Queens tops the pops

Their over-the-top rock may not win the critical acclaim given The Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but Queen can claim Britain's best-selling album of all time. The Official UK Charts Company said Thursday that Queen's "Greatest Hits" had sold more than 5.4 million copies in Britain since its release in 1981, more than any other record.

The band, fronted by the late Freddie Mercury, is famous for overblown hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You." Queen's follow-up "Greatest Hits II" is the seventh best-selling album in Britain, according to the list.

The Beatles' 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was second, selling 4.8 million copies, followed by Oasis' 1995 disc "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" with 4.3 million.
Albums by Dire Straits, ABBA, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and Madonna are also in the top 10 of the list, compiled by checking more than a half-century of sales figures. (Top 100 albums)

The list proves critical kudos do not always translate into sales. Some of the most revered acts of the last half-century -- including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols -- do not have an album in the top 100.

Boy band member turned solo showman Robbie Williams has six, while Oasis, Michael Jackson and Celine Dion have three each.

The Top 10:

• 1. "Greatest Hits," Queen, 5,407,587
• 2. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Beatles, 4,811,996
• 3. "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" Oasis, 4,314,715
• 4. "Brothers In Arms," Dire Straits, 3,956,704
• 5. "Gold," Abba, 3,943,950
• 6. "The Dark Side Of The Moon," Pink Floyd, 3,781,993
• 7. "Greatest Hits II," Queen, 3,644,619
• 8. "Thriller," Michael Jackson, 3,578,107
• 9. "Bad," Michael Jackson, 3,554,301
• 10. "The Immaculate Collection," Madonna, 3,402,160

Calling all egotists

Surely one of the greatest marks of success, the thing that really sets you apart from the rest, is getting a call from Madame Tussauds requesting your presence, so that they can immortalise you in wax. With locations all over the world, Madame Tussauds is renowned for creating the most spectacular likenesses of the world's most famous and revered people.

Walk into any Madame Tussauds and you'll find yourself inadvertently chatting with Brad Pitt, having a laugh with JFK, or possibly sticking your tongue out at Thatcher. The works are so remarkably lifelike that it's unnerving they don't breathe.

There is no clearer indication that you've "made it" than being 'done' by Madame Tussauds, but we can't all be famous. Fortunately that's no longer necessary, now you can commission their brilliant wax artists to immortalise you.

You don't have to be famous, or even revered, but you do need to be minted. Setting you back a cool £150,000 you will have an entourage (oops, we mean team) of twenty people lavishing you and your sculpture with attention for four whole months. You heard us correctly, four months. This is how long it takes to get the perfect detail, to reflect your exact measurements, to capture your expression and to match your hair and eye colour to achieve the 'Version II' of you.

If you don't have time to go to all the sittings in London, the sculptors are skilled enough to progress with research photos. All the sittings are however included in the price, as is a DVD and photo album of the process. A team will also transport and install your wax figure in your chosen private location.

Although your figure will not actually be displayed in Madame Tussauds itself, the quality and detail of your figure is identical to those displayed in the attraction. You won't be restricted by opening hours and you can make like a VIP, and only invite your chosen visitors to admire your double.

One law for them and another for the rest of us

A policeman who was cleared of speeding on his way to pick up a Chinese takeaway still faces disciplinary action, his chief constable has said. Pc Stephen Akrill was caught by a speed camera in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, driving a police Land Rover at 48mph in a 40mph zone.

Magistrates let him off after he said he had been on his way to an accident. South Yorkshire's chief constable said it was "very regrettable" he had apparently disregarded a speed camera.

Pc Akrill told Rotherham Magistrates' Court on Wednesday how he decided to help after receiving reports of a serious road accident on the evening of 13 February this year.
But when he heard other units had responded he aborted his journey and went to the takeaway instead.

However, the court heard he had not been called to respond to the crash, did not have sirens or blue lights on and was not taking the quickest route to the scene.

He was spotted by a motorist triggering a speed camera and then entering the Wickersley Cantonese takeaway, emerging minutes later with several bags of food.

Magistrates were told the takeaway had been ordered in advance.

Pc Akrill, 41, admitted he had been "foolish" in not reporting to his bosses, as he should have done, that he had triggered the speed camera in Wickersley.

