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A would-be car thief in the UK has set what is believed to be an international record for the world's most pathetic lie. When caught in the act of stealing a car, the youth claimed, "It wasn't me," despite having his arm trapped inside the vehicle at the time. The car owner heard shouts for help early one morning and found the teenager lying on the roof of the vehicle with his arm stuck inside the door. The youth then uttered his excuse and asked the owner to free him. The owner instead called the police an

A cab driver in the Northern Indian State of Rajasthan has been given a special license by the local authorities, which permits him to drive at speed in reverse. This stems from an incident when his gearbox failed in 2003 and he had to drive home in reverse. The man then decided he wanted to distinguish himself from other cab drivers by becoming an expert in reverse driving and had the gearbox of his Padmini Princess cab (based on a 1950s Fiat) reassembled so that it has four reverse and one forward gear. T

A man in Germany has good reason to regret his drunken decision to steal a tractor when his girlfriend left him at a nightclub. The man stole the tractor and tried to drive home, despite the fact that he has no license. Police were alerted and up to six emergency vehicles then followed the tractor, which was trundling along at 20km/h. The officers made several attempts to stop the man, holding up 'stop' signs, attempting to fire a pepper spray through the open rear window and finally placing spikes on the r

A Chinese man who has been cycling around the world over a 12 year period has had to admit defeat after being deported from Somalia. The man has ridden his bicycle through 114 countries but pedalled into problems when he entered Somalia. As he had no visa, Somalian police deported him to neighbouring Djibouti. Police explained that he faced a security risk. Sourcing a visa for the country is not easy as Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.

Proud parents in Qeubec, Canada now have good reason to regret the day they posted video clips of their son driving the family car. Aged just seven, the child was filmed driving the family's SUV while his parents and siblings (also present in the vehicle) cheered him on. The father even mentioned the boy's name and the location of the offence, making it somewhat easy for the police to track the parents.

Birse has used two machine control systems on the A14 project in the UK, one GPS-controlled to provide excavators with a +/-30mm accuracy and a second system which used a Trimble UTS as control on a grader to achieve +/- 5mm - well within the Highway Agency's sub-base tolerance of +10/-30mm. This meant that when it came to the asphalt surface, Birse agreed a thickness and Lafarge, the blacktop contractor, let the paving machine run instead of the operators constantly making manual adjustments. At the end of

Telegra, a leading provider of smart traffic management solutions, has introduced its electro-mechanical prismatic variable message signs (VMS). Using three-sided prisms, the signs display up to three traffic conditions and can be changed by remote command or manually.

The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo suffers a heavily congested road network. Huge traffic jams up to 100km long are common and can be even 200km long in bad weather or at weekends and holidays. Of the 1.1 million vehicles that drive into Sao Paulo every day, almost a third are passing through and the new Rodoanel Mario Covas orbital route is intended to tackle the problem. This is a 170km long highway around the city that will connect the 10 highways linking Sao Paulo and allow many vehicles to avoid the conge

At the end of 2008 and the start of 2009, the world's banking system spiralled into crisis, triggered by a series of catastrophic blunders caused by bankers trying to create money from nothing. The result was to plunge the world's economy rapidly into recession. Having proved in effect that lead cannot be turned into gold, the bankers retired on fat pensions leaving governments to pledge huge sums to the banks and fill in the financial gaps.

UK-based company Ringway has expanded its road marking capability by again investing in a Borum Industri truck solution for the application of markings. The BM TR SP T 1100 can be used for thermoplastic extrusion and spray application, and national machine manager at Ringway, Ian Manley, said he is delighted with the solution which he describes as "very reliable."

JCB has launched the brand new JS360 Auto tracked excavator to compete in the global market for excavators in the 33-40tonne market sector, marking the company's first entry in the higher end of this weight class. It will join the company's JS range of tracked and wheeled excavators, one of more than 300 products manufactured by the company, which offers a comprehensive range of 25 tracked and wheeled excavator models from 7-46tonnes.

Spanish company AUSA says its participation in Intermat 2009 in Paris, France, was highly successful and it launched a number of new products to the international market, including the D 250 AHGA articulated rotating dumper and the new Taurulift T 276 H telescopic forklift.

Volvo Construction Equipment is offering machine simulators that are said to provide a valuable training resource for wheel loader, articulated hauler and excavator operators of all skill levels. The firm also has a new twin seat cab designed to help train grader operators. The sophisticated simulators feature advanced 3D-graphics and use the same controls that are fitted to Volvo machines. Operators sit in the simulator cab and are set to work on various tasks on a plasma projection screen in front of them

Foundation specialist Forasol has developed an innovative technique for anchor drilling that is improving ground consolidation on road projects in Switzerland. The technique has been widely used on a number of highway projects in the country, including construction of a new 1.3km long cut-and-cover trench for the A9 highway in south western Switzerland.

'Le Barbare' or The Barbarian, the biggest wheel loader in the Caterpillar range, had already clocked up a respected 48,000 hours of heavy duty in the Belgian quarry Carrieres d'Antoing when a need for a bit of rejuvenation was identified. To carry out this careful operation, the local Caterpillar dealer Bergerat Monnoyeur tore the impressive 193tonne 994D wheel loader into thousands of pieces, reworked them all and then reassembled the whole machine with new or refreshed parts: it performed a full rebuild