TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

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Hanging Robots to Help Demolish Gutted Tower

MADRID (Reuters) - Robots suspended from cranes will help demolish the skeleton of one of Madrid's tallest buildings destroyed by a weekend fire because the ruin is too dangerous to be handled by workers, city authorities said Friday.

Demolition of the 32-storey skyscraper in the heart of Madrid, which is poised above four underground train lines, a major road and a vast department store, still presents unknown difficulties.

An alternative proposal to blow up the building in a controlled demolition, after first filling the network of subterranean road tunnels below it with sand, had been rejected as too risky, the city hall said.

"We've ruled out a total collapse of the building, but not partial collapses," the city hall's head of building control, Emilio Garcia de Burgos, told a news conference.

The 106-meter (350 foot) high Windsor building, Madrid's eighth tallest tower, was reduced to a peeling, blackened ruin by the biggest blaze in the city's history last weekend.

It is now too unstable to send workers in so it will be demolished by cranes from the top down, with giant neoprene sheets in place to catch falling debris, Garcia de Burgos said.

"We have never had to work in these conditions before," he added.

Robots will be used to help cut up the sagging concrete and steel structure, he said, adding that demolition should be finished within 12 months.

The construction company in charge of carrying out the work, under city hall direction, described the job as unusual rather than plain difficult.

"It's unusual, emblematic because of its height, its location, the way it is embedded in the city and the lack of space around the building," said Julio Miquel, secretary general of the company, Ortiz Construcciones y Proyectos.

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Cockroach 'Come-Hither' Scent Could Conquer Them

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sexy scent used by female cockroaches to attract males could be the best tool yet against the creepy pests, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

They made an artificial version of the mating pheromone used by the bugs and hope it could be used to lure them into traps.

"It would prevent the need to spray poison widely," said Fran Webster of the State University of New York, who led the study. "You could use it when and where it was needed most."

Other insects are often trapped using pheromones -- pantry moths, for example -- but the cockroach's rare aroma has eluded scientists for years. Many animals use the chemicals to communicate over distances.

Writing in the journal Science, Webster and colleagues described how they used a 600-megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to break down the precise chemical formula used by Blattella germanica, or the German cockroach.

Now it can be synthesized and used against them.

"It is the worldwide pest among cockroaches and it's very difficult to control," Webster said in a statement.

"They are much more common in urban areas than rural ones. In an urban setting, anywhere you have filth, there's always a chance that there are cockroaches."

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Naked?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn't stop there.

Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got naked for the monthly "Clothing Optional Dinner."

"It's exciting to be in a restaurant nude," said George Keyes, 65, a retired junior high school English teacher.

Nude yes, but not unadorned.

Keyes, a lifelong nudist, wore a necklace, earrings and a black leather "genital bracelet" with red studs. And white sneakers.

The dinner was started by a group of New York nudists who wanted something a bit more elegant than the wilderness getaways and beach resorts they generally frequent.

"When you go away on holiday it's more you're roughing it in the woods, whereas this is a really nice restaurant," said Keyes, a member of gay nudist group Males Au Naturel, or MAN.

John Ordover set up the dining club about a year ago, recruiting members through word of mouth and the Internet.

"Next month is our Easter bonnet event, where everybody has to come wearing an Easter bonnet," said Ordover, a heavyset man with a jovial smile and glasses.

SOMETHING TO SIT ON ...

Around 30 people arrived for the buffet dinner -- organizers specified no hot soup on the menu -- most of them middle-aged, several married couples, some singles, the youngest perhaps in their 30s.

"They're a good class of people, they're no different to you or I," said John Bussi, owner of the midtown restaurant. "They're not hurting anybody, it's not a wild Roman orgy."

Health regulations mean staff must remain clothed even if they wanted to join in. And diners must bring something to sit on -- a towel or, for discerning women, an elegant silk scarf.

The restaurant's manager covered the windows to maintain privacy at the strictly private party. Extra heaters kept the temperature at a comfortable level for nudity.

Ordover's wife, Carol, said they first went on a naturist holiday five years ago and she found the experience empowering. But, she explained, it's "the least sexual thing you can possibly imagine."

