London Olympics streaking £20k fine, Streakers who use their bodies to advertise during the Olympics could face a £20,000 fine under new rules.

chinese painting million. A rare, classical scroll by a Ming dynasty artist fetched $24.8 million at a Beijing sale, the highest price ever paid for a Chinese painting at auction, in a positive sign for the downturn-stricken Chinese art market.

The painting, "Eighteen Arhats" by 16th century Ming dynasty painter Wu Bin, was sold to Shanghai private collector Liu Yiqian for 169.1 million yuan including commissions, almost eight times its pre-sale estimate of 20 million yuan, said auctioneers Poly International.

Leech found up girl's nose. dozen new species found by scientists; including an orb-weaver spider that can create webs large enough to span a river. An enormous-toothed leech, pulled from the nose of a girl who was bathing in a river, has just been documented in the journal PLoS ONE.

LinkedIn shares plunge after strong IPO. LinkedIn Corp.'s shares suffered their first major setback Monday as investors began reassessing the lofty appraisal that the online networking company received in its recent initial public offering.

Online poker payment processor admits to charges. An Illinois man admitted in federal court on Monday to helping large online poker websites dodge U.S. gambling laws by processing millions of dollars in payments from his home in Costa Rica and lying to banks about the nature of the transactions.

California prison population. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that California must drastically reduce its prison population, the state had begun taking steps to relieve severe overcrowding at the direction of a former actor-turned-governor who alternated roles between get-tough cop and social worker reformer.

bulgaria black market blood. her 85-year-old husband needed immediate surgery but doctors told her to find blood for the operation herself. So Slavka Petrova swallowed her anguish and went to haggle on the black market outside the national blood clinic.

Beheading suspect ‘treated in UK. The man accused of beheading a British grandmother in Tenerife had been treated in a psychiatric unit in north Wales, it has emerged.

Driver 22 Crashes Friend’s £225k Lamborghini ‘Without insurance’. A young motorist has some explaining to do after causing 'extensive damage' to his friend's £225,000 Lamborghini.

The 22-year-old was driving the powerful Murcielago model early on Sunday morning when he lost control and crossed the central reservation of a motorway in Sydney, Australia.

He then collided with an oncoming taxi causing 'extensive damage to both vehicles', the Lamborghini being left with major frontal damage.
Passer-by Daisy Buckle captured pictures of the wrecked Murcielago on her mobile phone.

She said: 'I assumed the driver was in a second ambulance - I could not believe he was walking around without a scratch.

'I heard an onlooker say "Friend ha! I bet he is not a friend now, take a strong friendship to get through this one." '
The 30-year-old owner had lent the car to his friend for a 'bit of fun', but will have a tough time claiming the damages on insurance - it is understood the Lamborghini was not insured for drivers under the age of 25.

Fortunately the driver of the Lamborghini emerged unscathed but his 26-year-old male passenger suffered minor chest injuries.

The 51-year-old female driver of the taxi was trapped in the vehicle for more an hour with a broken leg.

Read more: dailymail

Six astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday ahead of the second last U.S. space shuttle flight, with Endeavour set to lift off on Monday after a technical delay.

The quake was felt strongly in San Jose but there were no immediate reports damage or injuries, said Juan de Dios Castillo, spokesman for Seismological and Volcanic Institute. He said there were reports of fallen objects but none of major damages to buildings.

The operator of Japan's tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant said a contract worker in his 60s died Saturday after collapsing at the facility's waste disposal building, adding that his body showed no signs of dangerous levels of radioactivity.

Cameras in Texas schools to keep eyes on fries

The next time children in some elementary schools in Texas try to sneak extra french fries onto their tray in the cafeteria line, the eye in the sky will be watching them.

Using a $2 million grant from the Department of Agriculture, the schools in San Antonio are installing sophisticated cameras in the cafeteria line and trash area that read food bar codes embedded in the food trays.

A double Taliban suicide attack Friday that killed 66 paramilitary police recruits represented the deadliest terrorist strike in Pakistan since the killing of Osama bin Laden. It sent a strong signal that militants mean to fight on and to try to avenge the al-Qaida leader.

NASA's countdown clocks began ticking again Friday for the next-to-last space shuttle launch, delayed two weeks ago by an electrical problem aboard Endeavour.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul announced Friday that he will run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012, the third attempt for the man known on Capitol Hill as "Dr. No" for his enthusiasm for bashing runaway spending and government overreach.

effects of war economy. Iraq war: the spiralling effects on world economy. In the next few weeks, the struggling global economy may be put to the test if Washington chooses to invade Iraq. There are many risks involved in bombing Baghdad, the most important being a spike in oil prices.

world deadliest weapons. Some are terrifying. Some are silent. But they're all very effective. The five deadliest conventional weapons in the world are all part of the U.S. Armed Forces' arsenal, though many are used by other countries as well.

Thousands of people are being warned to prepare for the worst tonight as the Mississippi River swells to historic flood levels. Heavy rain is pushing the river's basin to its limits. That is forcing water into already swollen tributaries, and wherever else it can go.