Crooks hoping to net £6,000 of prime beef turned pale after stealing a lorry outside a meat factory in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Insode, they found 33 human corpses destined for experiments at a nearby medical school.
Judy A Petty is banned from using her initials on her car number plate. Los Angeles authorities said it was offensive to Japanese Americans.
Amazed Russian trawlermen netted a Ford Fiesta as they fished the 1,000 foot deep Barents Sea in Norway. A Norwegian patrol boat helped them haul the vehicle aboard.
Two car mechanics in Dallas, USA broadcast a radio show in which they diagnose what's wrong with your car by listening in the studio on headphones to the sounds the engine makes.
Britain's first completely unmanned fuel station has been opened by supermarket chain Waitrose. The cash free "fuel automat" at the Newark, Notts, store allows customers to pay at the pump with a credit card or special fuel cards purchased from the Waitrose checkout.
A "Fast Track" through the driving test will be available from 29 Spetember, with candidates able to get the results of their theory test on the day they sit it. Initially, 22 of the 157 test centres around the UK will offer the service, which costs £25 instead of the usual £15.
Del Boy's favourite motor (not the Capri Ghia) could soon be doing its bit to save the planet, as Reliant introduces a secret prototype of a new electric Robin this November. If everything goes to plan, the model could be in prduction within 18 months, costing under £10,000. Reliant is also considering reviving the wacky Bond Bug (ask your parents) - a space age three wheeler it prsuced in the Seventies. If it goes ahead, the Bug would be powered by a new engine and given more up to date looks.
Drivers may be forced to take an in car breath test before starting their car under new plans being considered by the Government. A House Of Lords committee has put forward a proposal for a dashboard mounted device which the driver would have to blow into before turning the key. If the gadget registered the driver as being over the limit the ignition would be cut. A similar device is on trial in Canada and the US.
In USA, New Jersey residents took an ice cream man to court to make him change his van's repetitive chimes. Jeffrey Cabaniss (the ice cream man) won the case, but admitted that he too was sick of hearing the tune and has now bought some others to play.
In France, car thief Jacques Morel didn't fancy travelling by bus when returning to jail from a home visit, so he stole a car. He was arrested as he left it in the Paris prison car park.
The Californian Highway Patrol caught up with Jason Bendel after a nine mile chase. He was later fined $500 (£333) and banned from driving for a year - on his 93rd birthday.
Using a mobile phone while driving is the UK's most annoying motoring habit, according to an RAC survey. I personally would have thought that people doing 40 mph up the middle lane of the motorway might have scored highly, but apparently not!
Police stopped a pensioner who was reading a newspaper while driving on a main road. William Atherton, 81, of East Lothian, later admitted careless driving.
Eurotunnel is working on plans for a second Channel Tunnel for cars only. Tunnel II would involve drivers being steered on computer controlled "guided roads" to avoid accidents. The link could be in place in 15 years.
Police have ditched their diesel panda cars as they're too noisy to let them creep up on crooks. the Northumberland force will replace its fleet of 150 diesel powered Ford Fiestas with quieter, petrol powered models over the next two years.
A thief who broke into a Michigan petrol station after hours and began selling fuel had his plan foiled when in turn he was robbed of his ill gotten gains by a masked gunman.
In Italy, Carlos Noccera went beserk when another driver parked in his favourite spot in a Foggia factory car park. He took a shotgun from his boot and blasted the other vehicle twice.
Ignorance is causing death on Britains roads, warns the St John Ambulance Service. Four in five people don't know how to help casualties injured in road accidents, and two in three are even putting lives at risk by doing the wrong thing, the brigade's research shows.
Being a victim of road rage is the number one fear of drivers, according to a new US Government survey. In response, the American AA has suggested traffic cops include suspected road rage incidents in reports, so that judges can force drivers to attend anger management classes.
In Iran, a man was jailed for 21 years after cops caught him with furry dice in his car. He had been charged with "transporting a gambling device".
Seven people were injured when they were knocked down by a motorised bathtub in Den Helder, Holland, during a race organised by a bathroom and kitchen firm to mark its 60th anniversary.
A Californian judge has backed members of a religious group who refuse to apply for driving licenses because they won't use their national insurance numbers. The five men say the numbers represent "the mark of the beast" from the Bible.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has announced that next year's NEC Motor Show in Birmingham will have its forst commercial sponsor - Michelin. It will be the biggest motor show ever staged in the UK.
The Government has announced new advice aimed at stamping out the dangerous use of mobile phones by drivers. Advice such as "don't answer a call while driving" will be included in the new edition of the Highway Code.
a 27 year old motorist in Marseille, France, killed a cyclist and injured another after being distracted by her ailing Tamagotchi virtual pet.
Drivers are paying up to £700 a month for car space in Tokyo to avoid a massive £950 fine or three months in jail for illegal parking.
Two motorists driving in opposite directions on the same road in New Hampshire, Canada, found their paths blocked by a fallen tree. The pair solved their problem by swapping cars for the day.
Carjacking is such a problem that Rio de Janerio's police cheif has advised motorists not to stop for red lights in certain areas after dark.
The number plate R1NGO went under the hammer for £5,000 at a recent DVLA sale. Other money spinners included L1VER, which made £16,000, and B15HOP, which sold for £16,500. But the top seller was L4URA, which went for £30,000 to a man who bought it for his 15 year old daughter.
A biker caught at 173 MPH on a motorway at Longwy, France, lost his temper and license after accusing traffic police of underestimating his speed.
A man tried to use a 20 ton road roller to retrieve his Porsche, which he drove into a pit in Arizona, USA. he was horrified when it also fell in, squashing his car!
