■ Australia
Stolen tram taken on joyride
A teenager who was obsessed with trams took unwitting passengers on a joyride through Melbourne after stealing one of the vehicles, police said yesterday. The 15-year-old picked up several passengers after stealing the tram on Sunday night and driving across the city's tracks, according to news reports. Police finally stopped the tram after it traveled about 30km by cutting electricity to the overhead wires that power it. A policeman said the youth drove the vehicle out of a tram depot after stealing keys for it from another depot three weeks ago. "He's a nice lad, he's a good lad -- I think his obsession [with trams] just got the better of him," the officer said. The teen was charged with nine offenses, including two counts each of theft of trams and conduct endangering life.
■ Australia
Suit filed for horse collision
A woman and her daughter sued one of Australia's highest-profile horse trainers for negligence yesterday after a runaway thoroughbred crashed into their car outside a Sydney racecourse. Lawyers for Ruzica and Natalie Petrovic said the two suffered severe trauma in addition to physical injuries when the gelding Honour and Strength crashed into their car outside Randwick Racecourse in January 2001. The lawsuit claims the trainer of the horse, Gai Waterhouse, and the Australian Jockey Club, which runs the racecourse, were negligent over the incident. Semmler said Honour and Strength fled its handler after being frightened by a car inside the racecourse and caused a stampede that involved five other horses, four of which ran into a nearby street.
■ Afghanistan
Kids killed by stray bomb
Two children were killed and two others wounded by a bomb which was carried by floodwaters into a residential neighborhood in southeast Afghanistan, an official said yesterday. The youngsters were playing with the device when it detonated on Sunday in Itesarq Mena, a district west of Gardez city, said local security chief Ghulam Nadi Salim. One of the two injured children was in a critical condition and evacuated by US soldiers to a nearby base for treatment, he added.
■ South Korea
Tenacity pays off for driver
The motto for one would-be South Korean driver would be, "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try again 271 times." Seo Sang-moon passed the academic part of his driver's license examination on his 272nd attempt earlier this week. The repairman, who will soon turn 70, said he was illiterate and used the test process to teach himself the rules of the road because he could not read them in a manual. Since the oral exam was launched, Seo took the test as often as he could, paying about US$1,000 in fees along the way. Each failure taught him a little more, and after 271 attempts, he was able to get the minimum score needed to pass the academic test. Test officials were thrilled to see Seo pass.
■ Indonesia
Nuclear power on the way
The government has approved the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to be built starting in 2010 on the densely populated and earthquake-prone island of Java, news reports said yesterday. Soedyartomo Soentono, chief of the Indonesian National Atomic Agency, said the plant will be built on the Muria peninsula in Central Java. Soentono said he expected the plant would be operational by 2016.
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