Ga. town's scarecrows h(a)unting for world record

On Wednesday they watched over an assembly line at an old downtown train depot, where about 20 people passed wooden frames among tables of dingy clothes, yellow milk jugs, plastic grocery bags, old hats, twine, ribbon and other donated materials

"We thought if we gave people something fun to do then maybe they will forget about the difficult economy," she said. "Winning the world record is just a byproduct."

Rat meat in demand in Cambodia as inflation bites

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat.

Barack Obama sat here

Naperville woman's Jeep used to belong to presidential candidate

When Barack Obama drives, he grips the steering wheel with his left hand slightly to the left of 12 o'clock.Or so it seems to Liz Murphy, 45, who owns the Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by the Democratic presidential candidate during his final four years as an Illinois state senator.

When Murphy slid into the driver's seat to test drive the Jeep four years ago, she immediately noticed a heavily worn area on the wheel. But it wasn't until she had made the purchase that she discovered the spot had been worn out by Obama, who bought the Jeep new in 2000 and sold it to Park Plaza Dodge in Forest Park.

Murphy, who lives in Naperville with her 19-year-old son, Jim, was looking for a used car and said she "fell in love" with the Jeep from the moment she drove it. When she visited Gossett to sign the final papers, he showed her a copy of a title covered with Obama's name.

"It wasn't until I had signed the final purchasing agreement and then he said, by the way, I have another piece of paper you might be interested in hanging on to," Murphy said.

While she didn't initially recognize the name, she was impressed to learn the young politician was running for the U.S. Senate - so much so that she contacted Obama's office twice within the next year to ask if he would sign the dashboard.

"No one ever responded," she said. "I wanted his autograph on my car. ..."

The autograph would have set apart the Jeep, which has a black exterior and black leather seats. It had been driven 87,000 miles when Murphy purchased it for $15,000; since then she has increased the mileage to 119,000 miles.

Murphy, who owns no other car, drives the Jeep mainly around Naperville and takes it on the occasional jaunt to visit her sister in Indianapolis. She said her initial excitement about owning Obama's Jeep resurged last year, when she learned he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"All of a sudden, I've still got this guy's car when he could be president," she said.

How much is it worth?

Murphy plans to sell the Jeep on eBay after the November election. If Obama wins, she's hoping to get three to four times the current trade-in value of the Jeep. She estimated the value to be $8,000 to $10,000, but according to the Kelley Blue Book, it should be closer to $2,000 to $3,100.

An Italian priest who planned to hold the world's first beauty contest for nuns has decided to cancel the pageant after complaints.

Antonio Rungi wanted to host the called Miss Sister Italy contest to end the stereotype of nuns being old and dour, reports the BBC.

He wanted to hold the contest online on his internet blog but changed his mind after the local religious authorities expressed their displeasure.

"My superiors were not happy," Father Rungi said from the town of Mondragone, near Naples. "The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either.

"It was interpreted as more of a physical thing. Now, no one is saying that nuns can't be beautiful, but I was thinking about something more complete."

Father Rungi insists he never intended to put sisters on the catwalk and wanted only to highlight that they were "above all women and beauty is a gift from God".

He said he had intended to showcase the good work that nuns do, especially in education and health care, so as to boost interest in religious vocations.

"We have to draw more attention to the world of nuns, who are often not sufficiently appreciated by society," he wrote in his blog.

"Nuns are - above all - women, and beauty is a gift from God," he said before he cancelled the project.

Douglas Colorado twisters drop trees, jaws

DOUGLAS COUNTY — At least four tornadoes hopscotched around highly populated areas of south metro late Sunday afternoon, creating a riveting spectacle for residents but leaving little damage in their paths.

Residents and motorists on Interstate 25 from Castle Rock to Parker shot video and pictures of the twisters with high-tech phones.

"My mouth was hanging to my knees," said Alan Howell of Tarpon Springs, Fla., who lingered at the Jenny's Market convenience store at I-25 and Castle Pines Parkway.

Howell and a dozen other witnesses at the store watched two twisters undulate across the sky.

The only significant damage was a grove of scrub oak in the Lemming Gulch area south of Parker.

The hot afternoon yielded quickly to chilly gusts, with the temperature falling fast as the skies churned. An hour later, the dark-gray skies still seemed poised to drop another twister.

Douglas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cocha Heyden and her husband were leaving a movie matinee in Parker when they walked outside and saw a thick tail on the ground whipping the open landscape near town.

Heyden said they, too, shot videos and pictures before her husband — who also works for the Sheriff's Office — told her: "We've got to go to work; there's going to be mass casualties."

The twisters touched down in an area roughly from Castle Pines to Parker and funnel clouds were spotted near Larkspur and Sedalia, authorities said.

The tornadoes were caused by air masses coming from the north and south. When these air masses collided, they started a spinning rotation that spawned the twisters, said Todd Dankers of the National Weather Service office in Boulder.

9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch

Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.

But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.

"He's never hurt any one," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?"

The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.

"I feel sad," he said. "I feel like it's all my fault nobody could play."

Jericho's coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators.

Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.


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Susan Lucci, Toni Braxton set for ABC's `Dancing'

Susan Lucci, Toni Braxton and Lance Bass will hit the floor on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

They are among 13 celebrities slated to compete on the new season of the top-rated dance contest, premiering Sept. 22.

The other contestants are Cloris Leachman, Kim Kardashian, Ted McGinley, Brooke Burke, NFL champ Warren Sapp and two Olympic athletes: Misty May-Treanor, who won her second gold medal for beach volleyball at this year's summer games in Beijing, and Maurice Greene, who won two gold medals in track at the 2000 games in Sydney.

Rounding out the cast are chef Rocco DiSpirito, Cody Linley of "Hannah Montana" and comedian Jeffrey Ross.

The names were announced Monday on ABC News' "Good Morning America."

Kardashian, who co-stars with her family on the E! reality series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," checked into a New York City hospital Sunday after cutting her foot on a glass table in her hotel room.

Fame finds 4-eared feline thanks to Internet photo