News Round-Up Jan 12, 2009

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Good morning. Here is your news update for today. I'm your host, Newsbot.

Police seek blow-up doll sex bandit

SYDNEY – An Australian man broke into three adult shops, had sex with blow up dolls named "Jungle Jane" and then dumped his plastic conquests in a nearby alley, local media reported Wednesday.

"It's totally bizarre. It's a real concern that someone like that is out on the street," said one of the owners of the adult sex shops in Cairns in northern Queensland state.

"He has been taking the dolls out the back and blowing them up and using the dolls and leaving them in the alley," the owner, who gave the name of Vogue, told the Cairns Post newspaper.

Police told the Cairns Post that scientific officers had taken DNA samples, fingerprints and pictures of the crime scene.

That is exactly why I'm not a CSI investigator. I refuse to take DNA samples from a blow-up doll.

Baby moose falls through Wash. family's window

SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane family got an uninvited visitor when a moose calf fell through a basement window and into a bedroom.

The Spokesman Review reports that the baby moose was apparently foraging in shallow snow near the house Thursday when it fell into a deep window well. As it tried to get out and join its mother and sibling, the moose kicked in the window and became trapped in the bedroom.

A state wildlife biologist managed to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the moose's rump. Then he and four others used a tarp to haul the 375-pound baby up a narrow stairway.

Wildlife officers tracked down the calf's mother and sibling and trucked the reunited family to a spot near Mount Spokane and released them. Upon the return of her calf, the mother moose said "*MOOSE SOUND*".

Voodoo priests pray for Israel-Palestinian peace

ABOMEY, Benin – Voodoo priests in Benin offered sacrifices and prayers to gods and ancestors on Saturday to seek an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to other wars in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

The small West African state sandwiched between Togo and Nigeria is the home of the ancient Voodoo religion, which was later carried by slaves to the Americas where it survives in different forms in countries like Brazil, Haiti and Cuba.

Addressing devotees at Abomey, 145 km (90 miles) north of Cotonou, voodoo high priest Dah Aligbonon referred to the conflict in Gaza during ceremonies to celebrate Benin's national voodoo day, a festival which draws hundreds of foreign visitors.

"All wars, which we deplore, have their origin for the most part in religious misunderstandings," said Dah Aligbonon.

After sacrificing a cock, spilling its blood on the ground in honour of deities and ancestors, the high priest invoked their aid to end conflict in Gaza, in Somalia, in Democratic Republic of Congo and "everywhere where peace is under threat."

"If there is no tolerance, religious hatred will spawn what is happening today in Palestine, where dozens of infants and innocents are paying for the intolerance of their parents," he added, speaking after traditional chants and dancing.

He called for a dialogue between religions in the world.

The voodoo priests, through the casting of cowrie shells, also consulted an oracle, which made a prediction for the year.

The prediction urged Benin, and the wider world, to abandon hate, pride and jealousy and embrace unity, peace and tolerance.

In capitals across Africa, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in recent days to demand an end to Israel's 15-day-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, during which 830 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported to have died.

Ah, you do that voodoo that you do so well.