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ROME (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna, once accused by the Vatican of staging one of the most satanic shows in history, surprised fans by dedicating her hit "Like a Virgin" to the pope at a sold-out concert held in Rome.

"I dedicate this song to the pope, because I'm a child of God. All of you are also children of God," the 50-year old "Queen of Pop" told the 60,000 fans that flocked to the Italian stop of her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour on Saturday.

Italian newspapers gushed over the singer's electric performance and called the dedication a surprising provocation.

"At the Roman leg of her tour, Madonna didn't miss the opportunity for a provocation that will certainly be discussed," Italy's top newspaper Corriere della Sera said in a front-page report.

Madonna, who comes from a devout Italian Catholic family, has raised the ire of the Catholic Church in the past with sexually charged antics designed to shock.

In 2006, she staged a mock-crucifixion at a concert in Rome to the backdrop of accusations from the Vatican of blasphemy.

The Vatican also condemned her controversial 1989 video for the song "Like a Prayer" that featured burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus.

The Vatican later panned a show where she decked the stage out with religious imagery as one of the most "satanic shows in the history of humanity".

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian police reportedly have caught up with a motorist who owes the equivalent of nearly US$2 million in unpaid traffic fines.

Folha OnLine says police stopped 36-year-old Armando Clemente da Silva on Wednesday night and discovered he has been ticketed nearly 1,000 times since 2001, the year he bought his current car.

Folha OnLine says the accumulated fines for speeding and running red lights total 3.4 million reals (US$1.9 million).

Silva says he never received the tickets because he was always too busy to register the car in his name.

The car is worth about US$6,600, Folha OnLine reported Thursday. It was impounded and will be auctioned unless Silva comes up with the money he owes. - AP

Girl fed school staff hash cakes

Two teaching assistants at a school in Leeds were taken to hospital after eating cannabis in "hash cakes" given to them by a 15-year-old pupil.

The schoolgirl was suspended from Wortley High School after she took the cakes to school on 10 September.

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said the girl had since been moved to a different school. No police action was taken over the matter.

Leeds City Council said neither staff members made formal complaints.

The council spokesman added: "Wortley High School does not condone drugs and was disappointed this incident took place.

"The school works hard to educate its pupils about the dangers and implications of drug abuse and will not tolerate any behaviour of this kind."

'Stolen beach' mystery baffles Jamaica
13:00 AEST Mon Oct 20 2008
3 hours 37 minutes ago

Police in Jamaica are on the hunt for a group of thieves who "stole a beach" on the north coast of the island.

Close to 500 truck-loads of sand disappeared from the Coral Spring beach in July but so far none of the thieves have been caught, the BBC reports.

The land directly behind the beach was to have been turned into a $1 billion resort complex, but developers have since pulled out of the project.

Detectives have pointed the finger at the island's tourism industry, raising suspicions a hotel may have stolen the sand or purchased it to improve the appearance of a nearby beach.

No God' slogans for city's buses

Bendy-buses with the slogan "There's probably no God" could soon be running on the streets of London.

The atheist posters are the idea of the British Humanist Association (BHA) and have been supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins.

The BHA planned only to raise £5,500, which was to be matched by Professor Dawkins, but it has now raised more than £20,300 of its own accord.

It aims to have two sets of 30 buses carrying the signs for four weeks.

As the campaign has raised more than anticipated, it will also have posters on the inside of buses as well.

The BHA is also considering extending the campaign to cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The complete slogan reads: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Professor Dawkins said: "Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned respect and the right not to be offended, the right to brainwash children.

This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion
Professor Richard Dawkins

"Even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side.

"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the BHA, said: "We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

"If it raises a smile as well as making people think, so much the better."

But Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice said: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large.

Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large
Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice

"I should be surprised if a quasi-religious advertising campaign like this did not attract graffiti.

"People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it."

However the Methodist Church said it thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God".

Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: "This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life."

She added: "Christianity is for people who aren't afraid to think about life and meaning."

The buses with the slogans will run in Westminster from January.

Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large
Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice

A naked man found wedged in the chimney of a supermarket in Wigan has been arrested on suspicion of burglary.

Police officers discovered him trapped in a chimney breast of a Tesco Express store on Ormskirk Road, Pemberton.

Firefighters were called to rescue the man who had become trapped in the chimney as he tried to get out.

Police said that because the man was naked he was taken to hospital as a precaution but was treated and discharged before being arrested.

A GMP spokeswoman said: "It is believed some of his clothes came off as a result of him struggling to get out of the chimney."

A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and remains in police custody.

Red faces over yellow line fiasco

Council contractors have been branded "ridiculous" after painting double yellow lines around a parked car.

The workmen made the decision during resurfacing and road lining work in Hyde Terrace in the Clarendon area of Leeds last weekend.

