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Police to shame jaywalkers on TV
SHANGHAI - Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday. Offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists would be snapped at selected intersections and their images put in regular columns and on special television programs set up by police, the Shanghai Daily said.
Don't take "holy" water onto pope plane
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has warned journalists who will travel with Pope Benedict to Lourdes next month not to put the revered water from the shrine in their hand luggage on the papal plane or it may be confiscated. The pope will travel Sept 12-15 to Paris and the site in southern France where the Madonna is said to have appeared to a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, 150 years ago.
Dutch say Pisa no longer Europe's most leaning tower
BEDUM, Netherlands - The Tower of Pisa is being challenged by a lesser-known 12th-century building in the northern Dutch town of Bedum as Europe's most steeply leaning tower. Retired geometrician Jacob van Dijk said measurements this week on Bedum's 36-metre church tower of Walfridus revealed it is now leaning more than its Italian rival, which lost part of its tilt following restoration works.
Museum defies pope over crucified frog
ROME - 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.
Rat meat in demand as inflation bites
PHNOM PENH - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday. With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel from 1,200 riel last year.
Woman wearing veil told to leave Italian museum
ROME - The head of one of Venice's most prestigious museums apologized on Wednesday to a Muslim woman asked to leave the building by a guard because she was wearing a veil over her face. The episode, which has kindled controversy in the Italian media and arguments between centre-left and centre-right politicians, occurred on Sunday in Venice's Ca' Rezzonico museum, which houses 18th-century Venetian art.
Australian school may backflip on cartwheel ban
SYDNEY - An Australian school which recently banned its students from doing cartwheels, somersaults and other gymnastics during recess is reviewing the decision after parents and students got all bent out of shape. The school, in the coastal town of Townsville in Queensland state, told students they could not perform any acrobatics such as handstands outside class because they were a safety hazard.
Free pizza in price protest
NAPLES - "Pizzaioli" or pizza chefs in Naples, birthplace of the Margherita, handed out free pizzas on Wednesday in protest at high prices charged by rivals who, they say, use the spike in commodity prices to rip off consumers. In the city where the classic "Margherita" with mozzarella, tomato and basil topping was invented in the 19th century -- and named in honor of a queen with a taste for fast food -- 30 cooks lit up six wood-burning ovens to cook 5,000 thin-crusted Neapolitan pizzas for queues of local people and tourists.
Cat survives being walled in under bath for 7 weeks
BERLIN - A four-year-old cat in Germany called Bonny has survived after being walled in beneath a bathtub for seven weeks, its owner said Tuesday. "It's a miracle," said Monika Hoppert, a 60-year-old widow from the western town of Stadthagen. "I'm a strong believer, I think she must have had a guardian angel. I'm so happy."
No nuns on catwalk, priest stops "beauty contest"
ROME - An Italian priest who had planned an online "pageant" for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk. "My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either," Father Antonio Rungi told Reuters by telephone from his convent in southern Italy Tuesday.
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