"Men in nudist resorts are striking a bargain. They get to see as many naked women as they like as long as they are polite and look them straight in the eye," she said.

Sherry Stafford, a petite and elegant 51-year-old with blond hair and high heels, brought brochures and videos advertising her travel business, Internaturally Travel.

One of the flyers was for a resort called "Hedonism II" whose slogan is "Be wicked for a week." But she said nudists should not be confused with swingers.

"Wearing clothes and going to church does not protect you from moral evil," Stafford said, lamenting what she saw as a tendency to demonize people just because they like to be naked.

Sandy, a slim woman in her 40s, said she never felt self-conscious about her body and was comfortable dining in the nude. But she did admit to being a bit more nervous before a recent naked yoga class attended by around 25 people.

"Everyone was a little concerned there would be people looking around but the good thing is nobody really was," she said, standing at the restaurant's bar before dinner.

"If you try to maintain a yoga position you're going to fall if you start looking around -- and that's more embarrassing than anything else."

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Drug Suspect Dressed as Bishop....

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A 67-year-old Spaniard disguised as a Roman Catholic bishop was arrested in a Venezuelan airport with nearly 20 pounds (9 kg) of cocaine under his cassock, authorities said Saturday.

Angel Velasco Padilla was arrested this week at Maiquetia international airport near the capital Caracas as he tried to board a flight to Spain.

The suspect was carrying 17.4 pounds (7.9 kg) of cocaine in his belt plus 12 drug packets in his underwear, police said.

Velasco told authorities he was a member of a Dutch archdiocese and had been in Venezuela for a week to attend a meeting.

But a source from Venezuela's Catholic Church told Reuters that no Velasco was listed in the ecclesiastic registry or in the archdiocese to which he claimed to belong. He also denied there was any meeting in Venezuela.

"He is a Spanish citizen ... but he is not a bishop and he does not have any links in the church. He was disguised and presented false identification," the source said.

Velasco was charged with trafficking illegal substances and is being held by Venezuelan police. A 21-year-old Venezuelan man traveling with him was released.

Narcotics experts say large quantities of drugs, especially cocaine, are transported from neighboring Colombian across Venezuela and then shipped to the United States and Europe.

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Leader to Police: Toughen Up!

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged police Tuesday to toughen up after a television news report showed two police officers fleeing from a man brandishing what appeared to be a baseball bat.

"When the culprit came toward them, they didn't try to restrain him but ran away. I was surprised and amazed when I saw this," Koizumi told reporters.

The incident was embarrassing, Koizumi said, adding that he had ordered the nation's public security chief to step up police training to prevent recurrences.

Television footage showed the two officers approaching a car that had crashed into a building in Tokyo's Daiba waterfront district only to flee when the driver came toward them brandishing the weapon after smashing the vehicle's windows with it, media reports said.

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Best-Dressed Homeless in the World...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Some South Korean homeless are dressing in style after the government gave away thousands of fake designer garments confiscated by customs agents.

The Korea Customs Service distributed more than 3,500 fake pieces in the southern city of Pusan this month with the permission of the fashion houses whose designs had been pirated.

A customs official declined to name the designers whose ripped-off creations are now being worn by the homeless but said both they and the state prosecutors had approved giving away the jackets, blouses, shirts and pants.

"We hope this will be of some help to the poor who need practical assistance in such hard times," the official said.

Customs agents removed the labels from the clothes before giving them to a welfare agency for distribution.

South Korea has a vibrant illegal market in pirated designer clothing and customs officials said there would be more handouts.

"We will continue to look for useful ways to pass along the clothes -- it saves us the cost of destroying what we have confiscated," the Customs Service said in a statement.

One homeless man, who asked not to be identified, said he appreciated the fancy threads.

"I don't care about the quality of the clothes, but these designs are quite trendy," the recipient said.

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Severed Penis Retrieved from Toilet, Reattached

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A 44-year-old Anchorage man had his penis surgically reattached after it was cut off by an angry girlfriend and flushed down a toilet, local police said on Sunday.

The events unfolded about midnight on Saturday, after the pair had been arguing over an impending breakup, an Anchorage Police Department statement said. At some point, the two decided to have sex and the man agreed to let the woman tie his arms to a windowsill.

