Reminiscent of the Y2K jitters that agitated the world at the change of the millenium eight years ago, a similar scenario is taking place in some gas stations across the country that still use mechanical pumps. Their gas pumps lack gears to register a sale beyond $3. 99 a gallon. Gas prices, however, have exceeded $4 a gallon.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier continues to be hot copy. After his diplomatic faux pas in Afghanistan and questions over his former girlfriend's links with biker gang members, there is now a question over his excessive airfare. According to the Toronto Star, Bernier charged to federal funds $22,573 to cover his airfare to Laos, where he attended a two-day conference in November. The trip included a stopover in Paris. Bernier's travel details were in the Foreign Affair Department's website.

Sustainable lawn mowing is making a come back in tight economic times. City officials in Turin, Italy expect to save about $48,000 this year by using a herd of sheep to trim municipal lawns instead of having gardeners mow the lawns. It's not a new idea; sheep were originally used to keep parks mowed when Europeans invented country parks in the 18th Century.

Starting April 1, some Welsh hospitals will no longer collect parking fees. Welsh Assembly Government's Health Minister Edwin Hart said National Health Service trusts with existing contracts with private car parking companies must start reducing the parking fees until the agreement lapses. By 2011, only four Welsh hospitals out of 130 will still levy parking charges because of the long-term time frames of their contracts.

Rogue trading is all in a day's work, says Nick Leeson who toppled Barings Bank in 1995 with illicit trading worth $1. 6 billion, but the $7. 2 billion fraud that cost France's banking giant Societe Generale is frightening. "Rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence within the financial markets," Leeson told the BBC. "What shocked me was the size. I never for one moment believed it would get to this degree of magnitude, this degree of loss. "