But the South Yorkshire officer denied speeding in his marked police Land Rover and was cleared after a day-long trial.

Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes said on Friday: "This incident has obviously raised public concern and it is very regrettable that an officer should apparently have disregarded a speed camera under these circumstances.

"The decision of the court in the face of the evidence presented to them is entirely a matter for them, but South Yorkshire Police will always seek to prosecute police drivers where evidence suggests they have failed to comply with the law which covers their use of police vehicles. In this case, the evidence was independently reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service and disciplinary enquiries will continue."

Paul Smith, founder of the anti-camera group Safe Speed, said: "The hypocrisy is absolutely breathtaking.

"It's clearly one law for them and another for the rest of us. Cases like this do immeasurable damage to the police-public relationship."

First sex toy advert for Britain

The first sex toy commercial to be shown on UK terrestrial TV will hit screens this week. A vibrating penis ring will appear in the 30-second advert on Channel 4 and Five and satellite channels.

Durex, which makes the disposable toy, said the post-11pm broadcast restriction for the commercial was too severe.

It wants permission to show the "tastefully shot" advert after the 9pm watershed.

The commercial shows a couple sitting a dinner table. The man gives the woman what looks like an engagement ring box.

She opens the box, smiles, and says "I do."

Durex managing director Martyn Ward said the company would lobby to get the commercial shown after the 9pm watershed.

"There is nothing rude or crude about the advert, which is tastefully shot, and we feel this restriction is hypocritical, given the images of a sexual nature you quite regularly see on TV at this time of night," he said.

Durex has sold more than 400,000 of the £5.99 disposable vibrating rings since they launched last year.

The commercial will be broadcast after 11pm from this Friday.

Eat humble pie ?

Like cheese rolling and greased-pig chasing, it was once a popular attraction at village fetes the length and breadth of Britain. But now an old fashioned pie-eating contest has become the latest casualty in the campaign for healthy eating.

Organisers of an annual pie-eating competition have been forced to change the rules of their splendidly messy contest.

Traditionally first prize has always gone to the contestant who could munch their way through the most meat and potato pies in three minutes.

But now the title of World Pie Eating Champion will be awarded to the person who can eat a single pie in the shortest time.

The move to cut the calorific intake of competitors has been made in response to the Government drive to cut obesity and promote healthy eating. And in another break with tradition, the field will also be open to vegetarians who will eat their own non-meat pie. (shouldn't be allowed !)

But the changes have provoked anger among previous winners of the pie-eating title in Wigan who have accused organisers of bowing to food fascists. Dave Smyth, 48, a painter, who won the first contest in 1992 when he ate four pies in three minutes, said: "This contest has always been about savouring as many pies as possible over a three-minute period, not sprinting through a few mouthfuls of a single pie.

"They've taken things too far this year. Pies are supposed to be meat and potato and anything else just isn't normal. I intend to lobby the organising committee and I'm not going to rest until I've got answers."

The pies traditionally used in the annual contest in Wigan contain around 400 calories each and weigh in at around 12oz. Organisers insist the cooked dimensions need to ensure a diameter of at least 12cm and a depth of 3.5cms with a pie wall angle from base to top of between zero and 15 degrees.

To claim the title, competitors must have consumed the whole pie and have an empty mouth for the last pie to count. Last year's winner Anthony "The Anaconda" Danson, a weight-trainer from Pemberton, Lancashire, managed to eat seven pies in three minutes setting a new record.

Organiser Tony Callaghan confirmed he had been forced to change the rules because of the healthy eating campaign.

He said: "I realise it may be controversial, but this is the way forward for pie-eating at this level. It will make for an exciting sporting spectacle, whilst also doffing its cap to Government guidelines on obesity. We have also bowed to relentless pressure from the Vegetarian Society and agreed to introduce a vegetarian option, although vegetarian pie-eaters in the competition will be allowed to eat a slightly smaller version because of its rather more glutinous content. We will not stop competitors from entering both championships - so there is every possibility we will have a double world champion for the first time."

Wigan residents are playfully called pie-eaters, but the nickname is not thought to be because of their appetite for the delicacy. The name is said to date from the 1926 General Strike when miners from the town were starved back to work before their counterparts in surrounding towns and were therefore forced to eat "humble pie".

Mr Callaghan, who owns the venue, Harry's Bar, said that entries from across the world are invited for the contest on December 13.