But the woman used a kitchen knife to amputate her partner's penis and flushed it down the toilet, police said. She untied the man, drove him to a local hospital and was cleaning up the bloody scene when police arrived at the home, according to the statement.

Summoned by the police, workers from the local water utility pulled the toilet up from the floor and were able to recover the severed penis, which was rushed to the hospital for the successful reattachment surgery on Sunday morning.

Police declined to identify the victim, but said his assailant was 35-year-old Kim Tran. She was charged with assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence, and jailed without bail.

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Women Allege Monkey Business Caring for Gorilla

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two women who helped care for a famous gorilla have sued the foundation nurturing Koko, saying they were fired for refusing to show the animal their breasts, lawyers said on Friday.

The lawsuit says the president of the Gorilla Foundation, Francine Patterson, sought to have the women bond with the gorilla by performing "bizarre sexual acts with Koko."

"Through sign language, as interpreted by Patterson, Koko 'demanded' plaintiffs remove their clothing and show Koko their breasts," the lawsuit said.

"Patterson pressured plaintiffs to perform such acts, regularly and consistently, and on at least one occasion, outdoors where others could see," the lawsuit added.

The Gorilla Foundation, south of San Francisco, maintains that Koko understands a sign language vocabulary of more than 1,000 words. Some experts believe that claims to understand a gorilla so well are exaggerated.

According to the Gorilla Foundation's Web Site, Patterson is a "real-life Dr. Dolittle" who has worked more than 30 years communicating with Koko, who was born in 1971. Patterson did not return calls, but her attorney issued a strong denial.

"We unequivocally deny these allegations and are confident that this case lacks merit," Todd Roberts said in a statement. "For the attorney for plaintiffs to manipulate a purported employment issue and miscast it purely for publicity purposes is particularly hurtful to the noble efforts of such a reputable organization."

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Pitt and Aniston Separate - Again

LONDON (Reuters) - Sculptors in London's Madame Tussaud's museum were forced to break up a waxwork figure of Hollywood superstars Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston embracing following their separation last month.

"It involved quite a lot of work, because they were entwined and had their arms around each other," said museum spokeswoman Diane Moon Monday. "Jen had one of her hands on Brad's chest and her other hand was resting on his bottom."

The procedure, which involved remolding their arms, cost around 10,000 pounds, or the equivalent of $19,000, and the separated figures have been put back on display with their backs to each other.

Pitt, one of Hollywood's leading stars, and Aniston, who became a household name on the television series "Friends," were married in July 2000 and their entwined figure was installed in July 2004, after the museum decided they were a "safe couple."

The only other couple to be installed in the wax museum was actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but they were separate figures.

Despite the cost of separation, Moon is hopeful the couple, who separated in January this year, will reunite.

"We would like them to get back together again because that would be a nice happy ending and we don't mind spending the money entwining them again," she said.

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Masked Man Pays $910,000 for Lucky License Plate

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A mysterious man in a mask drove off with the most expensive vehicle license plate sold in Hong Kong since 1997, shelling out HK$7.1 million (US$910,000) at a weekend auction, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Monday.

The man, who wore a surgical mask and would not identify himself, left the auction immediately after winning the bid for license plate number 12, which sounds like "certainly easy" in Cantonese, the South China Morning Post said.

The price was the highest for a license plate in Hong Kong since the British colony was returned to China in 1997 and the third highest on record, the paper said.

The most expensive license plate, number 9, was sold to tycoon Albert Yeung for HK$13 million in 1994. The number nine sounds like "ever lasting" in Cantonese.

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Police Pair Nab Robbers on Way to Nuptials

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African police couple arrived late for their wedding after they stopped on the way to church to arrest three armed men holding up a motorist, police said Monday.

Inspector Gustav Myburgh and Constable Barbara Beogner were being driven to their wedding near Johannesburg Saturday when they spotted a crime in progress, police spokesman Eugene Opperman said.

"He was in uniform, she was in her bridal gear, when they saw a hijacking taking place," Opperman said.

"They had to make a decision were they going to church or were they going to help this other person being hijacked. Of course they chose to help."

The pair and a third policeman acting as their wedding chauffeur stopped immediately and confronted the men, who jumped into a truck and sped away.

