Indonesia delays controversial anti-smut bill (Reuters)

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's parliament has postponed plans to table a controversial anti-smut bill after mounting opposition from critics who said the bill could hurt local cultural traditions, lawmakers said on Friday.

The anti-pornography bill aims to shield the young from pornographic material and lewd acts, but also contains provisions that could jail people for kissing in public and criminalise many forms of art or traditional culture that hinge on sensuality.

Lawmakers in the world's most populous Muslim nation have so far stopped short of passing the bill because of criticism it would threaten Indonesia's tradition of tolerance and polarise the country.

But some political parties were hoping for the bill's approval this month as the final draft was slated to be tabled in parliament on September 23.

Lawmakers said they did not know when the bill would be tabled.

"There's a tug of war between the pros and cons. People worry too much that this bill will be discriminatory," said Umung Anwar Sanusi, a member of parliament's culture and social affairs commission from the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS).

The PKS, an Islamic party, supports the bill and one of its members said recently he hoped it would be passed as a "Ramadan gift".

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on September 1 and ends with Eid al-Fitr celebrations.

So far, at least two parties -- the Christian Peace and Welfare Party and the nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) -- have rejected the proposed bill.

Lawmakers watered it down following criticism and street protests over the issue early last year. Critics say it could pave the way for vigilante groups to take the law into their own hands under a pretext of upholding morality.

Opposition mounted in the past week, especially in the predominantly Hindu island of Bali where about a thousand people marched to protest against the bill.

"We are a country of very plural characteristics," said Agung Sasongko, a parliament member from PDI-P, which has rejected the bill.

"And the way people dress from the westernmost tip to the easternmost tip are varied, some more covered and some more revealing."

The draft of the legislation contains provisions that could jail people for kissing in public and criminalise many forms of art or traditional culture that hinge on sensuality.

Nude sculptures and paintings are common in culturally-rich Bali and in the eastern province of Papua some tribal men wear just penis gourds.

(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Jerry Norton)

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Move aside Cannes, Pyongyang hosts its film fest (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) - Communist North Korea rolled out its version of the red carpet this week when the reclusive state opened its biannual international film festival, allowing its masses to watch forbidden foreign films.

Movies are near to the heart of leader Kim Jong-il, a fan of Daffy Duck, Steven Spielberg and Elizabeth Taylor, who is thought to have a library of about 20,000 films that includes all of the James Bond movies, intelligence sources have said.

Kim, who is suspected of suffering a stroke in recent weeks, usually does not attend the event. But his state's propaganda machine typically runs a news item at the time of the festival praising him a "genius in cinematic art".

In state media reports late on Wednesday monitored in Seoul, the North said the festival "was opened with due ceremony", which included an all-women marching band. Instead of stars in designer clothes, it brought ageing cadres in dark suits to the stage.

In recent years, the North has screened about 70 films from about 30 countries at the festival, that include its own movies as well as films from Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

North Koreans can normally be thrown in jail for watching unauthorised foreign movies.

But during the 10-day festival, they have seen films such as "Bend it Like Beckham" and "Whale Rider", which is a far cry from the home-grown product that is heavily steeped in its state's communist ideology.

Analysts said Kim was the driving force behind the film festival, which first opened in 1987 as the North Korean version of Cannes, minus the glamour, money and star power.

The event, once called "The Film Festival of Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries", used to show obscure films from far-flung corners of the world.

In recent editions, it has grown more international, and added TV documentaries as well as movies that play on the global film festival circuit. North Korea stages parties for the festival but participants say the events lack any lustre.

The North gives out awards at the festival with top honours in 2006 going to the German film "Napola", also called "Before the Fall," which tells of a youth who attends an elite Nazi school who then rebels against Hitler's state.

Kim, who did not attend the opening, was obsessed with film production in his younger days. He is suspected of kidnapping one of South Korea's top directors and actresses in 1978 and taking them to the North where he forced them into make movies.

(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Old Farmer's Almanac predicts global cooling (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The world is set for a "big chill," possibly a mini-ice age, according to the venerable and whimsical Old Farmer's Almanac, first published in 1792 and the United States' oldest continuously published periodical.

The 2009 edition, published earlier this month, predicts that the earth already has entered a sustained period of global cooling.

True to form, the almanac also includes tips on gardening and how to stay warm all winter with just one log.

"The next 20 years, it's going to be colder," said Sarah Perreault, assistant editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac. "We do recognize that (global cooling) could be offset by greenhouse gasses and other human effects on the earth, but we're trending toward the cool period now."

The almanac is predicting a period of global cooling partly due to the lack of sunspots, a situation which some scientists believe causes cooling on the sun and, subsequently, the earth.

Perreault said the staff still uses the weather prediction method devised by almanac founder Robert B. Thomas, using a combination of solar sciences, meteorology and climatology.

"Obviously we have more technology now," she said. "We have the benefit of having more information than he had, but it's basically the same."

She said the method is not exact. Since the almanac is published so far in advance, it cannot take into account the most up-to-date information on Pacific Ocean oscillations El Nino or La Nina, for instance.

Still, the almanac has an 80 percent success rate for its weather predictions, Perreault said.

In its early years, the almanac was one of the chief sources for weather forecasts for farmers and other businessmen. While it may not hold that distinction anymore, it is still a "great piece of Americana," said Mike Palmerino, meteorologist with DTN Meteorlogix.

Palmerino said the almanac sparked an early interest in the weather in him.

"I find their weather forecasts a curiosity. It's more of something that's just a fun read," he said.

The format for the Dublin, New Hampshire-based almanac has been roughly the same throughout its history, with its yellow cover and hole punched in the upper-left corner for hanging in barns and outhouses.

It is not to be confused with the slightly less august Farmer's Almanac, first published in 1818.

In addition to weather predictions for each day of the year, the Old Farmer's Almanac also includes gardening tips about such things as planting milkweed to attract Monarch butterflies.

And how does the almanac recommend keeping warm throughout the winter with one piece of wood?

Toss the log out of an upstairs window, run downstairs and outside to retrieve it, run back upstairs, then fling it out of the window again.

"Pretty soon you're going to be very hot and you don't need to turn the heat on," Perreault said.

(Reporting by Michael Hirtzer; editing by Jim Marshall)

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Paris Hilton strips down to reveal "hot" energy plan (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Millionaire socialite Paris Hilton has jumped into the U.S. election campaign, calling Republican candidate John McCain a "wrinkly white-haired guy" and offering her own energy policy.

The blonde Hilton, dressed in a leopard print swim suit and gold pumps, jokingly declared her own candidacy in a video posted on the website Funny or Die, saying: "I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead."

She was responding to a television ad by McCain, 71, that used her image to attack Democratic rival Barack Obama.

The 27-year-old socialite said McCain's use of her in the ad, which sought to undermine Obama by likening his popularity to her celebrity, had effectively put her in the race for the top U.S. office.

Pretending to take time off from reading a travel magazine as she leaned back on a lounge chair, Hilton insinuated herself into the hot issue between Obama and McCain -- how to solve the U.S. energy crisis.

"We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars," Hilton simpered, drawing on suggestions from both candidates.

Hilton, a tabloid favourite who gained fame from a notorious home-made sex tape, offered to paint the White House pink and threw down the gauntlet to McCain and Obama.

"I'll see you at the debates, bitches," she said.

Under U.S. law, Hilton would not in fact be eligible to hold the office of the presidency for eight more years.