Early indications, however, suggest that the competitor travelling the furthest to this year's contest comes from Ashton in Makerfield - about five miles away.

Silly bitch leaves tax-payers with £50,000 bill

A dispute between two rich neighbours over a game of football in their communal gardens ended in farce at the High Court, leaving the taxpayer with a £50,000 bill.

City banker Christopher Fleming-Brown was taken to court after he was spotted kicking a ball around with his five-year-old son in the residents-only square in Notting Hill, West London.

His accuser was Paula Lawton, his 63-year-old neighbour, who insisted Mr Fleming-Brown had breached local bye-laws.

In a private prosecution, Miss Lawton took the case to the West London Magistrates' Court, where the Compact Oxford English Dictionary was used to determine whether the 46-year-old father had broken the law.

Magistrates eventually dismissed the case, ruling that as he and his son were not 'teams' they had done nothing wrong.

Miss Lawton, who is single and lives in a one-bedroomed £450,000 garden flat in upmarket Elgin Crescent, was not satisfied and proceeded to take the case to the High Court, where she successfully challenged the magistrates' ruling yesterday.

But Lord Justice Waller, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy, said Mr Fleming-Brown's acquittal would stand, as a retrial would not be in the public interest.

As Miss Lawton technically won her case by proving the pair were playing football, she was not ordered to pay any costs, leaving that burden to the taxpayer.

Monster truck

It's a monster truck to put paid to all others. Meet the new BelAZ-75600 - the shape of 21st century coal mining.

The 26ft-tall machine is more than twice the height and twice as powerful as the monster trucks seen in touring shows up and down the country.

Indeed, it could lug 40 of the machines without a problem, or a comparable number of African elephants if one was so inclined.

The 75600 was unveiled in September by Belarussian firm BelAz, which stands for Belarussian Automobile Plant - one of the largest manufacturers of such vehicles in the world.

The machine boasts a 320-ton capacity with 3,600 horsepower at its disposal, the equivalent to 18 Volkswagen Golf GTIs.

It has been designed for use in large-scale civil engineering projects and open-cast mining, where the many blind spots at the rear are less of a hindrance than they would be on the M4, for instance.

To get around the problem, the truck is fitted with video cameras on the side and rear, which feed images to the driver perched high in the cab.

Car to test for drunkeness ?

Convicted drink-drivers in America may soon have to fit a device that requires them to pass an in-car breath test before the engine will start and disables the ignition if it detects alcohol.

The scheme has been in force in New Mexico for first-time and repeat offenders over the past year, during which time there has been an 11.3 per cent decrease in alcohol-linked road deaths.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) called this week for similar changes in traffic laws in America’s other 49 states, some of which already use the so-called ignition interlocks, but only for drivers with multiple convictions. But these devices can be easily circumvented by the driver getting a sober friend to blow into the tube instead.

So car manufacturers and the federal government are reported to be backing research into a new generation of technology for detecting alcohol in a driver’s body. Saab is already testing a device that attaches to a key chain, while other transdermal sensors may be able to read alcohol content when a driver’s palm touches the steering wheel or the gear stick.

Even more advanced versions can detect when a car is weaving down the road while being driven by an impaired driver.

Plumbers art fence

Some people use scarecrows to chase away birds, or garlic to block vampires. Rick Froebe uses toilets to repel golfers. Froebe has erected a backyard "fence" made of seven old toilets, a few used bathtubs and some broken-down water heaters, all designed to prevent golfers from the adjacent Lakeview Golf & Country Club from approaching his yard.

While critics say Froebe is acting out in a dispute with the golf course and other neighbors, the plumber insists his fence is not meant to be offensive.

"It's plumber art," Froebe, 52, said.

Besides, he added, "It's not like this is Pebble Beach. This is Lakeview."

On Monday, three scarecrow-like dummies sat on toilets and looked on as golfers finished their putts on the 354-yard, par-4 first hole. The old commodes, bathtubs and water heaters first appeared on Halloween.

Froebe, co-owner of Coulee Dam/Ephrata Plumbing, used to belong to the golf club, but resigned in May in a dispute with other members.

He said the golfers near his property make his four dogs start barking, which has prompted upset neighbors to call the Grant County sheriff's office. Froebe has lived in the house for 15 years.

