The British Ministry of Defense will follow France and open its archive of public UFO sightings, which dates back to 1967. The documents will include witness accounts and what the government did to further investigate claims, including the well-publicized 1980 incident which occurred in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk.

A French train broke the world speed record Tuesday for conventional rail trains when it roared along at more than 350 mph, just a few points behind the Japanese magnetically levitated train. France's TGV, with a 25,000-horsepower engine and special wheels, reached 357. 2 mph as against Japan's 361. The black and chrome V150 with three double-decker cars surpassed the record of 320. 2 mph (515. 3 kph) set in 1990 by another French train. Engineers attributed the two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels for the speed.

The UFO - studying agency in France has reportedly opened its files of 1,600 flying object sightings on a Web Site, thus making France the first country in the world to open official UFO achieves to the public. The archives can be viewed online at www. cnes-geipan. fr , but the server suffered a setback with the overcrowding of visitors. The Web Site claims to have close to 400 files of UFO sightings reported in France since the 1950s.

Israeli ambassador to El Salvador Tsuriel Raphael has been removed from his post after the long-time diplomat was found drunk and naked, wearing only bondage gear. Israeli Ministry spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel confirmed the removal of Raphael after El Salvador police found the ambassador outside his residence in the Israeli embassy compound bound, gagged, drunk and naked, except for several sex toys he was reportedly wearing at the time.

Canada is the most popular country in the world, according to a BBC World service poll of 12 heavy-hitting nations. Britain, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela and the U. S. were also contenders for the "best" nation poll, but Canada roped the majority of the 28,000 respondents from 27 countries into saying something nice about it.