McCain meanwhile released a second television ad that mocked Obama as a celebrity, but it avoided any mention of Hilton or other Hollywood types.

His spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan."

Hilton's mother, a McCain donor, had lambasted as a complete waste of money the Republican candidate's advertisement using her daughter's image.

"It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States," she wrote on the political Web site Huffington Post.

(Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan in Washington)

(Editing by David Storey)

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Gordon Ramsay "dispute" sparks foodie bun-fight (Reuters)

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters Life!) - It's knives and forks drawn in the well-fed world of restaurant reviewers.

Two top-selling restaurant guides -- New York-based foodie's bible Zagat's, and Harden's, a Zagat-inspired tome that's a force in Britain -- are locked in an unseemly spat over their latest London rankings.

And at the heart of the gastronomic stand-off is Gordon Ramsay, the expletive-spewing, global celebrity-cum-chef who is never far from controversy.

Put simply, Zagat's thinks Ramsay is the top dog on the London fine-dining scene, while Harden's believes the best days of the motor-mouth chef may be over.

In its 2009 guide, Harden's gives top-billing to Petrus, a restaurant whose head chef, Marcus Wareing, is a Gordon Ramsay protege. Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, is pushed into second place.

"Wareing is emerging from Ramsay's shadow' as the proprietor of what is now clearly the best restaurant in London, and he and his team should be congratulated," declared Peter Harden, the co-editor of Harden's, before adding:

"The Ramsay empire's current performance -- and in particular the poor standard of most of the more recent openings -- raises questions as to its direction, and its ability to maintain its reputation as an operator of the highest quality."

It was a stinging rebuke for Ramsay, who had been at the top of the rankings for eight years.

But as far as Harden's -- motto "To tell it how it is" -- is concerned, it was only a matter of time as Ramsay lent his name to ever more establishments and the quality of some declines.

"Ramsay's not superhuman despite the media myth," Richard Harden, Peter's brother, told Reuters. "Something had to give."

But Zagat's is not so sure and its founder, Tim Zagat, has been outspoken in his disagreement with Harden's decision. At the launch of the 2009 Zagat London guide this week he told the Evening Standard newspaper:

"Harden's are full of s--- and you can quote me on that.

"They attack people every year just to get more publicity. Gordon Ramsay is an easy target for them because of his profile," the paper quoted Zagat as saying.

Harden's responded by issuing a press release that began: "Oh dear, bad language seems to be infectious," an apparent reference to Ramsay's fluency in swearing.

"We're not going to get into a slanging match with a competing publisher," Harden's wrote, before going on to point out how the competing guides were generally in agreement on some of Ramsay's lower-budget eateries if not the flagship one.

Zagat and his wife Tina, who began their guides in New York 30 years ago and have built them into a multi-million dollar global brand, were not immediately available for comment.

Given how competitive the restaurant business in London is, especially at a time when the wealthy are cutting back, the dispute is unlikely to die down quickly.

But for once, and perhaps surprisingly, the only person who hasn't yet stepped into the fray is the man at the heart of the bun-fight: the usually loquacious Ramsay.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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And the most overpaid celebrity is... (Reuters)

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Nicole Kidman was named the most overpaid celebrity in Hollywood in the second annual list of least bankable stars by U.S. magazine Forbes, taking the top slot from fellow Australian Russell Crowe.

Kidman's films were estimated to only earn $1 for every dollar the Oscar-winning actress was paid compared with $8 a year ago.

"The Invasion," a remake of the 1956 classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," even lost $2.68 for every dollar earned by

Kidman who was reportedly paid $17 million for her role.

"Despite winning an Oscar for her performance in 2002's "The Hours," Kidman has become the most overpaid celebrity in Hollywood," said Forbes, adding that her upcoming movie "Australia" could give her a boost.

Second in the list came Jennifer Garner, whose movies including "The Kingdom" and "Catch and Release" have underperformed at the box office. Her movies were calculated to

earn $3.60 for every $1 she was paid.

Kidman's ex-husband, Tom Cruise, came third in the list with a $4 return for every dollar he was paid, mostly because of the failure of last year's movie "Lions for Lambs." For every dollar the star earned the film returned only $1.88.

Forbes said the ranking was compiled by looking at a star's

past three movies and dividing their total earnings by the films' gross income to get the actor's payback figure.

Making up the top 10 of overpaid Hollywood celebrities were

Cameron Diaz, Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage, Drew Barrymore, Will Ferrell and Cate Blanchett.

The actor whose bankability improved most over the past year was Crowe, who was ranked the most overpaid celebrity last

year when Kidman was in second place.

Last year, Forbes estimated the movie "Cinderella Man" earned $5 for every dollar that Crowe was paid.

But this year, he was the 18th best earner on a previously issued list of which actors were worth their paychecks, with a return of $6.88 for every dollar he earned.

This bump was attributed to last year's movie "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington, for which Crowe returned a healthy $10.80 for every dollar he was paid.

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Scientists race to crack the potato's genetic code (Reuters)

LIMA (Reuters) - Scientists around the world have teamed up to sequence the genome of the potato, hoping to crack the genetic code of one of the world's most important crops at a time of surging population growth and high food prices.

Solanum tuberosum, the scientific name of the humble white potato, looks simple. But it is chock full of mysteries hidden in its 12 chromosomes and 840 million DNA base pairs. Humans, by comparison, have 3 billion DNA base pairs.

The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium includes scientists in 13 countries from New Zealand to India and Peru who are decoding different pieces of the genome.

It plans to have its work done in 2010 and will then make its findings public so plant breeders can create new seeds resistant to everything from droughts and diseases to extreme temperatures.

"We'll be able to design seeds more effectively and more efficiently after we know precisely which genes do what," said Gisella Orjeda, a biology professor at the Cayetano Heredia University in Lima who runs a lab that is sequencing one of the chromosomes.

Once the white potato genome is sequenced, researchers say it will become easier to identify genes in native and wild species of potatoes, which come in 5,000 varieties.

The potato, the world's third-most important food crop after wheat and rice, is being championed by food security experts who say it could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world.

The United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato to highlight its potential as an antidote to hunger.

Though the potato originated 8,000 years ago in Peru's Andes mountains, China is now the largest grower of the tuber. More farmers are planting it, especially in developing countries, as the world's population expands by 1 billion a decade.

Orjeda said the potato genome sequencing project, centred in the Netherlands (www.potatogenome.net), could usher in a new era for the potato, which its proponents call history's most important vegetable.

"The potato isn't just important now. It has always been important -- it's what enabled the Industrial Revolution in Europe (by allowing for a population boom), but also what caused the potato famine in Ireland," she said.

(Editing by Dana Ford)

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Emirates A380 passengers to shower at 43,000 feet (Reuters)

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - First-class passengers will be able to take a shower at 43,000 feet and enjoy a drink at the upstairs bar on Dubai-based airline Emirates's double-decker Airbus A380s, the airline said on Monday.

Emirates boasted at a ceremony to take delivery of the first of 58 A380s at Airbus's Hamburg plant that the plane would have two bathrooms with showers in its first-class cabins as well as a lounge for premium travellers.

But luxury has its limits, as Emirates President Tim Clark warned passengers could not spend too long relaxing under the jets of water.

"The showers are regulated through a software programme that gives people a five-minute shower, which is ample in most cases," Clark told a news conference, adding that a traffic light system would let passengers know how long they had left.

"If you're on amber and your hair's full of shampoo, you want to get moving."