The car has been removed, leaving the yellow lines bulging out from the kerb.

Leeds City Council said: "The painting of these yellow lines around the parked car is clearly ridiculous." It said the offending lines would be removed.

Local resident Richard Jones told BBC News: "Quite a few people have stopped and laughed but it does not reflect well on the council.


We will speak to the contractors to remind them to use common sense... in the future
Leeds City Council statement

"I think it's very ridiculous. Somebody is obviously making a point, but what were they thinking?

"I'm not a traffic expert but I would have stopped the yellow lines at one end of the car and started them again at the other end and then joined them together once the car had been removed."

A council spokeswoman added: "We will speak to the contractors to remind them to use common sense when painting temporary road markings in the future.

"The lines have been put down whilst Hyde Terrace is being refurbished to prevent parking issues.

"The correct road markings will be reinstated on completion of the work."

A council spokeswoman added: "We will speak to the contractors to remind them to use common sense when painting temporary road markings in the future.

Aussie Town's 'Odds Are Good, But Goods Are Odd'

An Australian mining town has a shortage of available women, so the mayor offered a solution: recruit ugly women to live there. He told a newspaper the city should attract "beauty-disadvantaged women." The mayor says his comments were "twisted" after women responded furiously. One local woman says local men are more numerous, but not so great. "We've got a saying," she said, "that the odds are good, but the goods are odd."

EPIC!

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The fact that they have a future is even funnier... I mean would you hire idiots like that?

A passenger on a French train had to be rescued by firemen after having his arm sucked down the on-board toilet.

The 26-year-old victim was trapped when he tried to fish out his mobile phone, which had fallen into the toilet bowl, and fell foul of the suction system.

The high-speed TGV train had to stop for two hours while firemen cut through the train's pipework.

The man was carried away by emergency services, with the toilet still attached to his arm.

"He came out on a stretcher, with his hand still jammed in the toilet bowl, which they had to saw clean off," said Benoit Gigou, a witness to the man's plight.

The incident happened on Sunday evening, aboard a train travelling in western France between La Rochelle and Paris.

Cop directing traffic spots man driving his truck

A police officer directing traffic outside of a concert in suburban Dallas noticed a familiar-looking truck driving by — his own. The startling sight led to the arrest of James Matthew Herring, 22, who is charged with theft and evading arrest, police said.

Officer Jerry Varner said he parked his maroon pickup about 100 yards from where he was directing traffic Saturday night. He said he didn't notice anyone breaking in but recognized his truck coming toward him.

Varner ordered the driver to pull over. Instead, the man put the truck in reverse and attempted to flee, striking several vehicles, police said.

Police cars eventually surrounded the truck. The driver tried to run but was soon caught, police said.

Herring's court-appointed attorney said he hadn't met with his client and declined to comment.

Monks brawl at Jerusalem shrine

Israeli police have had to restore order at one of Christianity's holiest sites after a mass brawl broke out between monks in Jerusalem's Old City.

Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Christ's crucifixion.

Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine, said police.

http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/7718587.stm

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Handlers of a popular polar bear, brought to mate with a female in a zoo in northern Japan, found their breeding plan was doomed when they noticed that he, in fact, was a she.

Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old, 200 kg (441 lb) cream-colored polar bear, had been living in harmony with a female polar bear since June, the two often playing together, Masako Inoue, a zookeeper at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo, said on Wednesday.

"We thought he was a male, so we never had any doubts as we took care of him," she said.

"But one day we realized that the two bears urinate in the same way, and we thought, is that how males do it? And once we started to look at things that way, we weren't quite so sure."

After two DNA examinations of Tsuyoshi's hair and a manual exam, the Kushiro Municipal Zoo found Tsuyoshi to be a female.

"We do have mixed feelings," said Inoue.

"But because Tsuyoshi was supposed to be a male, she came here, and because she came here, we were able to take care of her since she was very small."

It is not uncommon for the sex of polar bears to be misread, Inoue said, as their long hair makes it difficult to distinguish, especially when the bears are young. Tsuyoshi was pegged as a male three months after birth, Inoue said.

The Kushiro Municipal Zoo will talk with other zoos in the area to see what to do about their breeding plan, she added.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

A young woman in southern China has partially lost her hearing after her boyfriend ruptured her eardrum during an excessively passionate kiss, local media reported Monday.

The 20-something girl from Zhuhai, in southern Guangdong province, went to hospital completely deaf in her left ear, the China Daily said, citing a report in a local newspaper.

"The kiss reduced pressure in the mouth, pulled the eardrum out and caused the breakdown of the ear," the paper quoted a doctor surnamed Li from the hospital as saying.

The woman's hearing would likely return to normal after about two months, Li said.

"While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution," the paper said.