Thousands of Finns have signed an online petition to express their dismay after magazines published pictures of Eurovision winners Lordi out of their trademark monster suits. The band, who shot to fame with their song Hard Rock Hallelujah, had asked media not to run pictures of them out of character. Two Finnish tabloid magazines ignored their appeal, however, sparking a chorus of online jeers. Hosts of the online petition at http://adressit.com/ansku69 said about 200,000 people had added their names so far.
■ United States
`Gunfire' causes evacuation
What turned out to be an erroneous report of gunfire led police to lock down an office building on Capitol Hill for five hours on Friday as officers went room to room, looking for intruders and escorting lawmakers, lobbyists and visitors out. The episode began with a call to the Capitol Police dispatch center reporting sounds of gunfire in a lower-level parking garage of the Rayburn House Office Building. "The cause of the loud sound appears to have come from construction workers in the area during the course of their routine work," said police spokeswoman Sergeant Kimberly Schneider.
■ Bolivia
Chavez fears US plot
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday said US President George W. Bush has "given the green light" to overthrow Bolivian President Evo Morales and called on Bolivians to take the streets to fight against possible coup plotters. Reacting to Bush's comment on Monday that he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela, Chavez gave the warning in a speech in Bolivia's Chapare region. "If the US president says he's worried the democracy is eroding in Bolivia this simply means that he's already given the green light to start conspiring against the democratic government of Bolivia," said Chavez.
■ United Kingdom
Galloway causes outrage
Maverick politician George Galloway triggered a storm of protest on Friday by saying it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to kill Prime Minister Tony Blair. Asked by GQ magazine if Blair's assassination by a suicide bomber would be justified as revenge for the Iraq war, he said: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it, but if it happened I believe it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of July 7," he said, referring to attacks by four suicide bombers on London's transport system last year that killed 52 people.
■ United States
Muffin prank backfires
Two Dallas students have been charged with giving a high school's employees marijuana-spiked muffins in a senior prank that sent 18 people to hospital. Ian Walker and Joseph Tellini, both 18, could receive 10 years in prison or more if convicted of felony charges. Walker is accused of delivering adulterated bran muffins to the teachers lounge of Tellini's suburban school on May 16 and claiming they were part of a Boy Scout project. When Lake Highlands High School employees ate the muffins, they began complaining of nausea, lightheadedness and headaches. The FBI investigated because the case involved a contamination of the food supply at a school. A joint terrorism task force found that terrorism was not involved, but determined the muffins contained marijuana and turned up a surveillance video of the delivery.
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