The shower also complicates attempts by Emirates and Airbus to slim down the superjumbo by some 5 tonnes by 2011/2012 to cut fuel use amid soaring oil prices and increasing calls for the industry to reduce its impact on the environment.

The plane will have to take on board an additional 500 kg of water, an increase of some 25 percent.

But Clark told journalists he was looking for ways to trim weight off the aircraft, such as by reducing the amount of paper.

"At the moment we have 1.8 kg in each seat pocket. We can't be completely paperless," he said, but information associated with sales, such as Duty Free products, currently in paper form was being put onto a retail TV channel, for example.

Emirates was also looking at curtains, carpets and seat-back entertainment hardware for ways to contribute a total of 2 tonnes in weight reduction.

Airbus meanwhile aimed to slim the A380 by a further 3 tonnes, including the airframe and by re-machining components.

"With today's fuel prices, then there's a huge pressure," Airbus programmes chief Tom Williams told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

"It's shaving. It's not like we're going to go to one section and remove all the weight. It's more a question of trying to get the thing refined and squeezing a few kilos here and there."

Progress was also being made smoothing the A380 production process but the "question is 'does the rate of improvement match the rate of ramp-up in production?' Because of course every week that goes by we see improvement but at the same time of course the production rate's going up," Williams added.

Airbus hopes to reach a maximum production rate of four A380s a month in around three years.

(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Paul Bolding)

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Lewd vandal leaves greasy imprints on Neb. town (AP)

VALENTINE, Neb. - Boy, how people here wish their busiest vandal would find another way to make his mark. Beginning more than a year ago, some man has been skipping from one business to another at night, pressing his naked behind — sometimes his groin, sometimes both — on windows. Store owners, church workers and school janitors have had to wash lotion and petroleum jelly off the windows he selects.

"This is the weirdest case I've ever seen," said police Chief Ben McBride.

Some residents of Valentine, a town of about 2,650 people, find some humor in the strange vandalism and have taken to calling the perpetrator the "Butt Bandit." But they also can't help but cringe when finding his marks.

"We were completely grossed out," said Kalli Kieborz, who works in a downtown building. "One day I walked into the office and an employee said, 'Oh, my God, we've been struck!'"

The police chief is far from amused.

"It's not funny," McBride said. "We're worried about the next step."

It started in spring 2007, when the window of a Methodist church was greased with an imprint. McBride figured it was a high school prank. But the church kept getting hit, even after police staked it out.

The bandit struck business after business, window after window last summer.

Then he — and maybe, McBride said, copycat vandals — stopped over the fall and winter.

"People said he was done," McBride said. "Then he started back up this summer."

During one particularly brazen session, virtually all the windows at a local hotel were imprinted.

McBride said no one has reported seeing the vandal in action. The only clue is a blurry picture of him caught by a surveillance camera at the middle school last year.

The man was 6-feet-tall or slightly taller, and slender. He had a dark complexion, and McBride said the man's dark hair was styled in a "1980s, feathered look."

Valentine, in remote north-central Nebraska, promotes itself as "The Heart City." Downtown sidewalks are painted with hearts, and locals encourage people from around the country to send their Valentine's Day cards to the local post office so they can be mailed out with the word "Valentine" stamped on them.

"This is not normal behavior for Valentine," Cherry County Attorney Eric Scott said. "It's not funny or something people want to be exposed to."

___

On the Net:

City of Valentine: http://www.valentine-ne.com/

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TV drama axed after complaints (Reuters)

RIYADH (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has stopped a Ramadan soap opera after complaints in Saudi that it was stoking ancient tribal rivalries, Arab media reported this week.

The UAE official news agency WAM said Monday that President Khalifa bin Zayed had ordered Abu Dhabi Television to end broadcasts of "Saadoun al-Awajy," which had been running nightly throughout the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan "in response to appeals by several Arab tribes."

Saudi authorities have been concerned about a resurgence of tribal sentiment in recent years.

Government in Saudi Arabia is tribal in nature, centered on the rule of the Al Saudi family and their allies, and the state has had difficulty carving out a national identity since it was formed in 1932 under the name of its Saudi rulers.

Saudi-owned website Elaph said a Saudi official visited the UAE Monday with a letter from King Abdullah asking for the historical drama, set from 1750-1830, to be cancelled following lobbying by descendents of tribesman depicted in the serial.

There was no official confirmation of the Saudi request but Saudi media have been reporting tribal anger for weeks. "Who benefits from digging up the graves of our ancestors?" commentator Mohammed al-Rutyan wrote in al-Watan daily.

Elaph said this was the second soap opera to be axed this year over fears of stirring up tribal animosities after Saudi-owned MBC shelved "Finjan al-Dam" (Cup of Blood).

"Saadoun al-Awajy" concerns a well-known tribal war between the Shammar and Unaiza tribes in what is now northern Saudi Arabia, at a time when the territory of the Saudi royal family was expanding in the southern Najd near modern Riyadh.

The main character in the Syrian-made show is an Unaiza tribal leader who pleads with his sons not to kill a minor Shammar tribesman who has been stealing fine horses and camels.

Before he dies, the tribesman composes a poem -- famous among Arab tribes -- calling on his kinsmen in Iraq to come and avenge his blood. The Unaiza today are found in northern Saudi Arabia but the Shammar extend into Iraq and Syria.

Turki al-Rashid, a prominent Shammar businessman, praised the series saying it was the kind of historical drama that appealed to Gulf Arabs rather than the Egyptian and Levantine material that dominates in the Arab world.

"It's a fuss about nothing. I'm bothered if it's true that the government got involved," he said. "At the end of the day such a drama was a money opportunity."

(editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Big Bang project gets rap treatment on Internet (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) - A project to re-enact the "Big Bang" at CERN near Geneva on Wednesday is getting the rap treatment on the Internet from a group of young people working there.

"Twenty seven kilometres, a tunnel underground

"Designed with a mind to send protons around

"A circle that crosses through Switzerland and France

"Sixty nations contribute to scientific advance," it runs.

The nearly five-minute video has been a big hit on YouTube (www.youtube.com) and some other sites (www.vimeo.com and www.teachertube.com), far more than the 23-year-old American would-be science writer who wrote the words ever expected.

"It had an educational purpose. I thought it might make it into a few physics classrooms and perhaps be picked by some people randomly on line," says Kate MacAlpine -- rap name Alpinekat -- who is a trainee at CERN.

The video, largely filmed in CERN's vast underground caverns along the Franco-Swiss border, explains for the uninitiated the high-profile project around the gigantic Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, running round a 27 km (17-mile) tunnel.

Young scientists and other trainee colleagues of MacAlpine jig around in yellow safety helmets as she raps her words to a rhythmic beat.

"I did a science rap when I was working at the American Physical Society last summer, before coming to CERN," says MacAlpine, from Lowell near Grand Rapids in Michigan and a graduate in writing and physics from Michigan State University.

"I wrote this on the bus on the way to and from work at CERN. Then we all got together to make the video," she says. "We all hoped it would help explain what's going on at CERN...."

DIRECT ABOUT LHC

The rap words are direct about the LHC. "The things that it discovers, will rock you on the head," they declare.

"We think of dimensions, we live in just three.

"But maybe there are others, we're going to see."

And the video seeks to explain one of the prime aims of the multi-billion dollar experiment:

"The Higgs Boson that the one, that everybody talks about

"It's the one sure thing that this machine will sort out.