The wedding party gave chase and eventually forced the assailants off the road, arresting three men and confiscating an illegal firearm. They then continued on to the wedding.

"They ended up being 45 minutes late for their own marriage," Opperman said. "There is no doubt they have made all of the police force proud."

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Court Rejects Appeal on Sex Toy Sales Ban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday a constitutional challenge to an Alabama law that makes it a crime to sell sex toys.

The high court refused to hear an appeal by a group of individuals who regularly use sexual devices and by two vendors who argued the case raised important issues about the scope of the constitutional right to sexual privacy.

The law prohibited the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." First-time violators can face a fine of up to $10,000 and as much as one year in jail.

The law, adopted in 1998, allowed the sale of ordinary vibrators and body massagers that are not designed or marketed primarily as sexual aids. It exempted sales of sexual devices "for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."

Georgia and Texas are the only other states that restrict the distribution of sexual devices, according to the court record in the case.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing those who challenged the law, argued that private, consensual sexual conduct among adults is constitutionally protected and beyond the reach of government regulation.

They said the Supreme Court's decision in 2003 striking down a Texas sodomy law also created a fundamental, constitutional due process right to sexual privacy.

"The evidence shows that this case is not about novelty items, naughty toys or obscene matter. It is a case about human sexuality and extremely intimate acts," the attorneys said.

They said Alabama has never explained "why sales of performance enhancing drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra and even ribbed condoms are not similarly prohibited."

The attorneys said the state did not contest the evidence that about 20 percent of all American women use a vibrator and at least 10 percent of sexually active adults use vibrators in their regular sex life.

A federal judge ruled against the state and found a constitutional "right to use sexual devices like ... vibrators, dildos, anal beads and artificial vaginas."

But a U.S. appeals court based in Atlanta upheld the law by a 2-1 vote.

The appeals court said it agreed with Alabama that the law exercised time-honored use of state police power to restrict the sale of sex. It rejected the ACLU's argument that the constitutional right to privacy covered the commercial sale of sex toys.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King opposed the ACLU's appeal.

"This case involves conduct that is both public and commercial -- the sale of sexual devices to the general public in commercial retail shopping centers" and at in-house Tupperware-style parties, he said.

King said the law respected "the distinction between public commercial conduct and purely private behavior." He said, "It ... stays out of people's bedrooms."

The justices rejected the appeal without any comment or recorded dissent.

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Beer Commercial Featuring Shotgun Is Banned

LONDON (Reuters) - A "threatening" beer advertisement depicting a double-barreled shotgun pointed at the viewer was banned by Britain's advertising watchdog on Wednesday.

There were 51 complaints about the advert for Ruddles ale which featured a shotgun positioned at the reader from between two pub stools, and read: "Excuse me, I believe that's my seat."

Complainants said the advertisement, which appeared in newspapers, was offensive and irresponsible because it condoned the threatening use of guns.

The Union Pub Company said the advert was particularly offensive to pub landlords.

Greene King, which produces Ruddles, said the advert was part of their "uncompromisingly from the country" campaign, which targeted male bitter-drinkers who would recognize the humor behind the advertisement.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the advertisement was "unlikely to be seen as condoning or provoking anti-social behavior" but added it could be considered threatening and was likely to cause "serious or widespread offence."

The authority told Greene King not to run the advertisement again.

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US-Cuba Hostility Turns to Cartoons, Time Capsules

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cartoons and time capsules are the newest weapons in a four-decade-old war of words between the United States and Cuba.

Long-simmering U.S.-Cuba tensions have heated up since last May when President Bush tightened sanctions and said he would step up propaganda against Cuban President Fidel Castro and support for Cuban dissidents in a move to hasten the downfall of communist rule on the island.

Cuba's state-run television has fired back by broadcasting cartoons lampooning the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, James Cason, as the point man for a transition to a post-Castro Cuba sought by the Bush administration.

The cartoons depict Cason as a fairy creature who at the tap of his wand privatizes a health-care center and a school -- renamed Nixon High School -- only to be chased back into the U.S. diplomatic compound by angry Cubans.

Another cartoon mocks U.S. plans to vaccinate all Cuban children -- ostensibly the most inoculated among Third World countries -- when Cuba's communist state is gone.

