The check was made out to "Fulla Comp and Entertainment," the record company Fuller wanted to start, NBC 5 reported.

Police said Fuller stole the check from Paula Prettyman, the mother of Fuller's girlfriend, Andrea Greer.

"I wouldn't picture him doing something that stupid, I mean, hurting me and my family," Greer said.

Greer and her family said they don't know what Fuller was thinking.

"I didn't think he'd do this, something this dumb. I think it shocked everybody that knew him," Greer said.

Her grandmother Sharon Laird agreed.

"I said, 'Do what? Is he crazy? We were just in awe," she said.

Laird said if her family had $360 billion, "I wouldn't be sitting here. I'd be somewhere drinking margaritas. It's five o'clock somewhere, sometime."

Authorities said Fuller also had a gun and marijuana in his possession at the time of his arrest.

Fuller told NBC 5 police caught him with a gun and a small amount of marijuana, but he denied trying to cash the $360 billion check.

The fair first sounded like a book lover's dream: 200,000 titles on an enticing variety of topics put on display for those with a voracious appetite for reading.

But fans of steamy romance novels were sorely disappointed.

Here's what Saffar Harandi, Iran's Minister of Islamic Guidance and Culture, told reporters a few days ago:

If a book is describing the private life of a man and a woman in their domicile or their bedroom, or even worse, discussing their extramarital affairs, and is openly talking about sexual intercourse, then it is obvious that it will not be published.

He also reminded writers to self-censor their books about other topics if they want to be published in Iran, where literature undergoes rigid vetting before appearing on shelves.

He said no books will be allowed that challenge religion or the Islamic Republic's strict moral codes

The book fair includes 50,000 titles from Iran in addition to books from 74 countries. And foreign books must also respect Iran's "religious, moral and national" sensitivities.

Mohsen Parviz, an Iranian culture ministry official, acknowledged past mistakes in letting books through the vetting process. "Every year we have to remove some foreign or Persian books from the shelves because they were not compatible with our established Islamic and national values," he said.

But the heightened censorship imposed by authorities since conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 has angered publishers in Iran.

The Iranian Student News Agency reported griping from publishers. "The publishers complained about the lack of a clear law to define the red lines, revoking of publication permits and books being lost when submitted for screening," the report said.

Another drain on Le Pen's finances was the 10,000 euro fine he incurred in February when a court found him guilty of "contesting crimes against humanity" for saying the Nazi occupation of France was "not particularly inhumane".

Asked why the car was up for sale, a National Front spokesman said: "Money, money, glorious money."

With a little more than nine days left before the eBay auction finishes, the 1991 Peugeot that has ferried Le Pen around during his campaigns has been bid up from the one euro starting price to 3,510 euros. The auction has received 56 bids at the time of publication.

"Following its replacement, we are putting up for sale Jean-Marie Le Pen's armoured Peugeot 605, used daily by him, including during his last presidential campaign," the posting on the ebay site said.

"To be considered as a collector's item, no jokers."

It said the prince told a gathering at his palace in the northern town of Skaka on Sunday he has instructed police to apply the punishment to all youths guilty of flirting, including "the sons of senior military and civil officials."

"The decision doesn't include men who spend their free time in public places without hurting anyone," the paper quoted the prince as saying.

Saudi Arabia has long imposed a strict Islamic lifestyle in which men and women are segregated in public. That lifestyle is enforced by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a government body that runs the country's powerful religious police.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

Many clergymen in this conservative Gulf country say men should not have long hair because Islam prohibits the sexes from emulating each other.

Sheik Mubarak al-Rushoud, head of the commission in al-Jof, told Al-Hayat the new punishment resulted from "the repeated pestering of women in souks and outside girls' schools."

He said Fahd has ordered that the punishment against the men "who emulate women" should be carried out at the scene of the infraction, according to the paper.

"The decision, however, doesn't include all men with long hair," al-Rushoud was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying.

