Officials in the state of Bihar have created a novel idea to both rehabilitate beggars and help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS: pay beggars to sing songs and enact plays to raise awareness of the deadly virus. They want to train many of the estimated 100,000 homeless in the state to put on street plays about AIDS and to sing songs about it in trains and buses and on the sides of busy roads.

A Romanian train conductor is now in hot water and could face disciplinary action after he was found to have stopped his train so he could have a cigarette break. A report by the newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, says the driver stopped the train in the middle of the country and encouraged some passengers to get off the train. The Romanian government has recently banned smoking on trains.

After driving for 9320 Miles to watch their team play in the far east of Russia, three fans of Zenit St Petersburg were offered a new car by the Premier League club as their old car could not make the return trip. The trio traveled in an old Honda from St Petersburg to Vladivostok on the shores of the Sea of Japan. They watched their team, Zenit, as it took on Luch-Energiya during a league match it won by 2-0 last month.

After eight years, an Australian girl escaped from her kidnapper but did not wish to see her parents. Natascha Kampusch, now 18 years old, said she needs a break. Her mother Brigitta Sirny asked "why can I not see my child" during a newspaper interview on Sunday. Her father, also upset by his daughter's wish for distance, received a letter from her saying they have "all the time in the world. "

A man in Pakistan steals a railway locomotive and tries to ram it into a passenger train in an apparent suicide attack. A man identified as Madan Lal allegedly stole the engine from a marshaling yard outside Karachi.