The series of four cartoons aired since last week warns Cubans their free health care and education will be lost if U.S. plans for post-Castro Cuba, laid out by the White House last year, come true.

Cuban officials see the plan as a blueprint for the overthrow of their socialist system and have warned Cuba's 11 million inhabitants to prepare for the worst -- a U.S. invasion. U.S. diplomats deny any attack is planned and say the Cuban government is on its last legs.

'TRANSITION MAN'

Cason, an outspoken diplomat who has openly backed opponents of Castro since assuming the Havana post in late 2002, said the cartoons were designed to instill the fear of change into Cubans.

"The cartoons about my alter-ego "Transition Man" clearly show that the Cuban regime realizes that a transition is not only inevitable but fast approaching," Cason said in a statement.

Cason has been no less imaginative in devising ways of embarrassing the Cuban government.

In December, he invited a dozen dissidents to bury a time capsule in his garden to be opened the day democratic elections are allowed in Cuba.

The capsule contained reports on human rights abuses under Cuban communism, a copy of "Animal Farm," George Orwell's allegory of revolutions that go wrong, and a speech by Bush unveiling plans to speed the end of Castro's rule.

Cason also built in his backyard a replica of a solitary confinement cell used to punish a leading Castro opponent.

On U.S. Election Day last November, he held a mock ballot at his residence, with dissidents who wore Bush-Cheney buttons voting in a landslide for the Republican president.

The stunt by Cason that most annoyed the Cuban government was a neon sign with the number "75" put up in the grounds of the U.S. mission on Havana's seafront as part of Christmas decorations that included Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus and his reindeer.

The number referred to dissidents imprisoned in March 2003 in the worst crackdown on Castro's opponents in decades.

Cuban authorities responded with a gigantic caricature of Cason dressed as a Nazi corporal dropping bombs instead of presents from a sleigh pulled by soldiers.

Across the street, a large billboard erected on the Malecon sea wall showed bloody scenes of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, with a large red swastika and the words "Fascists: made in U.S.A."

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Hungry Field Mice Knock Out Phone Network

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Hungry field mice caused a 20-hour telephone blackout in central Sweden Tuesday by gnawing through cables, telecom operator TeliaSonera said.

Fixed-line phone connections for more than 1,500 homes in Jamtland and Medelpad in central Sweden, were severed late on Monday by hungry rodents chewing their way through a fiber-optic cable near the town of Ange. Mobile phones were also cut off.

"This is not at all common," said Hans Borjesson, a technician at TeliaSoneria.

Thousands of homes in Sweden have already been without phones and electricity for weeks as the result of a heavy storm in early January that killed seven people.

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Travel Firm Seeks Money by Breaking Hearts

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The delicate problem of how to dump a lover before moving on to the next one has been given a new twist by a Dutch Web site.

The site suggests women tell their partner they want a baby and men buy their girlfriend underwear that's too big.

But instead of just helping people give lovers the elbow, the site sells holidays -- working on the assumption that people want to go away for a fling without the shackles of a loved one at home, Dutch communications company Young Works said.

Some 180,000 people have visited http://www.dumpjeschatje.nl since it was launched Monday, it said.

The site also provides two downloadable documents with blanks left for names -- one a curt business-style letter, the other a scathing poem -- to end relationships in writing.

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You Wear Extra-Large Panties, Right Honey?

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The delicate problem of how to dump a lover before moving on to the next one has been given a new twist by a Dutch Web site.

The site suggests women tell their partner they want a baby and men buy their girlfriend underwear that's too big.

But instead of just helping people give lovers the elbow, the site sells holidays -- working on the assumption that people want to go away for a fling without the shackles of a loved one at home, Dutch communications company Young Works said.

Some 180,000 people have visited http://www.dumpjeschatje.nl since it was launched Monday, it said.

The site also provides two downloadable documents with blanks left for names -- one a curt business-style letter, the other a scathing poem -- to end relationships in writing.

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Hint: It's Above South Korea

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has menaced Japan with missiles, kidnapped its citizens and stands between it and a place in the soccer World Cup finals, but one in four Japanese high-school students can't place the country on a map.

