Sea lion learns to write Chinese

Zoo keepers have reportedly trained a sea lion to write in Chinese.
Staff at Ningbo Zoo, China, spent three months teaching the sea lion, called Peter, reports People's Daily.
And it can now write the Chinese character representing a 'bull' - and can also sign off his work with his own 'sea lion' seal.
After writing, Peter, a six-year-old male, holds the seal and stamps it on the paper as a signature.
The zoo says Peter will demonstrate his writing skills for tourists during the Spring Festival at the zoo.

The Saturdays cover Depeche Mode

The Saturdays have recorded a cover of Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough'.
Set to be this year's official Comic Relief single, the reworking of the Essex electronic band's 1981 hit will be released on 2 March.
In an official statement from the girl group, Mollie King said : "I am so excited that we have been asked to do the Comic Relief song.
"It's such a big compliment and it's so nice to be helping such a good cause. I’ve always dreamt of doing something like this from being a little girl!
Mollie added that she was pleased to be following in the footsteps of her girl band heroes.
She said: "I remember watching the Spice Girls' sing ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ [on Comic Relief] and now it's us! I cannot wait!"

Katy Perry and Bloc Party set for Oxegen

Katy Perry and Bloc Party are the latest additions to this year's Oxegen bill.
The Irish festival will also see Dublin trio The Script perform.
It was previously announced Kings Of Leon would be headlining the event for the second consecutive year, while Snow Patrol and The Killers are set to play.
The festival takes place at Punchestown Racecourse, Naas from 10-12 July.
Tickets will be available to purchase from 6 March, though reservations can be made from 25 February.

Police hired actors to rob bank

Police chiefs in China have been slammed for hiring actors to rob a bank as a training exercise - without telling anyone else.
Only the director and the deputy director of the Zhenzhou police department knew it was a drill - everyone else, including the bank, thought it was a real raid.
Four 'robbers' rushed into the Post Office Bank, disarmed security and demanded all the people inside drop to the floor. They even snatched a customer's bag containing £20,000, reports Guangzhou Daily.
Critics said police officers, unaware that it was a training drill, could easily have used their guns on the fleeing robbers.
They were also concerned about the psychological effect on bank cashiers and customers who had been put through a traumatic situation.
The four robbers ran out of the bank in four different directions. But within two hours, all had been caught by different police divisions in the city.
A police spokesman said later that police didn't have a preset plan for the drill and all timing, location, and method of robbery were decided on the spot.
"The goal was to test different divisions' reaction and coordination," he said.

White Lies man doesn't rate rap

White Lies bassist Charles Cave doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of other rock bands by collaborating with any rap acts.
Coldplay are one example of a UK act to cross into the hip-hop, with Chris Martin working with rapper Jay-Z on more than one occasion, but Charles told Orange he doesn't feel an affiliation to the genre.
He said: "Without sounding controversial I think that's a style of music I would feel a little bit awkward about trying to understand."
He added: "A lot of bands do it and it just ends up sounding kind of wrong. Even Aerosmith and Run DMC [collaborating on 'Walk This Way'] was a little bit weird."
To read the rest of Orange's interview with Charles, click through to the White Lies artist page below.
White Lies' debut album, To Lose My Life, is out on Monday (19 January).

Katy Perry picked up wrong award

Katy Perry was wrongly given one of the main awards at France's main music ceremony.
The singer collected the trophy for best international song at the NRJ Awards in Cannes, thinking she had won, reports the BBC.
But the award should have been given to Rihanna for Disturbia. Host Nikos Aliagas admitted the error at the end of the show.
Perry, who was among the international stars at the annual event, which was celebrating its 10th birthday, did legitimately scoop the best international album prize.
The winners at the ceremony - the French answer to the Grammys or the Brits - were voted for by listeners of radio station NRJ.

Bamboozled brides

Three couples got married on a river in China while balancing on bamboo poles.
The brides all wore traditional wedding dresses while the grooms wore suits for the stunt on the Xiangjiang River in Zunyi city, Guizhou province.
All three couples belong to the local single bamboo rafting club, and chose to get married on the water to show their skill at the sport, reports People Daily.
The sport involves racing on the river while balancing on a locally produced bamboo pole around 20cm in diameter.
"They can sit or stand on the piece of bamboo and they can race and compete at other tasks using a thin bamboo oar," explains a club spokesman.
The Zunyi city sporting office says it is trying to promote the new sport and hopes it will become popular across the city.

