TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

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Leftist opens hotline to help fund campaign

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's left-wing presidential front-runner on Tuesday launched an automated telephone hot line -- the first of its kind in Mexican politics -- to raise money and compete with richer parties in next year's election.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, recorded a message on the hot line that charges callers by the minute and makes an automatic contribution to his campaign war chest.

It is the first time a Mexican candidate has used the tactic to raise money. They are more often set up by charities during fund-raising events.

"We do not have money. We are not using planes or private helicopters. ... We are running an intense grass-roots campaign, talking to people, taking up their proposals and listening to their feelings," Lopez Obrador says in the message.

"This is a very direct, very popular way of contributing to our cause with the idea that no money is taken illegally or from interest groups," he said.

Lopez Obrador was hugely popular as Mexico City's mayor for handing out pensions for the elderly and education grants for poor students.

He stepped down in July to run for president and has vowed to lift millions out of poverty if elected.

The leftist leads opinion polls by about 10 points but he is running with less money than President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.

Lopez Obrador is promoting that as a virtue, accusing his rivals of throwing away money on slick advertising campaigns.

He hopes his hot line will receive 10 million calls between now and next July's election. Supporters donate 60 pesos with each two-minute call, charged to their telephone accounts.

Election authorities approved the use of such a hot line but imposed a 1,000 peso-per-month limit on the amount of money that can be donated from any one residential telephone line. No donations are allowed from business or cellular phone accounts.

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Ruling party tries to rein in newcomers

TOKYO (Reuters) - Avoid brightly colored or expensive clothing, stand up straight and answer questions politely and modestly.

Worried by criticism of some of the huge intake of freshmen ruling party lawmakers -- including a 26-year-old college dropout and a former schoolteacher with a penchant for floral trouser suits -- Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has drawn up guidelines to help them deal with the media.

Apart from advice on posture and how to dress, the one-page instruction sheet includes suggested phrases for use in interviews, such as: "I will study with all my strength as I am still an amateur in the political world," Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday.

The party's youngest lawmaker, 26-year-old Taizo Sugimura, gained massive media coverage and infuriated party executives by boasting about his 20 million yen parliamentary salary after he was swept into office, along with 82 other new LDP members of the 480-seat lower house of parliament, by the party's landslide victory in last month's general election.

He told reporters he was looking forward to perks such as free train travel and meals at expensive restaurants, but later held a news conference to apologize for his "irresponsibility."

Fellow freshman lawmaker Nobuko Iwaki has also drawn media attention for her wardrobe of mostly pink trouser suits -- a stark contrast to the gray favored by the majority of male parliamentarians.

She has said she adopted the color to avoid confusion, because people often asked her whether she was male or female.

An LDP spokesman confirmed that the guidelines existed, but said he could not immediately confirm the contents.

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Scrap thieves test mettle of authorities

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Being bolted down is not enough in booming Shanghai where a crackdown has begun on scrap metal thieves stealing phone booths, traffic lights, manhole covers and wiring.

Tempted by soaring prices for metal, thieves stripped one residential compound of two thirds of its fire extinguishers.

"Some scrap metal dealers have become a channel for fencing stolen material," Shanghai government spokeswoman Jiao Yang told a news conference Wednesday, announcing new regulations and permit requirements for dealers.

China's economy has grown by more than nine percent for eight straight quarters, boosting domestic and international prices for copper, aluminum and steel and sucking in spare metal from every corner of the globe.

To keep stray pieces of public infrastructure from disappearing, only authorized dealers will be allowed to accept street signs, transformers, towers for electricity lines and other metal equipment vital to the city's functioning.

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Let there be light -- if you can afford it..

LONDON (Reuters) - How many men does it take to change a light bulb in a British church?

Thanks to the European Union's "Working at Heights Directive" the answer is four -- over three days at a cost of more than 1,300 pounds.

Preaching at St Benet's Church in Beccles, Suffolk in gathering gloom, Father Anthony Sutch had to call in electricians to change light bulbs that are 40 feet above the congregation.

Because safety regulations deemed the church ceiling too high for a ladder, scaffolding had to be erected for a lengthy and costly replacement operation.

Could Father Sutch have done the job himself?

"When I was a young monk. I climbed up a ladder to have a look at something and two girls whistled and said what good legs I have. I haven't climbed up a ladder since," he told Wednesday's Daily Mail.

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Fowl play suspected in theater abduction

LONDON (Reuters) - The star of a London West End theater comedy -- a talented duck called Daphne -- has been stolen, just two days before opening night.

Daphne was the leading lady in "Ducktastic" -- a spoof inspired by showbusiness duo Siegfried and Roy.