Only 76 percent of high school pupils in a survey by an academic body could locate the reclusive communist state, despite a daily bombardment of news about it in the Japanese media.

As for Iraq, where Japan has some 550 soldiers in one of the country's most controversial overseas deployments and where a Japanese was beheaded by kidnappers, over 40 percent of university students and high-school pupils couldn't find it.

"While students are interested in the news, they don't see it as important to know where the countries are," said Yumiko Takizawa, a geography professor at Teikyo University who ran the survey for the Association of Japanese Geographers.

"Inter-dependence and links between countries are ever more important," Takizawa said. "It's clear that an education system that teaches a proper knowledge of the world is needed."

The survey polled 3,773 students at 25 top universities and 1,027 high-school pupils at nine schools across Japan.

They were handed a world map with 30 numbered countries and asked to write the number corresponding to 10 countries that have recently featured regularly in the news.

It wasn't only small countries that didn't register, however.

Takizawa said that some students couldn't find the United States and located it in China, Brazil or the central African state of Congo.

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Two Policemen Rewarded for 'Integrity'

KAMPALA (Reuters) - In an effort to boost morale among Uganda's ill-paid and often corrupt police force, the government has rewarded two officers who declined bribes and fought off robbers trying to steal exam papers.

Education Minister Namirembe Bitamazire gave the two constables 500,000 shillings (about $300) for standing up to the thieves, who targeted a store holding secondary school papers in central Luweero district, newspapers reported Wednesday.

The state-owned New Vision said the four robbers first tried to bribe the policemen guarding the store, but when that failed produced weapons and tried to steal the tests at gunpoint.

The policemen arrested one of the robbers at the scene and the others fled -- but were later arrested.

"These officers showed a high caliber of integrity. They refused a bribe and stood up to the thieves," an official from the Uganda National Examination Board told the New Vision.

Uganda's police force is poorly paid, and junior officers often demand bribes to overlook minor traffic offences.

The robbery attempt took place in November, days before students were due to sit their exams, the paper said, and the policemen received their reward Tuesday.

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Paris Hilton Exposed on Web After Phone Hacked

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Racy photos of reality TV star Paris Hilton again spread across the Internet on Tuesday -- this time accompanied by celebrity phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other information hacked from her mobile phone.

The heiress to the Hilton Hotels fortune, who featured in a sexually explicit videotape posted online in 2003, has now had her star-studded contact list, personal notes and topless self-portraits from her Sidekick II "smart phone" splattered all over the Web.

Movie star Lindsay Lohan, rapper Eminem, singer Christina Aguilera and Hilton's "Simple Life" co-star Nicole Richie were among dozens of celebrities whose contact information was on hacker sites and discussion boards.

Many of those listed in Hilton's phone book changed their numbers after receiving a deluge of unwanted calls, according to the New York Post.

"Paris feels badly that this happened and she feels badly that other people have been inconvenienced," said Gina Hoffman, Hilton's publicist.

The incident was another black eye for mobile carrier T-Mobile USA Inc., which suffered negative publicity last month after court documents revealed that a hacker had gained access to more than 400 of its customer accounts.

"T-Mobile's computer forensics and security team is actively investigating to determine how Ms. Hilton's information was obtained," the company said in a statement. "This includes the possibility that someone had access to one of Ms. Hilton's devices and/or knew her account password."

T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG declined to give further details.

Several security experts said the hack was likely continued fallout from an earlier intrusion of a T-Mobile database containing customer passwords and other information.

Once this circulated in the hacker underground, it was only a matter of time before someone made embarrassing material from a customer account public, said Richard Bejtlich, author of "The Tao of Network Security Monitoring."

"Pretty soon you get somebody who decides, 'I'm going to put this out on the Internet,'" he said. "They might be five or six people down the food chain."

Bejtlich said T-Mobile should have warned customers to change their passwords after the initial breach.

In an ironic twist, Hilton has appeared in commercials for the Sidekick II, which allows users to send e-mail and instant messages, browse the Web and snap pictures.

"I'm sure a lot of celebrities are probably throwing their Sidekicks away right now," said Tristan Henderson, a research assistant professor at Dartmouth College's Center for Mobile Computing.