A four-year-old girl accidentally shot herself in the chest with her grandmother's gun inside a Sam's Club store here Monday. The girl was rushed to a hospital for treatment and is now recovering. The child, whose name was withheld, was with her grandmother, Donna Hutto Williamson, shopping at the supermarket when the incident happened. The girl, who was sitting in a shopping cart, grabbed a small-caliber handgun from her grandmother's purse and then accidentally pulled the trigger.

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.

To curb the wave of crimes in the national capital, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier made a book on social epidemics a required reading for police officers. The book is "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Its about New York City's efforts to stop its transit system from further decay by cleaning up its graffiti.

The 1998 movie, "Fight Club', based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, published in 1996, may have seemed far fetched, but it struck a chord with men who say they feel emasculated by the mundaneness of the corporate, high-tech world. ESPN reported that since 1998, a fight club has been meeting once a month in Cornell educated software engineer, Gints Klimani's, garage. Fifteen men, mostly white, middle-aged technology workers meet to beat each other using fists, toilet seats, and cookie sheets. The group improvises weapons, even stabbing each other with dulled knives.

he riches of Britain's 1,000 richest people grew even more by almost 15 percent last year to reach US$819 billion, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was ranked Britain's wealthiest man for the fourth consecutive year, with a fortune worth Ł27. 7 billion (US$55 billion), from Ł19. 25 billion last year. He is now the sixth richest person in the world.