Gerald Coulter, representing the country club's nine-member board of directors, called the situation "completely ridiculous."

"I've had several people call that were upset with (the 'fence'). It's an eyesore," Coulter said. "I'm surprised the health department hasn't been out there because of the used toilets and water tanks. It's not a sanitary condition."

Meanwhile, the sheriff's office has warned Froebe three times that his dogs are a nuisance, said Larry Ledeboer, the sheriff's animal control officer.

"The sheriff's office doesn't write a lot of barking infractions," Ledeboer said. "We give warnings and try to work with people."

To date, Froebe has received three barking infractions. A first-offense barking infraction is $47 per dog, Ledeboer said. The second offense is $95. A third offense is $190.

Froebe said he recently bought special dog collars that discourage barking.

A stray dog has become a national celebrity in Japan, as millions watched his rescue, six days after he was stranded up a cliff.

Pictures of the stranded dog were beamed live across the nation as firefighters in Tokushima prefecture conducted the rescue.

The brown mongrel had been stuck for six days on a ledge, 50 metres high on a concrete retaining wall.

Seventeen people were involved in the rescue, while scores of others looked on.

The crowd gasped as the dog evaded two small hand-held nets, before it lost its footing and fell into a third net.

The dog, which was suffering dehydration, was bundled into a waiting pet cage and taken to a local animal shelter.

Local rescue officials have been overwhelmed by telephone calls from around the nation, offering the lucky dog a new home.

Happy 60th Biro

Fifty-seven Bic Biros are sold every second (and then "borrowed" by passing colleagues) - not bad for a 60-year-old product. But did the pens really make that much of a difference?

It was a familiar frustration that led to the invention of the modern ball-point pen - leaky ink.

In 1938, Hungarian newspaper journalist Laszlo Biro noticed the ink used on the printing presses dried quickly and so tried using it in a fountain pen to avoid the problem of leaks, blots and smudges.

But the ink was too thick to flow into the nib. So Biro, with the help of his brother, a chemist, devised a pen tipped with a metal ball bearing that used capillary action to draw ink through the rotating ball.

They brought their invention with them when they fled to the West during a crackdown on Jews later that year. A British firm took over the patent to produce pens for the RAF, and the first Biros went on sale in the UK 60 years ago this week.

Barring tweaks and improvements, the pen is still recognisable as the ball-point Biro devised to make writing easier, and it regularly features in top 100 design lists, says Libby Sellers, the curator of the Design Museum.

"It has worked so well for so long that you stop noticing it. It does what it says it should be doing, like the paper clip and the Post-It note."

But was it revolutionary? "That's a big word, but it made writing easier. No longer did you need to worry about ink spills or refills. To be mobile and reliable are two amazing things to be able to accommodate into such a small and humble object.

"What is remarkable is Biro's lateral thinking in bringing existing technologies together to create an everyday object that everyone could write with. Ball bearings already existed. Quick-drying ink already existed. And so did roller-balls, in deodorants."

Among the first Britons to use the pens were the RAF's fighter pilots, for whom the pens proved something of a revelation.

"Fountain pens can explode or at least leak at high altitudes, so to have a reliable pen with you in the cockpit to note down important markers helped win the war," says Miss Sellers.

What about pencils? "You have to sharpen pencils, they're not as user-friendly."

There is an old and oft-repeated rumour that because standard pens don't work in zero-gravity, Nasa spent millions devising a space pen, while the Russians used pencils.

Bush lets Rumsfeld Turkey go free

WHITE HOUSE -- President George W. Bush performed a White House tradition Wednesday.

Before he could enjoy his Thanksgiving dinner, the president had some important business to attend to.In an annual ritual dating back to Abraham Lincoln's time, some lucky turkeys, Flyer and Fryer, were spared turning up as dinner.

Bush gave a presidential pardon to two turkeys Wednesday, sending them to live out the remainder of their lives in a park.

Though the presentation of a live turkey dates back to the Lincoln administration, the current ceremony dates to 1947, when the first National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman.

The 2006 National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate were from Monett, Mo., and were raised under the direction of National Turkey Federation Chairman Mike Briggs, according to the White House. Briggs delegated the day-to-day responsibilities to Lynn Nutt of Monett.

