Samoa This article is more than 14 years oldSamoa switches smoothly to driving on the leftThis article is more than 14 years oldCar horns and cheers usher in new era as South Pacific country becomes first to change sides since the 70sCar horns and sirens sounded, church bells rang out and roads were crowded with vehicles as Samoa today became the first country in decades officially to switch from right- to left-side driving.
September 11 2001Starbucks charged rescuers for waterA branch of the coffee chain Starbucks charged New York rescue workers for water to treat victims of the suicide attack on the World Trade Centre, it emerged today. Ambulance workers were forced to scramble in their pockets for money to pay a $130 (£88) bill for three cases of water used to treat victims for shock after the twin towers collapsed. Orin Smith, president of the Seattle-based coffee chain, sent a refund and free coffee to the ambulance crew after the incident was revealed.
Secret diary of Tom Meltzer aged 22Life and styleIt seemed quite normal to me – until my flatmates freaked outI am sitting with my flatmates, eating dinner, and I feel like an alien being interrogated by the FBI. I have made the mistake of telling them that, from time to time, on certain mornings, when the mood takes me, I shower sitting down. This had not, until now, struck me as odd.
AustriaEmotional scenes as family meets 'cellar siblings' for first time"Astonishing" and "moving", were the words used by psychiatrists yesterday to describe the scene as Elisabeth Fritzl and five of her children were reunited for the first time. The meeting followed years of separation after three of the children fathered through incest by Josef Fritzl were "chosen" to live above ground with the couple assumed to be their grandparents, while the other three endured years of darkness and isolation in a purpose-built dungeon below the family home.
Top 10sMusic booksFrom the very accessible to the arcane, the composer-presenter-author ventures into the minefield of music book criticismMusic is both a universal joy (it's a cliché because it's true) and a seething map of tribal frontiers across which we stray at our peril. Virtually any paragraph written about its theory, its history, its analysis, its ethics or its science will be met with a hailstorm of contradiction and outrage, so I am nervous suggesting any books about music since such a list would undoubtedly infuriate as much as intrigue.