Daphne, who performs trick and bows to the audience in her show-stopping appearance, was stolen after a preview performance.

"I am very concerned. She had done 30 performances and was our best duck," producer David Pugh told Reuters. An understudy duck called Saber is waiting in the wings. "I hope it will be a case of 'A Star Is Born,'" Pugh added.

"The police came and were very supportive. Forty-five minutes after the theft, a lady found an empty box in Covent Garden. The box has been fingerprinted," Pugh said.

The show is being staged at a West End theater not far from London's Chinatown, famed for its Peking duck dishes.

"I am distraught. I found it too upsetting to walk through Chinatown afterwards in case there was any recognition," Pugh said. "It is not often you have a West End star stolen."

Pugh said he feared for the welfare of Daphne, a pure white Indian runner. "I hope they don't try to take this duck to water. Indian runners don't swim."

In desperation he has offered a reward -- two tickets to the play and an invitation to the first night party.

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Peru finds headless mummy predating Incas in Lima

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered the remains of the oldest mummy ever found in Peru's capital, Lima -- a high-ranking official of the Huari tribe who lived about 1,300 years ago, researchers said on Wednesday.

The headless mummy was found in September in Lima's Huaca Pucllana ceremonial complex after studies and exploration at the site.

"He was decapitated and belongs to the Huari culture that invaded Lima," said archeologist Isabel Flores, director of the Huaca Pucllana museum, adding the Huaris predated the Incas, who dominated South America from Colombia to Chile until being toppled by Spanish conquerors in the 1530s.

"Judging by the clothes he is wearing, we're talking about a senior official who was buried wrapped in cloth and tied with rope made of vegetal fiber," Flores added.

The Huaris, a warrior society that conquered Peru's central Andes and coastal regions between 600 and 1000 A.D, were known for their high-quality textiles and pottery styles.

They were supplanted by Ichmas, who Flores said were likely responsible for decapitating the Huari official well after he was buried in an attempt to erase all vestiges of a tribe that dominated them for years.

"It was an act of rebellion against the Huaris. Without doubt, this gives us valuable information about ancient inhabitants of what is now Peru's capital," she added.

The mummy, which was found surrounded by tunics and food such as corn and beans, is not well preserved because of the humidity of Peru's coast. Its dried skin and bones are badly chipped and many of its ligaments are visible.

Peru has made some striking mummy discoveries in recent years. In February last year, two 700-year-old mummies were found in southern Peru by construction workers under a school. Thousands of Inca mummies were found at an ancient cemetery under a shantytown near Lima in 2002.

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Suspected robber in biggest Brazil heist kidnapped

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Assailants posing as federal police agents have kidnapped a key suspect in Brazil's biggest bank robbery in which $72 million was stolen after thieves tunneled their way in, officials said on Wednesday.

The Sao Paulo state security secretariat said police were investigating claims by the family of Luiz Fernando Salles, who goes by the nickname Fe (Faith), that detectives investigating bank robberies may be involved in his kidnapping.

"No police officers have been identified. So far, it's unclear who was responsible," Godofredo Bittencourt Filho, who heads investigations into organized crime, told Reuters by telephone.

He said the kidnapping, which occurred next to a bar in Sao Paulo last Friday night, seemed to be the work of bandits.

Bittencourt said the family paid a ransom of 2 million reais, but the victim was not released and the family reported the case to the police.

In early August, thieves tunneled into a branch of the central bank in the northeastern state of Ceara over a weekend and removed 165 million reais, the biggest bank heist in the nation's history and one of the world's biggest.

The theft was not discovered until Monday morning when the bank reopened. Police have recovered about 10 percent of the stolen amount and made some arrests, but have not located suspects believed to have masterminded the robbery.

Police said Salles was an important suspect based on witness accounts.

The robbery exceeded the amount stolen by Britain's "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs, who fled to Brazil and lived in the country for many years. He and 11 others robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 and made off with 2.6 million pounds -- some 30 million pounds in today's money.

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House OKs "cheeseburger" bill barring lawsuits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday easily passed the so-called "cheeseburger bill" that would block lawsuits blaming the food industry for making people fat.

The "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" passed on a bipartisan 306 to 120 vote. The House approved a similar bill last year but it died in the Senate and no Senate action is scheduled on companion legislation.

Leading business groups and the White House back the bill. The White House in a statement said, "Food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers and sellers should not be held liable for injury because a person's consumption of legal, unadulterated food is associated with the person's weight gain or obesity."