Beetle enthusiasts in the UK can now buy everything from T Shirts and jackets to briefcases and jewellery all featuring the Bug logo. Order from the new catalogue on the Internet at The VW Website
Reliant Robin fan Derek Richards has won the right to drive his three wheeler in a bus lane after proving to police it was defined as a motorised tricycle in law. He tookk action after being issued with a fixed penalty ticket for driving along a bus lane.
Trucker Dennis Avery was arrested after stopping to feed his six pet alligators and let them exercise at a lay by in Florida, USA.
Drink drive suspect Robert Hobbs stood on his head toprove he was not tipsy. Cops Califorrnia, USA, were so impressed they let him go.
Twelve people were hurt when their Ford Fiestas crashed in Cordoba, Spain. Five children and five adults were in the car - with two kids in the boot!
American car buyers are being offered free trips to Sweden if they order a 1999 Saab from a US Dealer. Buyers will get an overnight stay and a tour of Saab's Trollhattan factory and museum before their car is shipped home.
Three Land Rover Freelanders with a team of Rover engineers on board will begin the first leg of a mammoth 20,000 mile journey in August, in the Fifty 50 Challenge- going through 50 countries in 50 days to celebrate Land Rover's 50th Birthday.
After a session telling teenagers in a Sydney juvenile detention centre not to steal cars, youth worker Amanda Johnson found her Ford Sierra had been taken from the car park.
A woman bundled into the boot of a car by a man outside a supermarket told police in Hamburg that they were lovers trying to dodge her husband, who had just pulled up nearby.
Jan Pilez, 21, was jailed for a month in Utrecht, Holland, after stealing a set of mobile traffic lights which he used in his bedroom as disco lights.
Peter Baschy kept his cool when his dad died on holiday. He packed the body in ice and drove 5,000 miles from California, back home to Canada. Each time he stopped for fuel, he bought ice for the corpse.
Traffic chaos looks likely to hit Britain's roads on the stroke of the new Millenium. The Highways Agency is predicting problems with software controlling the nation's traffic lights, which could cost £14.3 Million to fix as computers crash.
A full sized model of a police car has been placed by the M4 in South Wales in a bid to slow traffic. The 'Volvo' even has a photo of a traffic cop in the window.
A new engine anti-freeze that could last up to 5 years or 100,000 miles is being assessed by Chrysler in the US. The coolant, developed in conjunction with Texaco, will now be tested over two years.
Motorists who use mobile phones while driving are as dangerous to other road users as drink drivers, says a new study. Sober motorists using mobile phones often have heated conversations, which lead to a lack of control similar to that suffered by a driver who has been drinking. The study, conducted by the Governments Transport Research Laboratory, also concluded that hands free phones are no less of a distraction for drivers, and dialling out is judged to be as dangerous as reading a map when behind the wheel.
Five year old Barry Pringle steered a runaway car to safety after his mother passed out at the wheel on the fast lane of a Dallas motorway.
In Bermuda, the new VW Beetle has been banned, as it is too wide for the island's narrow streets.
Car dealer Paul Dipplier accepted a stuffed gorilla and £300 for a used car in Lyon, France.
Claims of a Vauxhall Vectra doing 51.4 MPH wouldn't normally rate a mention in the Guiness Book Of Records, but Fred Wing's radio controlled Vectra is a one tenth scale model, and achieved its record breaking run at RAF Woodvale on Merseyside.
More than 75 per cent of motorists hate "back seat drivers", according to a survey by rescue group Green Flag.
Richard mace, 89, has been fined £100 for careless driving - his first offence in 71 years on the road. A court in Melbourne, Australia, heard he'd driven the wrong way up a dual carriageway.
In Sweden, a 104 year old man became the oldest person ever to face driving charges after he ran through red lights, smashed into parked cars and mounted the kerb in his 1968 Ford Cortina.
In Italy, a Rome traffic warden was given a year's suspended jail sentence for issusing dozens of tickets to her sons football trainer, after he failed to pick the lad for the team.
Traffic cops confiscated a 14 year old boy's roller skates after he was recorded racing through a red light at 27 MPH near Brisbane, Australia.
Dozy thieves fleeing a crime scene sped through woods near Toronto to a building which turned out to be a Police HQ. It was surrounded by cops teaching dogs how to catch crooks.
Police are to record road accidents involving horses, after 15 years of lobbying by The British Horse Society, which says incidents are on the rise. At present there's no way of counting the accidents.
Pampered teenager Luciano Pozuoli burned down his parents £350,000 home in Sora, Italy, because his father bought him a Fiat, and not a Mercedes, for his birthday.
In the USA, Florida police stuck a ticket on an illegally parked car without noticing a man was dying inside after being shot in the head.
A car dealer in Stafford (I will withold its name), who sold a clocked BMW which had travelled further than the distance to the moon, has been fined for trades description offences. A buyer paid £5,250 for the seven year old 520i with 85,000 miles on the clock - but it had done 284,000.
An off duty policeman was arrested for allegedly shooting a man cleaning car windscreens at New York traffic lights.
In Singapore, the winner of a "Spot the Courteous Driver" contest has been exposed as a fraud after it was revealed he had forged letters from tourists thanking him for their help.
Motorists convicted of parking illegally in disabled drivers' spaces in Vaxjo, Sweden, are sentenced to spend three hours in wheelchairs.
A £50,000 silver Nissan Skyline GTR sprts car was stolen after being tested at Silverstone. The 1997 Le mans pace car is unregistered and has a roof mounted lamp bar.
Pensioner Ken Gadd has been given a year's free insurance after holding policies with the same firm for 70 years. Ken, of Southampton, took out his first policy with Cornhill in 1928 to insure a Douglas motorbike.
Top judges have ruled that US traffic cops can't be held responsible if they injure innocent bystanders during a car chase. The US Supreme Court says victims must prove that the driver intended to cause harm before any lawsuit can be filed.