"If the Higgs exists, they ought to see it right away

"And if it doesn't, then the scientists will say:

"'There is no Higgs. We need new physics

"To account for why things have mass."

The slight, slim-built MacAlpine blinks in the bright sun as she speaks outside the main CERN building right by a Swiss border post. "You can't say I'm a physicist. The maths bore me," she says, with a grin.

"I want to explain science to people, work in communicating what it's about when I go back home at the end of the year."

And before then? "Hopefully, I'll get to see some collisions," she says. What did she think about fears spreading like wildfire on the Internet alongside her video that the LHC experiment will cause cosmological disaster?

"I think there's just no chance that there's going to be a black hole that destroys the earth from this machine," says the rapper. Cosmic rays hit the earth often at much higher energy than anything in the LHC.

"So if we were going to be sucked up by a black hole, it would have happened by now."

(Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Sami Aboudi)

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Maasai warrior hairdressers break taboos (Reuters)

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Maasai warrior Lempuris Lalasho went to Kenya's tourist haven Mombasa to find a white woman to marry, but he ended up working as a hairdresser, a profession that is taboo in his culture.

His story opens a window on the strains faced by this ancient tribe as it adjusts to modern life in east Africa's largest economy, whose Indian Ocean beaches lure thousands of tourists, including women seeking sex.

Maasai warriors, or moran, are a familiar sight on Kenya's beaches and in its renowned safari parks -- dressed in distinctive red robes and wearing beaded jewellery, they often act as guides or work in security.

But sometimes, the eager young men who flock to the coast hoping to make their fortunes -- some with dreams of marrying a white tourist -- have to go against their traditions.

Lalasho's status as a moran means he is charged with protecting and providing for his people, and it makes his transgression all the more serious.

Maasai warriors are not allowed to touch a woman's head: it is regarded as demeaning in the patriarchal culture. Moran who become hairdressers risk a curse from the elders, or could even be expelled from the community.

"If my father finds out what I am doing he will be very mad at me or even chase me from home," said Lalasho, who comes from Loitoktok, near Mount Kilimanjaro on the border with Tanzania.

"But I have to eat, that's why I broke my taboo since city life is very expensive," he said.

An estimated 500,000 to one million Maasai live in scattered and remote villages across northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, eking out a semi-nomadic existence with herds of precious cows.

As drought and hunger bite harder in their rural homes due to climate change and increased competition for resources, hundreds of Maasai men are heading to towns and cities.

SPINNING HAIR

In tourist resorts like Mombasa, these men end up as hotel workers, night guards, herbalists and hairdressers.

Lalasho, who is illiterate and does not know his age, was inspired by the good fortune of a friend, Leishorwa Mesieki.

"My friend Leishorwa is now rich. He married a mzungu (white) woman who took him to ... is it New Zealand or Switzerland? I don't know. He came back to build a big house and bought so many cows. I envy him," he added, shaking his head.

Lalasho did not have such luck and he was forced to use his skills at spinning hair, which he learnt during his initiation into moranhood in a thicket near Mount Kilimanjaro.

Morans learn to weave hair into thin, rasta-like dreadlocks during the initiation, which takes place when boys are aged between 17 and 20. The warriors' hair is often dyed red as well, and the red style is popular among women in cities.

For Maasai elder Michael Ole Tiampati, the fate of men like Lalasho threatens the wider Maasai culture.

"It's an abomination and demeaning for a moran or Maasai man to touch a woman's head," said Tiampati, media officer for the Maa Civil Society Forum, which protects Maasai traditions.

"They have gone against the cultural fibre ... They have to pay a price to be accepted back into the society," he said.

CULTURE UNDER THREAT

Kenya's Maasai are based in the picturesque Great Rift Valley region, home to the famous Maasai Mara game park. But the tribe who gave the park its name earn little from tourism, which is among Kenya's top three foreign currency earners.

This lack of revenue pushes young Maasai into other activities, but their increasing renown in tourist resorts is also bringing competition.

Men from tribes like the Kikuyu or Samburu are disguising themselves as Maasai on the beaches of Mombasa and elsewhere.

"Foreign tourists love Maasai for their sincerity. We are good-hearted people who do not feel jealous," Lalasho said.

Tiampati is more explicit.

"(Maasai) warriors are perceived to be erotic, that is why women pensioners from Europe come to look for them. The warriors take a lot of herbs -- some known to have Viagra-like contents like the bark of black acacia tree -- to re-invigorate their loins."

The copy-cat trend has angered some Maasai.

"It's the beginning of an end of Maasai culture," said tour guide Isac Oramat in Nairobi.

"Soon our tradition will just exist in books ... I warn tourists to be aware of these fake Maasais."

But for the morans in Mombasa, survival for now takes precedence over preserving their traditional ways.

"I have not gone to school. This is the only thing I can do," said hairdresser Ole Sambweti Ndoika, 35.

"The women here love our style. We get good money ... I hope to save enough to marry my second wife ... by end of the year," said the father-of-four from Narok in the Rift Valley.

Longishu Nyangusi, 25, also works as a hairdresser and like Lalasho came to Mombasa to find a white tourist wife. He says his lack of English has held him back.

"I could have hooked a white woman by now. I regret refusing to go to school. I was fooled by our fat cows and thought life is just fine," he said near his open-air salon-cum-shop.

(Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http:/africa.reuters.com/)

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Wanted: Ride to Mojave Desert for wayward tortoise (AP)

CUSICK, Wash. - Sadie the desert tortoise needs a ride to an adoptive home in the Mojave Desert — the sooner the better.

The 10-inch reptile, found at a U.S. 95 rest stop in Idaho, has thrived at the Kiwani Wambli wildlife rehabilitation center north of Spokane since July but is unlikely to do so well with the onset of fall, center operator Dotty Cooper said.

"It's just way too cold," she said.

Cold-blooded desert tortoises are unaccustomed to temperatures below 40, much less when the mercury dips to freezing temperatures. To survive a winter in Cusick, Sadie would have to be kept indoors for months.

She has shared a pen with an orphaned fawn. Sadie even showed the fawn how to forage for greens to eat — a process much harder for humans to demonstrate, Cooper said. The duo once wandered off after the tortoise burrowed under a plastic fence.

"When I got home, she and the deer were marching down the road," Cooper said.

The fawn has been released into the wild, which isn't an option for Sadie at this time because of the possibility that she's acquired a disease that could be passed on to others of her kind.

"Once they've been touched by humans, they're now a domesticated pet. They're no longer classified as a wild animal," said Ginger Wilfong, of the Bay Area Turtle and Tortoise Rescue in Castro Valley, Calif., east of San Francisco, which is helping Sadie find a home.

Coincidentally, Wayne and Lee Ann Cusick happened to read a newspaper story about the tortoise living in Cusick. The couple said they would like to adopt Sadie, but are reluctant to drive from their home in Blythe, a desert city in southern California, to pick up the tortoise in Washington.

Cooper and Cusick are hoping a big-hearted southbound traveler can give Sadie a ride. Cusick said he even considered a tortoise relay and is willing to make the four-hour drive to Los Angeles if someone would bring Sadie that far south.

"I somehow don't think that's going to happen," he said, "but I'm hoping that between word-of-mouth and some notoriety, we'll be able to find someone."

Adopted tortoises are common backyard pets in Blythe, Cusick said. Sadie would even have a playmate at the Cusick household: Speedy, a younger tortoise about half her size.

Desert tortoises mature at 14 and 20 years of age and typically live 60 to 100 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the species as threatened in 1990, and several states provide additional protection.