He said any man 60 years and older who wants it can have up to four Viagra pills a month after undergoing a thorough medical exam to avoid potentially harmful side effects of the drug Sildenafil.

"We'll give out four, 50 milligram pills, in other words, for four sexual relationships per month," Navarrete said, adding that the program would have a starting cost of about 20,000 dollars.

The mayor said the idea for his unprecedented move came from hearing older men in his town complain about not getting enough sex.

He did have some advice, however, for the Viagra seekers: "Sildenafil doesn't get you going without direct stimulation."

Read cartoon from right to left. Arabic text on left reads: "For the eighteenth time!"

Artist: Jihad 'Awartani

"The sergeant's behaviour was disgraceful. He has brought shame on himself and his former colleagues," said IPCC Commissioner Deborah Glass.

The sergeant, who had faced four disciplinary charges, was forced to quit after a misconduct hearing.

Source: Reuters

"It's for people who are successful and those who want to be successful," said Andrei Shmarov, who will run Snob.

What Shmarov forgot to mention to Prokhorov is that Snob Magazine already exists - in the Middle East. Although the publication found on the magazine stands in Lebanon is not exactly billionaire material. The Snob Magazine website humorously identifies its reader demographics by "social class": with 24% of its readers from "class A", 70% "class B", and 30% "class C".

Prokhorov, 42, made his fortune in the chaotic 1990s when businessmen bought up parts of former Soviet industries for a fraction of their real value.

The Forbes Rich List ranked Prokhorov as the 24th richest person in the world. He is one of the owners of Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest nickel producer, and Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest gold producer.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary's online edition, www.askoxford.com, a snob is: "A person who has an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth and who looks down on those regarded as socially inferior."

Shmarov said Russians attach a different meaning to the word,

"Snob to us means a person who is a 'self-made man', a person who has gained a right to snobbishness," he said emphasizing the main difference with the British meaning which he said referred to inherited wealth.

Russia has become rich over the last few years due to a boom in commodity and energy prices. No extravagance is too much in Moscow where the super-rich hold wild caviar and champagne parties in exclusive nightclubs behind fur-lined curtains.

Their chauffeurs loiter on street corners smoking cigarettes and polishing European and American luxury cars at the same time that about 20 percent of Russia's population live below the poverty line and many grumble about the growing divide.

"It's not pleasant to boast about your wealth when you have inherited it but when you have made it yourself, well it is still not very nice, but it is justified," Shmarov said.

The unmarried Prokhorov attracted headlines in 2007 when French police detained him in the ski resort of Courchevel. They detained him briefly as part of probe into prostitution. The police later released him without charges.

Snob's magazine and website, which will focus on lifestyle features, business news and travel, will be available from this summer, Shmarov said, with the cable television channel following shortly.

Sources: Reuters, Ya Libnan

At one point, a hand appears with a cell phone camera taking a close-up picture of the surgery.

As a doctor gingerly pulls out the 6-inch long canister from the male patient's rectum, someone shouts, "Baby out!" amid loud cheers.

The doctor then removes the canister cap and sprays the contents toward the crowd of nurses and doctors viewing the procedure.

It remains unclear who shot the video and who posted it on YouTube, but the person who posted it removed it from the Web site Wednesday.

The video has angered the unidentified patient who plans to press charges, his lawyer Guiller Ceniza said Wednesday.

The government-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in the central city of Cebu, where the surgery took place, is conducting an investigation, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Dr. Emmanuel Gines said more than 10 people were involved -- including staff and medical and nursing students from a nearby operating room.

He said the hospital takes videos of surgeries of peculiar cases, but only with the consent of the patient.

Investigation possible
Dr. Jose Sabili, president of the Philippine Medical Association, told The Associated Press on Wednesday the group will conduct an investigation if a formal complaint is filed and doctors found violating medical ethics could be suspended or expelled from the association, which would result in the suspension or termination of their state health insurance accreditation.

