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Police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books Russian police seized 100,000 copies of a book critical of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that activists planned to hand out at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Published: 6:22PM BST 16 Jun 2010 Copies of 'Putin. The Results. 10 Years on', written by opposition politicians Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov were "intended for participants of the forum", starting Thursday, according to Olga Kurnosova, head of the city's branch of the opposition United Civic Front, said. The reasons for the seizure "are not very clear", she said. The book, which has a total print-run of...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A University of California, Irvine, disciplinary committee ruled that a Muslim student group should be suspended for at least a year because of a protest that disrupted a talk by Israel's ambassador and led to the arrest of 11 students, according to documents released Monday......

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The story behind the legislation reads like a movie pitch. The wife of a Southern California police detective, distraught because she had lost custody of her children, tries to hire a hit man from the Vagos motorcycle gang to kill him. Instead, gang members alert police, who disguise themselves as biker thugs and secretly tape a conversation with her.....

DESTIN, Fla., - A foul odor that resulted in the closing of a road and the evacuation of some Florida homes turned out to be emanating from a 5-gallon jar of mayonnaise. Destin Fire Control District Fire Chief Kevin Sasser said two people living on Bent Arrow Road called to complain of the smell Tuesday and said the odor left them with trouble breathing and a burning sensation in their eyes, the Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., reported Monday. Sasser said the team searched the residence and discovered a "large barrel" left behind by the previous occupants...

Mother Nature has a wrath like no other. A Nebraska man was strangled to death by his pet boa constrictor while showing the snake to a friend, police reported on Thursday. Cory Byrne was pronounced dead Wednesday after police and paramedics loosened the 9-foot, 25-pound snake's deadly squeeze, said police. The Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha, which currently has custody of the red-tailed constrictor, has not been able to determine what prompted the attack. The boa seemed to be well-fed, according to the Humane Society's spokesman, Mark Langan. "The sad reality is, whether it's a dog or a cat or...

LLANWRTYD WELLS, Wales, - As has happened almost every year since 1980, a horse won the annual Man vs. Horse race Saturday in Wales. Sly Dai covered 22 miles of mixed terrain on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in 2 hours and 7 minutes, The Daily Telegraph reported. The fastest human in the race was 10 minutes slower. "It's great to have won," said Llinos Jones, who rode her own horse past the finish line. "I'm a local girl and I've been coming to see the race since I was a little girl but this was the first time...

What the heck Happened down all afternoon

LAS VEGAS, - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man who claims a Las Vegas hotel kidnapped him and his brother while he was dressed as Zorro. The lawsuit alleges Jason Perez-Morciglio, 36, was throwing away trash in front of The Venetian Jan. 15 with his brother, Sebastian Perez-Morciglio, 28 -- who sometimes dresses as Darth Vader for street performances with his brother but was not in costume -- when hotel security officers "kidnapped the brothers, forced them into a small room inside the Venetian Hotel and detained them," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported...

Since late last week a flood of pictures of oil-coated Gulf of Mexico birds—and conservationists painstakingly cleaning them—has added new emotional impact to the BP oil spill. Some experts—citing traditionally low survival rates for rescued birds—are controversially arguing it would be better to immediately and humanely kill the suffering birds. In a Spiegel Online article last month, German biologist Silvia Gaus argued that workers helping birds caught in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, should "kill, not clean." Gaus said studies show that more than 99 percent of rehabilitated birds will die anyway as a result of oil exposure, mainly due...

WARSAW — Poland's national museum on Thursday launched an exhibition of homosexual art ranging from ancient Greece to contemporary works, hailing it as a first for the strongly Catholic country. "Warsaw is the first city in this part of Europe to organise this kind of exhibition," museum director Piotr Piotrowski said at the opening of the show, titled "Ars Homo Erotica".

One poll compiled in 2004-2005 41% Rock 23% Rap/Hip-Hop 12% Pop 7% Country 7% Oldies 5% Dance/Club 2% Blues 2% Jazz 1% Classical 1% Latin

MILWAUKEE, - A Milwaukee man known by locals for openly displaying his handgun on a hip holster says he is giving up open carry after he was robbed at gunpoint. The 34-year-old man, who asked not to be named, said he believes openly displaying his handgun as allowed by law made him a target for the robbery and he sees it as evidence of the need for a concealed carry law, WTMJ-AM, Milwaukee, reported Thursday. Neighbors said the man was always carrying the weapon when they spotted him and he was known locally as "the guy with the gun." "It...

PORT LAVACA, Texas (AP) -- A giant pair of shears descends from a 70-foot crane above the Gulf of Mexico, grasping a chunk of metal and ruthlessly crunching it in clippers with a dinosaur-like six-foot bite. This massive 300,000-pound machine is part of Texas' attempt to clear its waters of unwanted ships, boats and rigs that have been scuttled there.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Since the Empire State Building owner won't light the landmark skyscraper for Mother Teresa, New York City officials are planning a day of service instead. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says she is also calling on New Yorkers to put battery-operated lights in their windows. The day of honor is Aug. 26, which would have been her 100th birthday.

When Susan Baxter stops to smell the roses, she has a higher purpose in mind. “On the sidewalks or in parks, wherever I go these days, I stop and count the bees,” says Baxter, a investment associate at UBS. In her own backyard on the Lower East Side, she sometimes spends an hour sipping cocktails and counting bees. “My neighbors all think I’m a weirdo.”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A flight attendant who police say took a loaded handgun to the Indianapolis International Airport says she had accidentally picked up a carry-on bag in which she had placed her gun. Amber Robillard was arrested and charged June 4 with carrying a handgun without a license and entering a controlled area in an airport with a weapon....

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Columbia man who had been injured in a fall in his home nearly 24 hours earlier was rescued after two U.S. Census workers knocked on his door.

LONDON, - The strapless black taffeta dress worn by Lady Diana Spencer to her first soiree with Prince Charles after they were engaged sold at auction for $277,068. The dress, with its form-fitting bodice and low-cut ruffled neckline, transformed the eventual princess of Wales from 19-year-old "Shy Di" in 1981 to one of the world's most influential fashion mavens, The Times of London reported Wednesday. The dress, which Kerry Taylor Auctions in London estimated would sell for about $72,000, was sold to Fundacion Museo de la Moda, a Chilean museum. The garment was thought to have been destroyed but was...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been released from prison to a halfway house in the mid-Atlantic region, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Wednesday.

Being short isn't easy. Short people make less money, have a harder time finding a mate, and are less likely to be elected to public office, statistics show. A new study suggests that it gets worse: The shortest short people -- men under 5 feet 5 inches and women under 5 feet -- are roughly 50 percent more likely than the tallest people to have a heart attack or die from heart disease, according to an analysis published in the European Heart Journal.