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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com

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Crafty sea lion slips aboard boat, but won't leave (AP)

FERNDALE, Wash. - No one wants to be stuck with a large, uninvited visitor. Especially a sea lion on a family sailboat. Even more so twice in a day.

Lynnea Flarry was picnicking with her family Sunday afternoon on Clark Island when her daughter-in-law saw what they though was a seal aboard the family's 31-foot Catalina, apparently after taking advantage of a ladder extending into the water from the stern.

Photographs taken by the family show the animal was probably a 2- or 3-year-old female California sea lion, said Sarah Rages, seasonal rehabilitator at Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Friday Harbor. Females of the species often weigh 200 pounds or more when they mature at 5 to 6 years.

Flarry said her son and grandchildren took a dingy back to the boat.

"When they got close (she) hid (her) head behind the lifesaver like a little kid who hides behind a curtain and doesn't realize his toes are sticking out," Flarry said.

One effort after another failed to dislodge the sea lion until Flarry's son used a boat hook to nudge the creature gingerly back to the water.

"It was the strangest thing," Flarry said. "He was on there for more than an hour."

It is legal to remove a marine mammal from private property as long as the creature is not injured, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.

"This is a problem up and down the coast, particularly on docks," Gorman said.

The rest of the group went back ashore as Flarry's granddaughter stayed on the boat, taking more pictures as the sea lion swam in circles around the boat. Then the animal climbed back up the ladder onto the boat and resumed sunning itself.

"She was so busy snapping pictures she forgot to bring the ladder up," Flarry said.

Back came the rest of the family to try to evict the sea lion.

"He'd just turn his nose up to the sun and just look at us like, 'I'm here, so what?' It was just the darndest thing," Flarry said. "I've never seen anything so preposterous, and I've been sailing for years and years."

Her 5-year-old grandson begged in vain to keep the sea lion as a pet.

"My grandson was more than willing to give up his bathtub if we could take the (sea lion) home," Flarry said.

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Information from: The Bellingham Herald, http://www.bellinghamherald.com

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Star sign could lead to Olympic gold (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) - Something fishy is happening at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Put it all down to the stars.

Forget training, dedication and determination. An athlete's star sign could be the secret to Olympic gold.

After comparing the birthdates of every Olympic winner since the modern Games began in 1896, British statistician Kenneth Mitchell discovered gold medals really are written in the stars.

He found athletes born in certain months were more likely to thrive in particular events.

Mitchell dubbed the phenomenon "The Pisces Effect" (pisces is Latin for fish) after finding that athletes born under the sign received around 30 percent more medals than any other star sign in events like swimming and water polo.

In the history of the Games, the big winners in the overall medals haul were born under the signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Aries. They boasted a significantly higher number of golds.

Checking out the birthdates among the Beijing winners produces some intriguing results.

For fencers looking to deliver a sting in the tail and make it to the podium, Scorpio is the right sign. Two of the three Beijing medallists in the men's individual sabre event were Scorpio, he said.

For pole vaulters charging down the track, it is better to be born under Taurus, the sign of the bull.

Any Olympic hopefuls unsure which event to pick can now turn to olympicstarsign.com, check out their birthdate and find which sport would be the perfect astrological fit.

Even Mitchell was surprised by his own findings which he said were conclusive "and I really mean conclusive".

"I am talking of odds against chance of hundreds of thousands to one", he said, explaining the research he undertook after being made redundant from his IT job.

"And just for the record, I know a thing or two about statistics. I have a PhD from Glasgow University on statistical ecology and a further 33 years working on statistical data analysis," he explained on his website.

Explaining his eureka moment with all the zeal of a statistical crusader, he concluded: "Did you know that the distribution of Olympic swimming medallists against the tropical astrological zodiac signs can be almost exactly mapped by a polynomial function of the third degree?

"That's one to shut people up at a pub." (Editing by Nick Macfie.).

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Boy, 11, fires ace in just his 3rd time golfing (AP)

BISMARCK, N.D. - Golfing for just the third time, 11-year-old Allan Saylor was whacking the ball around with a friend, not even keeping score. A hole-in-one? No big deal. The sixth-grader fired the ace Wednesday on the 150-yard, par-3 sixth hole at the neighboring Mandan Municipal Golf Course, using a driver borrowed from his buddy.

He said the shot felt good at contact.

"It was a pretty low shot, a pretty flat drive," he recalled. "It probably rolled about 10 feet and the rest of it was in the air. It was probably one of my farthest shots."

Allan, whose favorite hobbies have been pheasant hunting and football, said he let out a "whoop" and high-fived his friend, 11-year-old Ethan Luck, when he saw the ball disappear in the hole. But the boys didn't think much more about it.

They were milling about the clubhouse waiting for a ride home when golf pro Patrick Wingard asked about their day at the course.

A group playing a hole ahead of the boys also witnessed the ace. The talk of it had just begun to spread when Allan and his friend finished up.

"I don't think they really thought it was a big deal," Wingard said. "I asked him if he knew what he just did, and he said, 'Not really.'"

Allan was mum about his hole-in-one when he got home, and never told his mom, Karen, about it.

"I didn't even know what a hole-in-one was," she said. "We're not golf people."

Wingard said an ace hasn't been scored at the course's sixth hole in at least the three years he's been a pro there.

"There's a bunker on right and a bunker on the left, so he had to thread the needle, so to speak," Wingard said. "It's a good little par-3."

Even pros like himself find aces elusive, he said.

"I'm 46 years old and I've been playing since I was four and I've never made a hole-in-one, and I've made a lot of money playing golf," Wingard said.

Ethan said he was happy for his friend but wished it had been him.

"He used my brother's club and my old bag," Ethan said. "I play a lot and it was only his third time."

Still, he said he was in awe of his friend's feat.

"He hit it all the way to the green, it hit the fringe and rolled in," Luck said. "It was cool."

Wingard said it was impressive that the youngster was able to drive the ball to the green, even from the women's tee box.

"For one of these pint-size guys to make contact with a driver and hit it 150 yards," the golf pro said. "That's pretty good."

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Troops pay-up to challenge "Leo" (Reuters)

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The challenge is simple enough -- run away as quickly as possible.

The only problem is, there's a highly trained, gnashing dog chasing after you and he wants to chew you to bits.

It may not sound like the most attractive proposition, especially as you have to pay to have a go, but it's turned into a popular sport for gung-ho soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

And in the process it's raised thousands of dollars for war veterans cared for by the British charity Help For Heroes.

The game is called "Beat the dog", which contrary to what the name suggests does not involve taking a stick to the hound but seeing if you can outrun a snarling, lean German shepherd, one of the dogs the army uses to track down the Taliban.

A volunteer pays $5 (2.82 pounds) and is trussed up in a heavily padded suit, complete with face mask and big protective gloves.

On a command, the challenger has to run from a hideout to a mound of rocks, turn around the rocks and then run away. At the same time the German shepherd, called Leo, is walked to a mound of rocks about 25 metres away and then unleashed.

In one recent showdown, Lance Corporal Logan Wilson, a hefty U.S. Marine, suited up and made a mad dash for it.

Just past the rocks he stumbled over his own feet and fell forwards. He got up as Leo was bearing down on him at full tilt.

He took several more strides before the dog leapt in the air and hit him powerfully in the back, knocking him to the floor.

Once on the ground, Leo grabbed hold of Wilson's arm and attempted to tear it off. Were it not for the padded suit, the dog might well have succeeded. Wilson did not beat the dog.

