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Toronto mayor denies smoking crack on video

Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford angrily denied on Friday that he had smoked crack cocaine, after a newspaper said it had seen video footage showing him puffing from a pipe and wisecracking. Ford told reporters the claim is "ridiculous" while his lawyer has called media descriptions of the video "false and defamatory." "How can you indicate what the person is actually doing or smoking?" Ford's lawyer Dennis Morris demanded, according to the Toronto Star.

Australian politician sorry he accidentally 'liked' Facebook photo of prankster exposing self

SYDNEY - An Australian politician says he has learned a valuable lesson in social networking after he "liked" a Facebook photo without realizing that it showed a teenage prankster exposing himself. Western Australia Minister for Education Peter Collier said he clicked the "like" button under what he thought was an innocent photo of the then-16-year-old in late 2011. Collier apologized Thursday and said he had no idea that the teen, who was otherwise fully clothed and posing alongside an older man, was playing a prank commonly known as "sneaky nuts."

FBI finds images of 'dead infant' amid child porn

The FBI found images of what appears to be a dead infant with the words "nepi-rape" scrawled on her bare belly during a child pornography investigation, US court records show. An FBI spokesman declined to say whether the agency believes the infant portrayed in the image is actually dead or if the photo was staged. He was also unable to say whether the agency had managed to find any of the victims portrayed in more than 1,000 pieces of child pornography discovered in April.

French watchdog says homophobia spiked in 2012

Attacks on gays and homophobic speech spiked last year in the run-up to the French parliament's approval of a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, a leading gay rights watchdog said Tuesday. In its annual report, SOS Homophobie said it recorded 1,977 calls on its helpline in 2012, a 27 percent increase over the previous year. The group's head Elisabeth Ronzier said the last few months of 2012 and the start of this year were "intense" with hate speech increasing sharply, especially on the Internet.

Golfing with Obama, Republican senator scores hole-in-one

By Roberta Rampton and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took his second-term "schmooze offensive" to the golf course on Monday, bonding in a bipartisan foursome as Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss hit a hole-in-one. Obama, an avid golfer with a respectable 17 handicap, rarely takes politics to the greens, preferring instead to golf with friends and staffers far out of the sight of the reporters who travel with him.

Golf: Etiquette boost as rules published in Chinese

China's golf boom has been in full swing for more than a decade but officials have finally moved to close a surprising loophole by translating the sport's rules into Chinese. Now China's players and officials -- and its unruly fans -- can become experts in the sport's complex etiquette after the move by the China Golf Association (CGA) and rules body the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A).

Golf: Etiquette boost as rules published in Chinese

China's golf boom has been in full swing for more than a decade but officials have finally moved to close a surprising loophole by translating the sport's rules into Chinese. Now China's players and officials -- and its unruly fans -- can become experts in the sport's complex etiquette after the move by the China Golf Association (CGA) and rules body the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A). Zhang Xiaoning, executive vice-president and general secretary of the CGA, called the move "crucial" as China transitions from rapidly growing upstart to a mainstay of the world game.

Pilgrimage from U.S. to eternal rest in Spain

Orense, Spain, May 6 (EFE).- Luiza Karner will make her last pilgrimage this week along the Way of St. James. That is how her husband described here this week the walk that he and his son will take to scatter the ashes of his late wife in the sea from Cape Finisterre, the end of a pilgrimage that began in Texas. It was in 1990 when Houston resident Luiza Karner made her first unaccompanied pilgrimage to the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, site of the shrine to St. James the Greater.

New self-immolation in Bulgaria

A Bulgarian man set himself on fire in the southern town of Smolyan on Wednesday, police said, bringing to seven the number of self-immolations since February in the EU's poorest country. Ventsislav Kozarev, 47, was hospitalised in a serious condition with third-degree burns over seventy percent of his body, Smolyan regional police chief Kiril Hadzhihristev told state BNR radio. The official said "personal problems" were behind the desperate act as the man was divorcing his wife.

Vietnam gay sitcom becomes Internet smash

Vietnam's first gay sitcom has become a YouTube sensation, racking up millions of views as support for legalising same-sex marriage strengthens within the communist government. Homosexuality was once seen as a social evil in Vietnam and the success of "My Best Gay Friends", a low-budget series about three people sharing an apartment in southern Ho Chi Minh City, has taken even its creator by surprise.
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