The results of the investigation could also be used by the Professional Regulations Commission to suspend or revoke their licenses, Sabili said.

"I believe what they did was very blatant," he said.

Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said the Health Department will conduct a separate investigation.

The 39-year-old patient received surgery on Jan. 3, three days after a New Year's drinking spree and a "one-night stand" with a male partner, Ceniza, the lawyer, told the AP.

He said his client was too drunk to remember how the body spray canister ended up in his body.

Ceniza said the man was determined to file charges but will wait for the results of the hospital's investigation, expected later in the week.

Source: AP

"This is absolutely a new step, and I think it's scary," said Bonnie Rabin, a divorce lawyer who has handled high-profile cases. "People used to worry about getting on Page Six (the gossip page of the New York Post.) But this? It brings the concept of humiliation to a whole new level."

In a tearful and furious YouTube video with close to 150,000 hits to date, former actress and playwright ("Bonkers") Tricia Walsh-Smith lashes out against her husband, Philip Smith, president of the Shubert Organization, the largest theater owner on Broadway.

She goes through their wedding album on camera, describing family members as "bad" or "evil" or "nasty," and talks about how her husband is allegedly trying to evict her from their luxury apartment. She also makes embarrassing claims regarding their intimate life, and then calls his office on camera to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant.

Famed divorce attorney Raoul Felder, called for comment on the video, termed the whole thing "funny, but there's also sadness. This is a victim who is holding her head up. I think she comes off well."

Then again, Felder allowed that he is now representing Walsh-Smith -- though he wasn't when she made the YouTube video.

As for Smith, his office said he had no comment and his lawyers said they didn't, either -- "other than that we're kind of appalled."

"I don't think it's the kind of thing people should be doing, and it's the kind of thing judges frown upon," said Norman Sheresky, a partner in the matrimonial law firm Sheresky Aronson Mayesfsky & Sloan, which Walsh-Smith mentions in her video. Asked if he had ever seen a spouse use YouTube to fire a salvo in a divorce battle, Sherefsky replied, "Jamais de la vie." (Translation: Never.)

Felder explained that his client was "acting out of passion." He also called the prenuptial agreement she'd signed with her husband, who is a quarter-century older than her, "stupid."

So why did his client sign? "Why do women sign these things? Love is blind, and sometimes it is deaf and dumb, too," Felder said. The video, he added, was the act of a powerless person, and "revolutions are made by powerless people."

Does that mean divorce-by-YouTube is a true revolution? Rabin, the matrimonial lawyer, sure hopes not.

For one thing, she says, this could come back to haunt Walsh-Smith. "Judges make decisions partly on (a person's) judgment," she says. "She could hurt herself with this." Not to mention the threat of a defamation case from the other side.

More broadly, she asks, where does it end? "Over the last few years we've had to deal with emails getting into the press, emails that nobody thought would end up as Exhibit A. But throwing your secrets onto YouTube for the whole world to see -- and comment on! That brings it to a whole new level."

Or, in Felder's words: "There's no such thing as a private life anymore."

Source: AP

If elected, D'Abbraccio wants to create a red light area with strip clubs, erotic discos and sex shops called "Love City" just kilometers away from the Vatican.

"It would be something cute, clean -- nothing to do with prostitution," said the actress whose films include "The Kiss of the Cobra" and "Paolina Borghese, Imperial Nymphomaniac."

D'Abbraccio, in her 40s, isn't the first adult entertainer to dip her painted toenails into Italian politics. Ilona Staller, known as "Cicciolina," sat in parliament in the 1980s and was famous for her impromptu stripteases.

"It was simpler then," D'Abbraccio said. Public nudity isn't the guaranteed attention-grabber it once was, she noted.

D'Abbraccio hopes to capitalize on increasing disenchantment with Italian politics. The recession-prone nation votes on Sunday and Monday in elections to pick a prime minister as well as lawmakers, mayors and city councilors.