"He hit me real hard right from behind and there was no way I was going to get back up," said Wilson, a 19-year-old from the state of Wyoming. "It wasn't so bad because of the padding, but that dog is real strong."

Leo weighs about 40 kilos (88 pounds) and can run at around 25 kph (15 mph) at full speed, his trainer said, meaning that he can land a hefty blow when he flings himself at you full pelt.

In the months that the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, which handles bomb sniffing and protection dogs in Afghanistan, has been running the challenge, no one has yet beaten the dog by reaching a wall about 50 metres from the rocks.

Some have managed to sprint around 25 metres, but most have been brought down within less than 10 as Leo and the other close protection dogs that get to play quickly run down their victims.

Not only has the challenge raised approximately $5,000 for charity, but it also helps to keep the dogs trim.

Without volunteers, Leo wouldn't get a chance to sink his teeth into much other than his lunch, so the game allows him to keep in training. There's every sign that the dogs take it extremely seriously too.

It took some effort for the trainer to get Leo to "drop" Wilson. He eventually pulled the dog up in the air by a leash until its front legs were suspended, and Leo then reluctantly withdrew his teeth from the thick padding of the suit.

"Good boy," said the trainer, Corporal Harry McKnight, as Leo ran his tongue over his huge front teeth and snarled.

Asked if there wasn't a reward for Leo after his hard work, McKnight shook his head. "For him, the bite's the reward. He just wants to sink his teeth in there and never let go."

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Remember your loved one - as a diamond (Reuters)

CHUR, Switzerland (Reuters) - Diamonds really are forever. Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.

And with prices starting at less than 5,000 euros ($7,488), the jewels are not solely the preserve of the jetset.

"Some people find it helpful to go to the cemetery and grieve, and they leave their grief in the cemetery," said Algordanza Chairman Veit Brimer. "There are some people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have this farewell.

"Astonishingly these are mainly Christian people. They say: 'Why should I say goodbye? I'll see my husband in 15 years in heaven anyway,'" Brimer said in his office overlooking the town of Chur and its surrounding steep mountains.

The technology for making artificial diamonds was first pioneered by General Electric in the 1950s, and mirrors nature by subjecting carbon to huge pressure and temperature.

Algordanza -- which means "remembrance" in the local language Romansch, spoken in some parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons -- is one of a handful of companies offering artificial diamonds that have sprung up as the technology has improved.

U.S.-based LifeGem and Britain's Phoenix Diamonds, for example, also offer diamonds made from hair, which contains more carbon than ashes meaning a gem can be created from the hair of a living person, or from someone who has been buried rather than cremated. LifeGem even offers diamonds made from dead pets.

"Some people find it is a great honor and remembrance," said Laura Simanton at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). "The technology is certainly getting better."

MAN-MADE GEMS

Synthetic diamonds have become so common that GIA now grades their quality, so buyers can assess what they are getting compared with a natural diamond.

John Cordova, vice president of California-based engagement ring store Robbins Bros said synthetic diamonds are "in general a little less expensive" than natural ones, but it depends on each individual stone.

GIA engraves the word "synthetic" and its report number on all artificial diamonds it grades.

Algordanza's Brimer first saw a business opportunity in "remembrance" diamonds after meeting a Russian chemist, who explained how gems could be created in a laboratory.

Initially Brimer, who used to work in information technology, and his partner Rinaldo Willy thought their clientele would mainly be young, but they have been surprised that "actually our customers come from all walks of life."

Bobby Thurman -- of Nelson Funeral Service in Arkansas, which offers diamonds to both burial and cremation clients -- decided to have LifeGem make a diamond from combined samples of his own and his family's hair.

"My family will cherish this diamond for generations, and I expect other families will want to do the same," Thurman said.

IN THE PUB FOREVER

Algordanza does 40 percent of its business in Japan, its largest market, where cremation is more common because land is so scarce.

Many clients from Europe travel to Chur to accompany the deceased on their final journey and meet the people who will turn the ashes into a diamond.

Often the gem is mounted in jewelry, which the bereaved then wear to maintain close contact with their loved one. But some customers have different plans.

One widow, Brimer said, carried around her husband's diamond in her handbag. Others have them mounted on the deceased's table in the local pub.

Brimer says remembrance diamonds do not appeal to everyone, and is astonished at Algordanza's success -- it does not give sales figures, but said the first quarter of 2008 -- the latest details publicly available -- was its most successful three-month period yet.

In its first year, 2004, the company sold one diamond. These days it is creating about 60 a month, which Brimer attributes to word-of-mouth recommendations and media coverage, as Algordanza does not advertise.

Each one takes between three weeks and three months to create, said chemist Nesimi Oner in one of Algordanza's laboratories.

Because only 2 percent of a corpse's ashes are carbon, which then has to be purified, the largest size diamond offered by Algordanza is 1 carat, which costs 13,328 euros.

"The chemistry is easy," Oner said. "The interesting thing for me is how you can produce larger diamonds."

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

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Marriage problems? Husband's genes may be to blame (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The same gene that affects a rodent's ability to mate for life may affect human marriages, Swedish and U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Men carrying a common variation of a gene involved in brain signalling were more likely to be in unhappy marriages than men with the other version, the team at the Karolinska Institute found.

Although they are not sure what the genetic changes do to a man's behaviour, some other research suggests it has to do with the ability to communicate and empathize, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We never looked at infidelity in our study at all. What we have been focusing on is how strongly men bond to their partners," Karolinska's Hasse Walum, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Walum's team had been intrigued by previous research that showed one genetic difference seemed to explain why one species of vole formed strong pair bonds for life, while another mated promiscuously.

"Maybe this same gene will affect humans," Walum said.

They looked at a study of 552 pairs of twins and their spouses that detailed measures of parent and child relationships, marriage, personality and mental health of middle-class Swedes born between 1944 and 1971.

MONOGAMOUS RODENTS

The researchers tested the blood of men in the study, looking in particular for a gene that is similar in humans and voles. Called AVPR1A, it helps explain why prairie voles are monogamous and mountain and meadow voles are not.

The gene affects a brain chemical called neuropeptide arginine vasopressin and mostly affects blood pressure through the body's ability to retain water.

In humans, studies have shown certain variations of AVPR1A are linked with aggression, age at first sexual intercourse and altruism. One study suggested a link with autism, which affects the ability to interact socially, while another showed over-activation of the amygdala, the brain's emotional centre.

Walum's team found that men with a gene variant, or allele, known as 334 earned low scores on their partner bonding scale, and were less likely to be married at all.

Men carrying two copies of 334 were twice as likely to have had a marital crisis in the past year. Their wives were much more likely to report dissatisfaction with their marriage.

"Fifteen percent of the men carrying no 334 allele reported marital crisis, whereas 34 percent of the men carrying two copies of this allele reported marital crisis," the researchers wrote.

More than 30 percent of the men who had at least one copy of 334 were unmarried, compared to 17 percent of the men who had no copies.

Walum said he has "no idea" how the genetic variant may actually affect a human being's behaviour and stressed that larger studies must be done to test the association.

He would also like to test more unmarried men.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Vicki Allen)

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Stickers appraise mundane objects in downtown Wis. (AP)

APPLETON, Wis. - No one seems to know where the mysterious stickers came from — colorful dots that appeared in this eastern Wisconsin town, apparently placing a value on the most mundane of public objects. An orange dot on a decorative light post is labeled "Art Object, $10,000."

