A Swiss teacher yesterday completed the first round-the-world trip in a solar-powered car which tows a flat-topped trailer with six square metres of solar panels and said he hoped the 52,000-kilometre odyssey would inspire carmakers to make greener models.

Louis Palmer smashed his "solar taxi" through a wall of polystyrene blocks marking the end of the 17-month trip outside the venue of UN climate talks in Poland with Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official, in the passenger seat.

"The car ran like a Swiss clock," said Mr Palmer, 36, after the trip through 38 nations.

"People love this idea of a solar car," he said. "I hope that the car industry hears... and makes electric cars in future."

The car runs on solar power but Mr Palmer also had a battery for travel at night or in less sunny nations ( such as winter-time Poland), that he recharged from local electricity.

The car cost as much as two Ferraris to build. If mass produced, Mr Palmer said it could cost €10,000, with an extra €4,000 for solar panels.

Sits in truck for 14 hours

A Mexican motorist staged a 14-hour sit-in protest in his truck after police tried to make him pay a huge bribe for driving through a red traffic light, rather than impose a smaller official fine.

Jesus Martinez said police tried to extort 8,000 pesos (€459) from him after he ran a red light in the early hours of Wednesday in Monterrey. The official fine for failing to stop at a red light in Monterrey is about €23.

Mr Martinez, who denied being drunk, sat in his truck and refused to budge until cops gave in and issued him with a formal ticket. He stayed put even when his Hummer was towed to a police vehicle pound.

Officers eventually issued him with a series of traffic fines including one for refusing a drink-driving test, but local government lawyers agreed Mr Martinez could lodge a formal complaint.

Refuse man finds $15,000 jigsaw

A rubbish collector in central England could have a very good Christmas if he can solve one of the biggest jigsaw puzzles going: £10,000 worth of torn up bank notes.

Graham Hill found the large bundle of cut up £10 and £20 notes while emptying bins in Lincoln, England, last May. He handed the package to police, but after six months no one had claimed the notes and investigators could find no evidence that it was linked to criminal activity.

The Bank of England said it would exchange the notes for new ones if Mr Hill could piece the money back together again.

"Providing the bank notes meet the evidence requirements, then an application for reimbursement should be successful," a central bank spokesman said. "In particular we look at the two serial numbers on the front of the notes."

Breath test for politicians?

Politicians in Australia's most populous state could be breath-tested for alcohol before voting on laws after a series of late-night incidents that have embarrassed the centre-left government.

New South Wales state lawmaker Andrew Fraser resigned from his conservative opposition frontbench role after shoving a female colleague in the wake of Christmas party celebrations.

"Breath test this mob," said a front page headline in Sydney's mass-selling Daily Telegraph newspaper. State police minister Matt Brown was dumped from his portfolio in September after allegedly "dirty" dancing in his underwear over the chest of a female colleague after a drunken post-budget office party.

Conservative Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said he would support alcohol breath tests for drunkenness for lawmakers before they entered Parliament.

No lip-synching

China has told artists on its annual top-rating TV gala show on Chinese New Year's Eve not to lip-synch their songs, local media reported yesterday, a controversy that overshadowed the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

A mainstay of state-run programming since the 1980s, "CCTV Spring Festival Gala" attracts hundreds of millions of viewers to watch hours of comedy sketches and kitsch song-and-dance acts often heavily imbued with patriotism and themes emphasising national harmony.

But the show has also come under heavy criticism trotting out celebrities who do a poor show of miming their way through songs.

Officials from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television had demanded producers pick "real" singers, with directives about arranging songs with "healthy" lyrics.