The bill would block in state and federal courts what backers consider "frivolous lawsuits against the manufacturers, distributors or sellers of food or nonalcoholic

beverage products" arising from obesity claims. It would not block civil lawsuits stemming from tainted food.

The bill comes amid growing awareness of the public health implications of the U.S. obesity problem. But supporters of the bill said obesity and overeating should be dealt with by doctors, exercise routines and personal responsibility, not by lawyers and courts.

Democratic critics said the bill was unnecessary, that courts were throwing out such lawsuits and state legislatures were drawing up their own rules to prevent cases.

The best-known case, filed by several teenagers against McDonald's Corp., was thrown out of federal court. Part of the case was later reinstated.

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Haze of bad behavior hits Canadian amateur sports

TORONTO (Reuters) - Initiation rituals that included gagging and abuse with a broomstick have prompted a premature end to the season for Canada's oldest university football team, and a university-wide clamp down on hazing.

Montreal's McGill University, one of Canada's best-known schools, canceled the rest of the season after a new player complained that he and other rookies were gagged with a dog chew-toy, forced onto their hands and knees and prodded anally with a broomstick during the team's Rookie Night in August.

The story made headlines across Canada, and the university said on Wednesday it was taking steps to ensure nothing like this happened again.

"Our investigations showed that while in past years there were questionable things that occurred ... this is not wide-spread," said spokeswoman Jennifer Robinson.

"It's not something that's unique to McGill; it is out there. And in order for us to ensure that we have a climate of mutual respect and understanding operating in all our activities, we have to be much more pro-active."

The university suspended one player indefinitely and five others for one game. It canceled the remaining two games of the regular season on Tuesday and the entire team, including staff, must undertake two years' of community service.

"Today, we have evidence that we have not lived up to the very high standards that we at McGill set for ourselves," interim provost Anthony Masi said in a statement.

The incident follows another complaint about sports hazing, this time in the amateur Ontario Hockey League.

The Windsor Spitfires hockey team stuffed four naked rookies into the washroom of their bus, and turned up the heat.

Akim Aliu, 16, refused to take part in the ritual and later lost four teeth when a teammate body-checked him in the mouth.

After a 19-day investigation, the league's commissioner fined the team C$35,000 and suspended its coach.

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Rare misprint stamps sell for nearly $3 million

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of four flawed, early U.S. airmail stamps, originally priced at 24 cents each, sold at auction for $2.97 million on Wednesday.

An unidentified private collector bought the so-called "Inverted Jenny" stamps at the Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, the auction house said.

The 1918 stamp depicting a Curtiss JN-4H airplane was the first U.S. airmail stamp. Only a single flawed sheet of 100 stamps showing the airplane flying upside down was ever sold.

The original sheet of "Inverted Jenny" stamps was sold for $24 to William Robey on May 14, 1918. Robey sold the sheet a week later for $15,000. News of the error spread rapidly, embarrassing postal officials, who already faced skepticism over the experimental airmail program.

The sheet has since been split up and prices have rocketed to more than $500,000 for a single stamp.

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Astrologer wrong on the big prediction

BHOPAL, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of people flocked to a village in central India Thursday to see if an astrologer who forecast his own death would indeed die as predicted.

But the 75-year-old man survived the day.

Kunjilal Malviya, who lives south of the Madhya Pradesh state capital Bhopal, had been meditating in his house after announcing he would die Thursday between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m

(0930-1130 GMT).

A police official confirmed the astrologer was fine and quoted his family members as saying the prediction failed because many of those gathered had prayed for him to live.

"We are afraid of his prediction coming true because all his predictions till date have been correct," his son Anirudh said by phone earlier Thursday.

"My father had predicted the death of my grandfather 15 years ago and it came true exactly like he calculated."

Police have been posted near the house to prevent the astrologer from killing himself, authorities said.

Millions of Indians consult astrologers about their futures as well as marriage and job prospects.

Malviya's prediction is not the first of its type by an Indian astrologer. But in the past, crowds have beaten up astrologers when their predicted demise failed to occur.

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In Katrina's wake, a tattoo boom in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Natalie, 20, knows what she needs to capture her complicated feelings about Hurricane Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans: a tattoo.

On a recent night at Crescent City Tattoo in New Orleans, she is lined up with about a dozen others to have messages and images inked on their bodies, many prompted by the killer storm that ripped through New Orleans seven weeks earlier.

Tattoo artists report a surge in demand for designs that celebrate New Orleans: fleur-de-lis patterns, "NOLA," after the city's widely known abbreviation, and even a symbol modeled after the weather-map depiction of hurricanes.

Between returning residents, construction workers pouring into the battered city and the National Guard troops preparing to pack up and head home, demand has been brisk.

