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.

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.

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.

In a treatment that equates Internet addicts to mentally ill people, China is giving electric shocks to people who spend more time on the Internet than required. The Chinese government has launched a nationwide campaign to treat "Internet addiction" and many Internet-addiction clinics have been opened in this regard. A recent survey found that nearly 14 percent of teens in China are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the Internet. The Communist Youth League calls it a "a grave social problem" that threatens the youth of this Asian country.

South Korean's Samsung Electronics is developing a new generation refrigerator, equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which detects when its contents are running low or approaching expiration dates. According to the Korea Times's Wednesday edition, in addition to automatically sensing inventory needs such as when milk or juices run low, Samsung's refrigerator could even send a shopping list to its owner's cell phone or to the supermarket.