the association - didn't fall for traps baited with the best cat food. Instead, he found a hole in the wall under the stands and slipped into the workroom.

When found, Evgency Plushenko was tired and thirsty, but fine.

His story has a happier ending than that of Vivi, a show dog that bolted from her crate at Kennedy Airport in February after competing at the Westminster Kennel Club show. The beloved whippet is still missing.