"It's not like people are getting 'I Survived Katrina,'" manager and resident body piercing expert Erik Clemmer said. "But I think people are happy to be alive."

Natalie, who asked that her last name not be used because she does not want her parents to know she is getting a tattoo, chose a line from the musical "Cabaret," to carry on her left hip: "In here, life is beautiful."

The line conjures the menacing forces swirling around Berlin in the 1930s, she says, adding that it seems apt for New Orleans, another city that has cultivated an image of sinfulness.

"I think it's perfect because outside the world is falling apart," she said.

Seated nearby U.S. Army Spec. Brian Wood, a member of the Illinois National Guard, was getting a lyric from a rock song framed by two pistols needled into his right forearm.

The line from band Killswitch Engage stuck with him as a kind of mantra during 18 months in Iraq and six weeks in New Orleans, especially during the early days of high water and looting, the 20-year-old said.

"This is the path I walk. I walk it with my own resolve," he said, quoting the song. "It means I know what I'm doing. And, I don't know, it just seemed like the time to get it."

Tattoo artist Juju Becker spent days after the late August storm working up designs like "Katrina" written on a Second World War era-bomb, just in case clients showed up asking for that kind of hurricane tattoo.

But, he said, most request a storm-related message that has personal resonance.

A New Orleans Police Officer in uniform, who asked that his name not be used because he was critical of the conduct of other police, came in with a design for himself and comrades in the First District, which now calls itself "Fort Apache."

A badge-like design, the tattoo reads: "Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Police, Fort Apache District."

"We were the only ones that stayed. The only ones that held," he said of his police station in the chaos that followed the storm. "They were shooting at us in the station. We were shooting back. I'm glad people are back now. It was like a zombie movie, man."

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And the world's oldest first-time fathers are..

ROME (Reuters) - Italian men become fathers at a later age than any other nationality, and do little or nothing to help their wives once their babies are born, statistics office Istat said Thursday.

Italian men have their first child at an average age of 33, against less than 31 for fathers in Spain, France and Finland, Istat said.

Part of the problem was that many Italian men lived with their parents for longer than elsewhere in the world, with 40 percent of 30-34 year-old Italian males still staying at home.

When they eventually become fathers, Italian women need not expect much help around the house, Istat said, adding that Italian men's dedication to domestic duties was "non-existent or unsatisfying."

Istat said men who married at the age of 35 were 80 percent less likely to want a child than those who married at 25, while women were only likely not to want children if they were older than their husbands.

By contrast with the men, Italian women have their first child at an average age of 27, six months before their Finnish counterparts.

Thursday's statistics will do little to reassure the Italian government which is worried by a demographic time bomb, with Italians rapidly aging and many couples deciding to only have one child or none at all.

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Dead man gets parking ticket

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian authorities have apologized to the family of an elderly man who was given a parking ticket while he lay dead in his car in a suburban shopping center.

The 71-year-old man, known to be seriously ill, went missing nine days ago and his body was found in his car in a shopping mall car park in a Melbourne suburb, police said.

A parking ticket had been placed on the car the day before his body was found.

"It's just tragic. It must be just so sad for the family and we extend our sincere sympathies to them," local mayor Paul Denham told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday.

"The circumstances surrounding the location of this poor fellow must make it all the harder for the family. It is simply a case of the parking officer not noticing."

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Golf scores soar as strong winds play havoc

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Strong winds played havoc at the Origins of Golf Tour Championship in the town of George on Thursday, with the halfway cut being made at a record 17-over-par 163.

Only eight players broke 80 in the 50mph winds at The Links course at Fancourt while the lowest score was three-over 76.

Asian Tour regular Nico van Rensburg made the halfway cut despite shooting an 87. Two players carded 93s.

It was the first round in Sunshine Tour history in which nobody broke par, officials said.

There was concern for scrawny Omar Sandys, the thinnest player on tour who weighs only 60kg.

"I swear I saw him hit his drive at 16 and the wind just picked him up and dumped him in the water on 15," joked playing partner Bradford Vaughan.

Steve Basson led the way despite recording a six-over 79 for a two-over total of 148.

The Links hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup and the 2004 Women's World Cup of Golf and will also be the venue for the European Tour's South African Open in December.

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Mao lookalike revolutionizes weddings

BEIJING (Reuters) - Late Chairman Mao Zedong is experiencing a revival in northeast China, but in an unlikely role -- as a wedding MC.

Li Shouxin, an actor in his 50s and dead-ringer for Mao in a trademark blue suit, was in great demand among soon-to-be-weds in Changchun, Jilin province, and played the part at an average five to six weddings a month, the China Daily said Friday.