Nearby another sticker declares a green fire hydrant an art object worth $10.

The dots are all around downtown Appleton — on cigarette-butt containers, trash cans and parking meters. They all have "Art Object" typed on them, with prices ranging from one cent to $10,000.

Friday marks the city's monthly "Art on the Town," a celebration of art in the community. But coordinators of the program say the stickers aren't theirs.

"It was definitely not us," said Mary Ann Wepfer, the marketing director of Appleton Downtown Inc. "But when you find out who did it, let us know. We're always looking for ideas."

Linda Muldoon, a local artist and gallery owner, marveled at how the stickers turn ordinary objects into something special.

"It's nice that someone, by placing a sticker on an object, can make it a piece of art," she said.

A dispatcher with the Appleton Police Department said Friday morning she wasn't aware of any complaints about the stickers.

So far no one has claimed responsibility for the dots, but Muldoon speculated that nearby Lawrence University was behind the scheme.

Rob Neilson, a Lawrence assistant professor of art, wouldn't say whether his department had anything to do with the stickers. But he did say the dots were serving a fundamental role in art — to instigate thoughtful discussion of profound and provocative ideas.

"This particular piece of guerrilla art seems to have accomplished this lofty goal brilliantly," Neilson said.

He said he couldn't say who the 'artists' might be "but I will tell you I think this is a smart and fun piece of public art."

Neilson said the stickers bring to mind the late French artist Marcel Duchamp, who believed an artist could elevate any object to the status of art simply by designating it as such.

Duchamp was known to declare as art ordinary objects such as a urinal, wine rack and bicycle wheel mounted on a wooden stool.

A similar sticker scheme happened about this time last year, when dots with the words "Found Art" appeared on objects downtown.

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Information from: The Post-Crescent, http://www.postcrescent.com

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Mystery torch guard becomes Chinese sex symbol (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) - A handsome but anonymous guardian of the Olympics torch on its troubled world tour has won legions of Chinese female fans -- and plenty of marriage proposals.

Known only as "Second Brother on the Right" because of his customary position by the flame, the young man with boyish looks and cropped hair is an Internet sensation and nationalist hero.

Pictures of him in regulation blue-and-white Olympics uniform abound on websites and Chinese media, with some fans likening him to Lei Feng, an idolized soldier of the Mao Zedong era.

"We love him not only because he is so handsome but because he represents the pride of China," one female blogger wrote.

The nameless hero's popularity soared as he was seen defending the torch from pro-free Tibet protests on its international tour before reaching China for the Games.

"Take your hands away from my dearest brother, you cop!" wrote another female fan, "Rabbit," next to a photo of a British policeman pushing the guard as he wrestled with a protester in a London street during the British leg of the tour.

Those demonstrations brought a counter-wave of patriotism among many young Chinese, who suspected a Western conspiracy to blacken China's name at one of its greatest moments.

Tiring of China's new wave of pop and TV stars, fans have idealized "Second Brother" as representing ancient values.

"They praised him for his 360-degree handsome look, well-built body in perfect proportion, refined and exemplary postures, smile and courtesy to torch bearers, his pals and audience, and determination to safeguard the Olympic spirit," reads his entry in the Wikipedia web database.

"In torch relay pictures, he stayed calm and confident during violent situations, and gracious, graceful and proud in most others ... Those (other) stars or idols lacking an unpolluted and vigorous temperament are not attractive any longer."

"Second Brother" is not the only hero among the torch guards, who, by contrast with their status at home, were sometimes vilified in the West for being unquestioning representatives of stern Chinese authority.

Other guards have been given nicknames such as "Leading Handsome," "Ravishing Hand," "Kindness" and even "Noodle Soup."

On return to China, where the torch relays were peaceful in the run-up to the start of the Games on Friday, authorities have kept the guards' identities a state secret.

But that has not dampened female enthusiasm.

"My dear Second Brother on the Right, please marry me!" begged one girl on a site with 542 pages of odes and photos to the nameless hero.

(Additional reporting by Liu Zhen; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Museum defies pope over crucified frog (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian museum Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano decided by a majority vote that the frog was a work of art and would stay in place for the remainder of an exhibition.

The wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger depicts a frog about 1 meter 30 cm (4 feet) high nailed to brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.

Called "Zuerst die Fuesse," (Feet First), it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and the feet in the manner of Jesus Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.

Kippenberger's works have been shown at the Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery in London and at the Venice Biennale, and retrospectives are planned in Los Angeles and New York.

Museum officials in the northern bi-lingual Alto Adige region near the Austrian border said the artist, who died in 1997, considered it a self-portrait illustrating human angst.

Pope Benedict, who is German himself and was recently on holiday not far from Bolzano, obviously did not agree.

The Vatican wrote a letter of support in the pope's name to Franz Pahl, president of the regional government who opposed the sculpture. Pahl released parts of the letter, which said the work "wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love."

Pahl, whose province is heavily Catholic, was so outraged by the sculpture of the pop-eyed amphibian that he went on a hunger strike to demand its removal and had to be taken to hospital during the summer.

"Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people," Pahl told Reuters by telephone.

"This decision to keep the statue there is is totally unacceptable. It is a grave offence to our Catholic population," he said.

Art experts defended the work.

"Art must always be free and the artist should not have any restrictions on freedom of expression," Claudio Strinati, a superintendent for Rome's state museums, told an Italian newspaper Thursday.

(Editing by Robert Hart)

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Italian museum defies pope over crucified frog (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian museum on Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano decided by a majority vote that the frog was a work of art and would stay in place for the remainder of an exhibition.

The wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger depicts a frog about 1 metre 30 cm (4 feet) high nailed to brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.

Called "Zuerst die Fuesse," (Feet First), it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and the feet in the manner of Jesus Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.

Kippenberger's works have been shown at the Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery in London and at the Venice Biennale, and retrospectives are planned in Los Angeles and New York.

Museum officials said the artist, who died in 1997, considered it a self-portrait illustrating human angst.

Pope Benedict, who is German himself and was recently on holiday not far from Bolzano, did not agree.

The Vatican wrote a letter of support in the pope's name to Franz Pahl, president of the regional government who opposed the sculpture. Pahl released parts of the letter, which said the work "wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love".

Pahl, whose province is heavily Catholic, was so outraged by the sculpture of the pop-eyed amphibian that he went on a hunger strike to demand its removal and had to be taken to hospital during the summer.

"Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people," Pahl told Reuters by telephone.

"This decision to keep the statue there is totally unacceptable. It is a grave offence to our Catholic population," he said.

Museum president Alois Lageder told Reuters the decision to keep the statue on display was made in order to "safeguard the autonomy of art institutions".

The board vote was 6-3 in favour. Art experts defended the work.

"Art must always be free and the artist should not have any restrictions on freedom of expression," Claudio Strinati, a superintendent for Rome's state museums, told an Italian newspaper on Thursday.

But Italy's culture minister, Sandro Bondi, said museums that receive state funds should not "exalt artworks of desecration, of useless provocation and of nonsense".

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch (AP)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out.

The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.

But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.

"He's never hurt any one," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?"

The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.

"I feel sad," he said. "I feel like it's all my fault nobody could play."

Jericho's coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators.

Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.

"I think it's discouraging when you're telling a 9-year-old you're too good at something," said his mother, Nicole Scott. "The whole objective in life is to find something you're good at and stick with it. I'd rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner."

League attorney Peter Noble says the only factor in banning Jericho from the mound is his pitches are just too fast.

