Indian couple drive everywhere in reverse
An Indian taxi driver and his wife have become locally famous for driving everywhere in reverse.
Harpreet Devi, from Bhatinda, started driving backwards when his car got stuck in reverse gear and he had to drive 35 miles home.
He said: "After dropping off some students, I backed out the car a little and found the gear lever stuck on reverse.
"There was no way I could release it so I drove in reverse, all the way back home. It gave me the confidence that I could really do it. That incident became an inspiration for more."
He and his wife Krishna have now mastered the art of driving in reverse at speeds of up to 25mph on the highways and say they can navigate their car through heavy traffic.
Harpreet has been driving his taxi in reverse for the last two years and says he has covered around 7,500 miles, reports Asian News International
He now wants to drive his vehicle in reverse across India's border with Pakistan taking with him a message of peace and friendship.
The husband and wife are now known locally as the 'reverse couple'.
Banana tide brings Xmas cheer to Lithuania
Residents of a Lithuanian resort received an early Christmas present when 50 tonnes of bananas washed up on the Baltic coast.
"The current came from the south-west, where storm winds probably knocked a container of unripe bananas off a ship," said Jonas Vigelis, head of the area's sea patrol and rescue unit.
People turned out in droves to gather the tropical fruit, which was strewn over about seven kilometres of frosty shoreline around the resort town of Sventoji.
"This sort of thing happens now and then. One time we got oranges, another time some good lumber," Mr Vigelis said.
--Reuters
Talk about a weird xmas present!
Tell me if you wanna move to germany now... :p
Cash-strapped German city to levy sex tax
The German city of Cologne is resorting to a "sex tax" on brothels to boost its revenues after national reforms left local authorities short of cash.
City authorities have confirmed they are extending the existing "pleasure tax" already levied on casinos and amusement arcades, to brothels, erotic massage parlours and table-dancing clubs.
Cologne expects to triple its pleasure tax revenues, Inge Schuermann, a city spokeswoman said.
"This is about making taxes fair but also because we are more than up to our necks in financial problems," she said, shortly after Germany's Parliament approved the country's biggest welfare shake-up in decades.
Under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's reforms, taxes are to be distributed to ensure local authorities receive a greater share of revenues.
Cologne, Germany's fourth largest city, said that was insufficient.
"The Government's reforms are clearly not enough to provide a solid financial basis for local authorities," Ms Schuermann said.
Under Cologne's plan, pleasure tax gains will triple to three million euros ($US3.7 million) in 2004, when the tax is extended to cover "dancers, displays of people and similar activities with the aim of achieving an erotic effect".
Cologne's total tax revenue in 2002 was around 1 billion euros.
One worker at the city's Colonia nudist sauna said, "this will have a negative effect on businesses throughout the sector because we'll have to put up prices to compensate - lots of businesses will complain about this and try to block it".
Ms Schuermann said the city had received no formal objections since the idea was first made public in May.
Prostitution is legal in Germany and prostitutes already pay tax on their income and a value-added tax.
-- Reuters