What Is Odd

A picture sketched by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has fetched 37 million roubles ($1.15 million) at a charity auction.

The painting of snowfall seen through a window, finished by a professional artist, features a sprawling "Putin" signature and was introduced at Saturday's auction with the words: "Here is a new artist."

The auctioneer started bidding at 20,000 roubles ($620), the same as the other lots, only to meet cries of "Let's not be penny-pinchers" from the buyers, who demanded a starting price of five million roubles.

A black belt in judo, Putin has cultivated an image of a tough man, lionized by Russian media but so far not known for artistic talent.

An auction organizer said Putin had painted the picture in 20 minutes and then a professional artist filled in the details.

"Of all the paintings presented there, this was the best one," said a spokeswoman on Sunday for "Our Artists," the Moscow-based gallery which bought the painting.

The gallery, located in an exclusive wooded avenue just outside Moscow favored by oligarchs and top officials, said it would exhibit the painting to the public.

A prominent fashion designer has sparked outrage in Chile by dressing up models like the Virgin Mary -- in some cases with ample, near-naked breasts.

The Roman Catholic Church condemned Ricardo Oyarzun's plans for a show featuring the models, and a conservative group tried unsuccessfully to block it in court.

Oyarzun said he had received telephone threats and had excrement smeared on his doorstep.

"There is no pornography here, there's no sex, there are no virgins menstruating or feeling each other up," Oyarzun said ahead of the catwalk show set to be held at a Santiago nightclub later on Thursday. "This is artistic expression."

He said his designs -- which include halos, look as though they come from a nativity scene and include religious icons -- were inspired by the Virgin Mary but not intended to represent her.

"We look on with special pain and deplore those acts which seek to tarnish manifestations of sincere love toward the Virgin Mary, which end up striking at the dignity of womankind by presenting her as an object of consumption," Chile's Episcopal Conference, which includes Catholic bishops, said in a statement.

The show is more evidence that Chile, heavily influenced by the church for decades, is shaking off its reputation as one of the most socially conservative countries in Latin America.

TOKYO (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama's speeches are proving a best-seller in Japan - as an aid to learning English.

An English-language textbook, "The Speeches of Barack Obama," has sold more than 400,000 copies in two months, a big hit in a country where few hit novels sell more than a million copies a year.

Japanese have a fervour for learning English and many bookstores have a corner dedicated to dozens of journals in the language, many of them now featuring the new U.S. leader's face.

"Speeches by presidents and presidential candidates are excellent as listening tools to learn English, because their contents are good and their words are easy to catch," said Yuzo Yamamoto of Asahi Press, which produced the best-selling text book.

"Obama's is especially so. His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as 'yes, we can,' 'change' and 'hope' that even Japanese people can memorise," he said.

Speeches by President George W. Bush and former nominee John Kerry's four years ago did not have the same appeal, however, and nor do those made by Japanese politicians, Yamamoto said.

"In Japan, we don't have politicians who have such a positive influence. That's why we have to turn to a foreign president for someone in whom to place our hopes."

The 95-page paperback features Obama's speeches in English from the 2004 Democratic National Convention and during the Democratic Party primaries, in which he defeated Hillary Clinton. They are accompanied by Japanese translations.

The 1,050 yen (8 pound) book, which includes a CD of the speeches, tops the bestseller list on bookseller Amazon's Japanese Website, http://www.amazon.co.jp/

"Readers have sent in postcards saying that when they heard the speeches, they were so moved and cried even though they don't understand English very well," Yamamoto said.

He said lawmakers from Japan's main opposition Democratic Party had bought the book to study Obama's speeches.

Following Obama's inauguration Tuesday, Asahi Press plans to issue a sequel that includes his inaugural address, as well as President John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural speech. It will also feature a reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address of 1863.

($1=90.99 Yen)

About 1,300 animals in a Bulgarian zoo were left without gas to heat their enclosures Thursday, the latest victims of the Russia-Ukraine supply row.

The zoo in the capital Sofia rushed to switch to electric heaters to keep its elephants, monkeys, parrots, rhinos and hippos warm in the sub-zero temperatures.

"About a third of the animals are vulnerable to cold," said the zoo's director Ivan Ivanov said. "Only the Siberian tigers feel comfortable in these temperatures."

All Russian gas supplies to Europe were halted over a price dispute a day earlier.

Heating was sharply reduced in snow-covered Sofia and hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans were left in the cold as the impact on the hardest-hit region grew.

Bulgaria and the western Balkans rely almost entirely on Russian gas supplies which are crucial in the winter because utilities use gas to heat homes, offices and factories.

car games to play

www.news-leader.com

SPRINGFIELD - A 40-year-old southwest Missouri woman is accused of trying to kill her husband by spiking his tea with a half bottle of Visine eye drops. Greene County deputies said the woman was jailed Thursday night on $100,000 bond on a first-degree assault charge.

She was arrested late Wednesday after a co-worker told Greene County deputies that the woman told her about the plot to kill her husband.

A probable cause statement said the husband told investigators he'd been having stomach problems for the past two months.

The statement said poison control experts told a detective that ingesting too much Visine would lead to a coma and other "serious symptoms."

Authorities say the woman researched other means of killing her husband when the first attempt didn't work.

what is odd

An Australian navy submarine skipper who suggested female sailors wear bikinis to help reverse a recruitment crisis has been criticised by lawmakers but supported by superiors, local media said on Thursday.

Commander Tom Phillips, appointed to the Australian navy's HMAS Farncomb last year, also joked in a men's magazine interview that the submariner equivalent of the notorious "mile-high club" for people having sex in aircraft was the "going down club."

Asked by Ralph magazine "if female sailors all had to be hot and had to wear bikinis, would that help recruitment?," Phillips responded: "It would certainly get the right demographic of young men in. I'm not sure how feasible it is, however."

Australia's Minister for Defence Personnel Warren Snowden told the mass-selling Daily Telegraph that the comments were "utterly unacceptable," while conservative opposition lawmakers said the skipper should be sacked.

"If these comments are to be attributed to this newly appointed commander, I think it will go down as one of the shortest careers in naval history," MP Bob Baldwin said.

Australia's navy is suffering a recruitment crisis and had to stand down for two months over Christmas due to lack of available sailors. The navy last year said it had only enough sailors to man half its six-boat fleet of Collins-class submarines.

Real Admiral Davyd Thomas, the deputy navy commander, said Phillips had been asked a "flippant question," rejecting women's rights group accusations that the navy valued "bodies rather than brains."

"The commanding officer's response was not intended to be serious," Thomas said.

adult dating in

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand man surfed with three killer-whales at the weekend, saying the waves were too good to be put off by the predators, a local newspaper reported.

Craig Hunter, who has been surfing off New Zealand's North Island for almost 50 years, told the Dominion Post he spotted an adult orca and two young calves lurking just beyond the breakers as was surfing Saturday.

"There was no way I was going in because the waves were too good," Hunter said, adding that this was not the first time he had surfed with an orca. He said he was too old to be bothered by the possibility of being attacked.

"My outlook is they are big enough and quick enough. If they thought I was a seal, I'd be long gone." There have been no known cases of orca attacking humans, the Dominion Post said.

ребенок плачет - причины детского плача