The birds are commercial turkeys used in normal industry production, and they were raised using the same techniques as other commercial birds. They were fed a regular diet of corn and soybean meal and were provided a continuous supply of fresh water.

A few minor modifications were made to prepare these birds for the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation. About 30 turkeys were removed from the normal commercial production flock and are being raised separately on Nutt's farm. The birds are periodically hand-fed and given additional interaction with people in an effort to acclimate them.

After the presentation, the National Turkey and its alternate will be taken to Disneyland Resort and Theme Park in Anaheim, Calif., to be a part of the holiday display and where they will stay the remainder of their natural lives. Both the turkeys will serve as honorary Grand Marshals for Disneyland's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.

People who visited the White House's Web site got to help name the 2006 National Thanksgiving Turkey and alternate. Bush announced the winning names at the ceremony.

The public has spoken. 20,478 votes have been cast and "Flyer and Fryer" are the winning names of the Thanksgiving Turkey and the alternate that the President pardoned on November 22, 2006.

Ben and Franklin 18%

Plymouth and Rock 22%

Washington and Lincoln 12%

Corn and Copia 21%

Flyer and Fryer 27%

Wrong time wrong place

A Stockton, Calif., man was arrested late Monday night as he tried to rob the Valero gas station in the 8800 block of Jewella Avenue about 11:20 p.m.

Derek Pierson Jr., 21, entered the store with a mask covering his face and demanded money, police spokeswoman Kacee Hargrave said.

But Agent L.J. Scott, a member of the Shreveport Police Department Armed Robbery Task Force, was also in the store, dressed in his police uniform.

Scott ordered Pierson to show his hands and he obeyed. Scott then took the man's handgun from him and arrested him.

Pierson has been charged with armed robbery with a firearm and booked into the Shreveport City Jail.

Rubber band ball record

Building a huge ball out of more than 175,000 rubber bands is dangerous business. Really.

“The rubber bands ... sometimes they’ll break. That hurts,” said Steve Milton, whose 4,594-pound rubber band ball was certified Tuesday as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records officials. “As long as you wear your safety goggles, you’re good.”

Milton, 26, of Eugene, Ore., watched as four bodybuilders rolled the multicolored, rubbery mass — 51/2 feet high and 19 feet around — onto a giant scale in downtown Chicago for the official weigh-in.

He raised his arms over his head in Rockyesque style when Guinness judge Sarah Wagner announced his ball had bounced the previous 3,120-pound record-holder from the books. That record was set by John Bain of Wilmington, Del., in 2003.

“It’s just amazing; it’s out of this world,” said Milton, who began building the ball in November 2005.

Bain didn’t begrudge Milton the honor.

“Steve can have the record ... he worked hard for it,” Bain said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I had my glory days with the rubber band ball.”

Milton worked on the ball with his 6-year-old son, Bryce, and soon-to-be stepson, Austin Johnson, 7. “We did a little bit of research on how big rubber band balls are, and realized there was one out there that was 3,120 pounds and we knew we could do it.”

His fiancee thought it was a bit nuts, but it was fun for the family.

Milton credited their success to a simple credo: add to the ball every day, even if it was for just a few minutes, and remember to move it to the garage while it still fits through the door.

“My advice is to basically not overwhelm yourself with it,” Milton said. “A lot of people who try to break this record, they overwhelm themselves by trying to do too much.”

Wagner, the Guinness judge, is based in London, but she flies around the globe certifying unusual records. Her previous assignment: the world’s longest line of pizza in Italy.

Copper thieves bugger up Aussie trains

Audacious thieves hoping to get rich in a "red gold" rush have caused serious transport disruptions by stealing copper wire from a major Australian train network, officials said.

There had been at least 20 incidents of overhead wires being stolen on Melbourne's rail network since September, a rail spokeswoman said, causing disruptions to about 500 train services and stranding thousands of passengers.

Copper raiders have also hit cables on rail lines in Italy, where bridges and even tombs have also been targeted by thieves as worldwide demand for the metal soars.

The problem in Melbourne has become so bad that police set up a taskforce 10 days ago. Five people were arrested this week, Australian Associated Press reported.

Police said the thieves were acting foolishly because the copper they were stealing would fetch only a few hundred dollars from scrap metal dealers.

"What they are doing is life threatening and it's only a matter of time before someone is killed or injured, police sergeant Brian Clarke said.