"People don't want to see these politicians' faces anymore," she told Reuters in an interview from her Rome apartment.

She said she was tapping into her popularity among pornography fans as "an act of generosity" to help Italy's socialists, who are fielding her in the municipal race.

"I am the derriere of the Socialist party," she concluded.

Silvio Berlusconi, who leads in opinion polls to become prime minister for a third time, drew scorn recently for saying his party boasted the prettiest women in politics. Critics called him a chauvinist.

D'Abbraccio also objected, but for another reason.

"I think he is wrong, because he lost the prettiest one (me)," said D'Abbraccio.

If D'Abbraccio wins, she says she will represent Romans from the district that is home to Cinecitta studios, Italy's version of Hollywood where classics like "La Dolce Vita" were filmed.

"I will reign over Cinecitta, if I get the votes," she said, reclining on a gold-rimmed, chaise lounge in her living room.

As for experience, D'Abbraccio acknowledges she is a political novice but she did play a powerful lawmaker in an adult film called "L'Onorevole."

"I played the part of the speaker of the lower house of parliament, who got very hot and then let herself go," she said.

Source: Reuters

Sheik Hamdan paid $2.7 million for one camel, Emirates' state news agency reported Tuesday. It gave no details on the camel.

More than 17,000 camels from the oil-rich Gulf countries -- the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- were registered for a camel beauty contest taking place over two weeks in the Emirates' Western desert.

Camels are registered for beauty contest in several categories, defined by age and skin color. The owners of the top three camels in each category split a 2 million price fund and each receive a car from a pool of more than 100 4x4 vehicles and pickup trucks.

Five judges assess the camels' bodies as a whole and their necks, heads, lips, noses, humps, legs and feet separately.

The money and cars for the camel beauty contest were donated by the members of Abu Dhabi's ruling family, which organized the festival in a bid to preserve the nomadic way of life in the desert that predates the discovery of oil in the region in the 1960's.

The ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is also the Emirates' president, and his brother Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan both own an undisclosed number of camels.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of United Arab Emirates and, with the lion's share of the country's oil resources, the richest of the seven semi-autonomous emirates that make up the Gulf country. Dubai, the largest emirate in population, has been undergoing an unprecedented boom as its leaders shape it into a major financial center.

Source: AP

"It is not the right way to prevent promiscuity," Meutia Swasono was quoted as saying in Thursday's Jakarta Post. "It insults women ... as if they are the ones in the wrong."

At least one parlor in the tourist town of Batu on Java island has required its masseuses to padlock their skirts or trousers to make it clear that the establishment does not tolerate prostitution.

Others in the town started following suit after local officials suggested it was a good idea at a recent meeting with parlor owners. TV footage and photos have shown several masseuses with small padlocks in the zip of their pants or skirts in recent days.

"The padlocking phenomena has been seen at various parlors and it is something we like," said Imam Suryono, the head of the town's public order authority.

Source: AP

"After the Arab summit, Arab League head Amr Mussa arrived in Lebanon and met with the political parties," the leaflet said, referring to the weekend Arab League summit in Damascus.

"Lawmakers then immediately headed to parliament... and elected a president."

The leaflet added that political leaders who were sworn enemies then warmly embraced and held a cocktail party to celebrate the successful election.

"All of this took place on April 1... as if all of the other days were not already a joke," the leaflet said.

Youmna Fawaz, from the group Khalass (Enough) which published the leaflet, said its aim was to show how ridiculous Lebanon's political situation had become.

"We're at a point where the election of a president -- a normal event in any country -- has become a dream," she said. "The Lebanese now need a lie to give them hope."

The country has been without a president since November, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his mandate.

Seventeen attempts to elect a successor have failed and a new session of parliament is now scheduled for April 22. Lebanese presidents are elected by MPs rather than by popular vote.

Source: France 24