"At weddings, Li begins with a typical Mao-style wave to guests before greeting people in the strong Hunan brogue of the leader's home province," the report said.

"He then invites the happy couples' parents to speak and tells anecdotes about the newly weds."

Li charged 500 yuan per appearance, which included a rendition of the revolutionary tune and paean to Mao "The East is Red," the paper said.

Mao, the founder of modern China, is still widely revered in China despite having engineered the Great Leap Forward, which led to famine that claimed millions of lives in the late 1950s, and the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

The standard line in China is that Mao did 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong.

While Li has proved popular, not everyone in Changchun is taken with the idea of the Great Helmsman as wedding MC.

"Chairman Mao is my most respected person," 69-year-old Ren Shuzhen was quoted as saying.

"To dress up in his image and preside over weddings hurts people's feelings toward the great man."

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Senate budget chief wins big in lottery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, worries that his deficit-ridden, free-spending country is gambling on its future.

But the New Hampshire Republican's own little gamble paid off big time when he won $853,492 -- before taxes -- as a second place winner in the multi-state Powerball lottery.

Gregg said on Thursday that he had bought $20 worth of tickets at a Washington gas station on his way to work on Monday. With gas selling for around $3 a gallon in Washington, Gregg said he was watching his bill mount when he decided to buy the lottery tickets "and see if I can make some of it back."

Gregg, who is affluent but not among the Senate's multi-millionaires, said he would donate part of the money to a foundation named for his father, Hugh, which helps New Hampshire charities.

About a third will go to taxes and his wife will have a say in how the rest is spent. "She deserves that," he said.

Meanwhile his colleagues gathered around him, mercilessly teasing him and proclaiming that they were long lost relatives "They're tormenting me," Gregg said.

The budget chief, who can rattle off all sorts of statistics about federal spending, said he couldn't remember what his winning numbers were. "The first one was a seven," he said.

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Landing in Alaska? Fear moose collisions no more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Pilots flying into and out of a small airport north of Anchorage, Alaska, no longer have to keep an eye out for stray moose on the runway.

The municipal airport at Wasilla, a town about 40 miles north of Anchorage, has installed an electric anti-moose mat around the airfield.

The barrier, similar to grated cattle guards on ranches, aims to prevent collisions between aircraft and the area's large moose population.

"They'd feel a shock and they'd also hear a snap. Those two things would cause the moose to not go in there," said Archie Giddings, public works director for Wasilla.

Airfield workers regularly had to chase the large ungulates away and moose have proved adept at getting through the gates of the airport's conventional fence, Giddings said.

A bull moose can weigh 1,000 pounds and stand 6 feet high.

"If they ever did come to the runway and have a collision with an aircraft, that could be disastrous to the pilot," Giddings said. "An airplane could disintegrate if it hits a moose."

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Kidnapped suspect in Brazil bank heist found dead

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Police found the bullet-riddled body on Thursday of a key suspect in Brazil's biggest bank robbery, in which $72 million was stolen after thieves tunneled their way in.

Luiz Fernando Salles, 26, was kidnapped next to a bar in Brazil's financial capital of Sao Paulo last Friday night by assailants claiming to be federal police agents. Police said it seemed to be the work of bandits.

"A body was found and identified as that of Salles," said Rui Ferraz, head of the Sao Paulo police bank robberies unit.

Salles' family had paid a ransom of 2 million reais, but when the victim wasn't released they reported the crime to the police.

In August, thieves tunneled into a branch of the central bank in the northeastern state of Ceara and stole 165 million reais, the biggest bank heist in Brazilian history and one of the world's biggest.

Police have only recovered about 10 percent of the stolen funds and made some arrests, but had not found any of the suspected masterminds.

Police said Salles, nicknamed Fe (Faith), was an important suspect based on witness accounts.

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Wal-Mart heir returns degree amid cheating claims

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart heiress Elizabeth Paige Laurie has surrendered her college degree following allegations that she cheated her way through the school.

The University of Southern California said in a statement that Laurie, 23, "voluntarily has surrendered her degree and returned her diploma to the university. She is not a graduate of USC."

The statement, dated September 30, said the university had ended its review of the allegations concerning Laurie.

Laurie's roommate, Elena Martinez, told a television show last year that she was paid $20,000 to write term papers and complete other assignments for the granddaughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton. Wal-Mart is the world's biggest retailer. The family could not be reached for comment.

Following the allegations, the University of Missouri renamed its basketball arena, which had been paid for in part by a $425 million donation from the Lauries and was to have been called "Paige Sports Arena."