"He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower," Noble said. "There are a lot of beginners. This is not a high-powered league. This is a developmental league whose main purpose is to promote the sport."

Noble acknowledged that Jericho had not beaned any batters in the co-ed league of 8- to 10-year-olds, but say parents expressed safety concerns.

"Facing that kind of speed" is frightening for beginning players, Noble said.

League officials say they first told Vidro that the boy could not pitch after a game on Aug. 13. Jericho played second base the next game on Aug. 16. But when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called.

League officials say Jericho's mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down.

"I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho's mother exhibited Wednesday night," Noble said.

Scott denies threatening any one, but said she did call the police.

League officials suggested that Jericho play other positions, or pitch against older players or in a different league.

Local attorney John Williams was planning to meet with Jericho's parents Monday to discuss legal options.

"You don't have to be learned in the law to know in your heart that it's wrong," he said. "Now you have to be punished because you excel at something?"

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Ants bite, phones fly in Finnish summer bonanza (Reuters)

HELSINKI (Reuters) - They carry their wives, sit on ants, throw milking stools, boots and mobile phones -- here in the home of weird world championships, participants will do just about anything to win their offbeat crowns.

Normally reserved Finns say there is no better way to celebrate the short summer months than with contests that add a jolt of adrenaline and silliness to bright summer nights.

"Maybe we are a little bit crazy ... maybe we are just bored," said Toni Hautamaki, a sauna-championship spectator from Oulu.

With foreign visitors growing by about six percent in 2007 and many oddball competitions taking place in distant rural areas, Finland's funny business is also a spur for tourism.

Most of the 50 or so competitions that take place over the three summer months -- many billed grandly as world championships -- started at summer fairs or as village affairs.

But today the top competitions can each attract about 10,000 people to the Nordic country annually to watch or join in, staggering across hurdles with their spouses clinging to their backs or diving headlong into ponds of mud after a soccer ball.

Some events are so popular -- swamp soccer, wife-carrying and air guitar -- they have prompted other nations to hold their own contests to select who will compete in Finland.

Portuguese Olympic cross-country skier Danny Silva said these events bring out the best in the usually somber Finns, letting them goof off, dress up, and poke fun at themselves.

Silva, who was taking his first stab at swamp soccer in July, said it would have taken a great marketing effort to make such a competition succeed in his home town.

"Portuguese players like all the glamour, perfume, look all nice -- and here people just get down and get dirty," he said. "This is bizarre, but when you think about it, it makes training so much more fun."

Many of the events allow top athletes to add extra oomph -- and fun -- to their workouts. They also let them show off their "sisu" -- the Finnish version of perseverance and guts.

Finnish cross-country skiers use swamp soccer to train in the snowless summer months. Both work the same muscles, but slogging through a mud-soaked field adds an element of fun.

Self-mockery is core to the mix.

Writer Risto Etelamaki said mobile-phone throwing -- which originated from Finland's national strength in the sport of javelin throwing -- combines recycling philosophy with play.

"The sport is also a symbolical mental liberation from the restraining yoke of being constantly within reach," he wrote in his book "Funny Finnish Pursuits."

Finland, home of mobile phone giant Nokia, boasts one of the most mature mobile phone markets in the world, where people pay for pizzas, parking and tram tickets using cellphones.

KILLING MOSQUITOES

With tongue in cheek, some events purport to have roots further back in history.

Organizers say the wife-carrying contest is rooted in the legend of Ronkainen the Robber, who in the 19th century tested aspiring gang members by forcing them to lug sacks of grain or live swine over a similar course.

Another notion is that it stems from an even earlier tribal practice of wife-stealing, in honor of which many contestants now take up the challenge with someone else's wife.

Those hundreds of Finns who vie each year to keep their behinds longest in nests occupied by some 40,000 ants are, it is claimed, actually following an ancient health ritual -- one which keeps all their senses alive.

Boasting few disciplines in which its athletes excel on the global stage -- Finland ranked 44th in Olympic medals with four -- Finns find victory in finger-wrestling, mosquito-killing or ice golf equally rewarding.

"The tradition started as a big joke," said Arto Murto, manager of the swamp soccer championships. "It's our nature to create fun happenings, probably because our summers are so short."

Large parts of Finland are blanketed in near darkness for much of the winter and the weather in spring and fall is often cold and rainy, prompting locals to joke that the country has only two seasons -- winter and summer.

Finland's tourism board paid little attention when the first contests began 10 years back, but says the events are becoming a major draw.

"At first it was difficult to promote them as they were small local events where people did not speak any foreign language," said Liisa Renfors, a product specialist at the Finnish Tourist Board.

"(But now) they are raising the interest of foreign press and visitors -- probably because they are so different from anything else going in their own countries."

Finland's success has prompted rivalry and imitation from other countries in the region. Neighboring Estonia will host the world air guitar championships while Denmark has launched a championship in kicking a liter of vanilla ice cream.

But Finland's championships are still growing.

The annual beer float, which began with a few friends sitting in an inflatable boat sipping beer, attracted 1,400 participants this year in rubber boats, inflatable sofas and water scooters -- so many it forced local police to close down the Web site advertising the event, citing security concerns.

(Additional reporting by Attila Cser in Helsinki and Kim McLaughlin in Copenhagen; Editing by Sarah Edmonds and Sara Ledwith)

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Australia to put down orphan whale calf (Reuters)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An baby whale which has been desperately trying to suckle from a yacht in a Sydney bay in a futile bid to find its missing mother is to be humanely destroyed, Australian wildlife officers said on Thursday.

The humpback whale, nicknamed "Colin" by Australian media, was found at the weekend attempting to suckle from a moored yacht at Pittwater Bay after being abandoned by its mother off Australia's east coast.

"Our hearts are breaking with what's happening with baby Colin," New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said after the military volunteered floats to try to get the calf back to sea earlier in the day.

But a report by expert vets said blood tests revealed the two-tonne calf, believed to be only two to three weeks old, was in poor condition and unlikely to live through the night. It was suffering from shark bite wounds and breathing difficulties.

A team of park rangers and marine scientists had then decided to put down the animal after dark on Thursday, state wildlife officials said. Authorities expected to use a lethal dose of anaesthetic.

"There has been a deterioration in the whale's condition over the last couple of hours. We've decided it is in the best interests of the whale that it is put down," a Parks and Wildlife spokesman told journalists.

With time running out and rescue efforts becoming more desperate, an Aboriginal "whale whisperer" was brought to the bay during the afternoon to "talk" to the calf, Australian television reported. Colin had apparently responded, the report said.

Australia's military offered an empty fuel bladder as an inflatable raft to tow 5.5-metre (18-ft) Colin out to sea to try to unite it with a pod of passing whales.

But Peter Harrison, the director of the Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre north of Sydney, said another humpback mother was unlikely to adopt the orphan calf.

"We have occasionally heard reports where a calf appears to have lost its mother and goes searching for other whales and attaches itself to the pod, but there's no indication that they're adopted and fed," he told Reuters.

The whale's struggle to survive has captivated Australians, who strongly oppose Japanese "scientific" whale killing and flock to whale-watching tours during the giant mammals' annual migration to the Antarctic and return to breed in warmer Australian waters.

On Monday a team of workers towed the private yacht out to sea to try to lure the calf into deeper water, hoping that it would find its mother or another passing whale pod, but it was spotted close to the beach at Pittwater again on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; editing by Roger Crabb)

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