Copper prices hit an all-time peak of $US8800 a tonne hit in May but are now down more than 23 per cent on that level.

Urban myth leads to car stereo thefts

A haul of stolen car stereos has been recovered by police investigating 205 car break-ins in Cardiff over the weekend. Officers found 37 car stereos, 21 stereo security panels and a laptop in a car in the city on Tuesday.

It follows a spate of car stereos thefts thought to be instigated after an urban myth that a chip inside could be used to decode digital TV boxes. Police said the number of break-ins was four times the usual number. Reports showed 95% of them were Ford models. The car firm believe this is in light of an urban myth that they can be used to decode digital TV boxes.

Police confirmed the rumour but officers have spoken to Ford and the digibox manufacturers who said there was no link. Ford told BBC News that components cannot be used in this way. A spokesman said it was "pure myth" sparked by an off-the-cuff comment from someone within the motor industry.

Meanwhile, car window replacement firm Autoglass said staff from other areas had to be brought to Cardiff branches after the thefts. Katherine Brant, a spokeswoman for the firm said: "We saw 120 motorists who had broken body glass over the weekend. We had to draft extra staff in from the south west area in order to cope with demand. This only normally happens when we have bad weather or if there was a vandalism attack in one street for example. But it's never been to this extent, it's pretty unique."

# A man has been arrested and released on police bail.

La-Z-Boy saves man

Norman Kamp has a good reason to stay in his La-Z-Boy. It may have saved his life. Authorities in Northern California report Kamp's wife tried to shoot him in the head, by firing through the back of his easy chair.

But the sturdy recliner absorbed most of the bullet's impact and left Kamp virtually unscathed. Deputies in Contra Costa County report Kamp followed his wife into the kitchen, where she tried to shoot him again, but the gun didn't fire.

Kamp was treated and released from a local hospital. His wife, Jan, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder

Zoo poisons lions :(

A major zoo in Ethiopia is poisoning rare lion cubs and selling the corpses to be stuffed because it can't afford to care for the animals, which are the national symbol, the zoo's administrator said Wednesday.

"These animals are the pride of our country,'' Muhedin Abdulaziz of the Lion Zoo said. "But our only alternative right now is to send them to the taxidermist.''

Ethiopia's lions,also called Abyssinian lions are famous for their black manes, adorn statues and the local currency. The country's emperors were long fascinated by lions, part of their connection with Solomon, the lion of Judah.

Wildlife experts estimate that only 1,000 Ethiopian lions, which are smaller than other lions, remain in the wild.

The Lion Zoo has poisoned six cubs so far this year, Abdulaziz said.

Mesganu Arga, head of the Information and Culture Bureau in Addis Ababa, said the city was looking into the matter.

"These are rare animals and a treasure to the country,'' Mesganu said.

Animal conservation groups expressed outrage at the killings.

Fancy a date with America's most wanted ?

A fugitive wanted for a double homicide in Arkansas was arrested on the weekend in Wisconsin after he posted his name, picture and address on an online dating Web site, police said on Monday.

Calvin A. Bennett, 26, has been charged with two counts of murder in the killings of Pierce Odell, 79, and his wife, Mary, 78, who were found shot to death on October 30 outside their home in Nashville, Arkansas, about 125 miles southwest of the state capital Little Rock.

"He was taken into custody shortly before noon on Sunday, less than 12 hours after his picture was broadcast on (the television show) 'America's Most Wanted,'" said Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Police.

Sadler said that people who had first seen his picture on the dating site had subsequently seen it on the popular television program.

On Monday Bennett was ordered held without bond in Wisconsin pending an extradition hearing on December 19. An affidavit submitted by the authorities said Bennett had confessed to killing the Odells during a botched burglary.

One of the messages on Bennett's Web posting said he "liked to cuddle."

Poles in the mud

Two thieves on the run in Germany made light work for their pursuers when they tried to flee across a drained pond and got stuck so fast in mud they had to be helped out by police.

"They probably thought the pond looked dry and that it would be a handy shortcut," a spokesman for police in the eastern city of Chemnitz said on Wednesday. "But they got totally stuck."

Having released the men from the sludge, police arrested the pair, both Poles in their twenties. The two had earlier given officers the slip after being caught breaking into a car.