Lego Obama takes the oath

Legoland has stolen a march on the real world by creating an incredibly detailed model of Barack Obama's inauguration as US President.
The model version is already the main attraction at the California theme park - ahead of the highly anticipated real thing.
Lego master craftsmen created a model White House, motorcade, Mr Obama and his whole family - and even queues to the porta-loos.
More than 1,000 mini Lego people surround the construction, with onlookers including outgoing George W Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia are also depicted, standing proudly behind the president-elect as he takes the presidential oath of office on the steps of the Capitol.

Thousands apply for 'world's best job'

Tourism officials in Australia have been inundated with applications for "the best job in the world".
The job, on a tropical island, requires no formal qualifications except being willing to swim, snorkel, and sail.
In return the successful applicant will receive a salary of £70,000 for six months. They also get to live in a rent-free villa, with pool.
The post, advertised as "caretaker" on Hamilton Island in Australia's Whitsunday Islands, has already attracted so much interest the tourism department has had to upgrade from one server to 10.
Anthony Hayes, chief executive officer of Tourism Queensland, joked: "Oh boy, what have we done?", after the high volume of traffic saw the site crash briefly.
The new recruit will work for just 12 hours a month. Duties include feeding some of the hundreds of species of fish and collecting the island's mail.
They will also need to produce a blog, a photo diary and video updates to attract tourists to the area.
Over 2,000 video applications have already been received, and today a team of 10 people will start sifting through them. Tens of thousands more are expected before the February 22 deadline.
In May, 10 shortlisted candidates and one wildcard, voted for by visitors to the Tourism Queensland website, will be invited to the islands for a four-day final interview process. The successful candidate will start the new job on 1 July.

Christian refuses to drive atheist bus

A Christian bus driver has refused to use a vehicle with the atheist slogan: "There's probably no God".



Ron Heather, from Southampton, responded with "shock horror" at the message and walked out of his shift in protest.

Buses across Britain started displaying atheist messages in an advertising campaign launched earlier this month, reports the BBC.

Mr Heather said: "I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face, my first reaction was shock horror.

"I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did.

"I think it was the starkness of this advert which implied there was no God."

He has since agreed to go back to work with the promise he would only have to drive the buses if there were no others available.

First Bus said in a statement: "As a company we understand Mr Heather's views regarding the atheist bus advert and we are doing what we can to accommodate his request not to drive the buses concerned."

The advertising campaign is backed by the British Humanist Association and prominent atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins.

Lucy hits back at Katie

Lucy Pinder has hit back at Katie Price after the model branded her a "bloke with bollocks".



Lucy - who was the first person to be evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house claims Katie is "vile" and "jealous".

While Lucy was in the house Katie publicly claimed the Page 3 model had had surgery on her teeth, lips and nose.

Speaking in Star magazine, Lucy said she does not want to start a war of words with the mother-of-three.

She said: "You know what, Victoria summed Katie up in one word: Vile. That's what she is.

"I don't want to dignify her comments by getting into a slanging match but I have not had a nose job or a boob job."

Britney Spears's new single is set to be banned from broadcast on US radio stations.



''If You Seek Amy', the third single from Circus, could be refused air time after it became obvious that the song's title, and a significant part of the chorus, could be construed as an alternative spelling of 'F * * * me'.

Patti Marshall, program director of Cincinnati's Q102 told MTV: "It's OK to put it on an album, have fun with it, but we're publicly owned, you know?

She added: "We have a responsibility to the public. [We're] not all fuddy-duddies, like we're trying to make moral judgments.

"It's not about us, it's about the mother in the minivan with her eight-year-old."

Romania's TV watchdog has issued a warning to a children's channel for broadcasting cartoons which contained nudity.



The National Audio-Visual Council asked Minimax television to stop airing 'indecent' episodes of the Hungarian Folk Tales series.

In one episode, a princess strips naked to negotiate with a farmer for some dancing piglets. The princess ends up in bed with two men to decide which one she will marry.

In another episode, a girl shows her naked body as a gift for the emperor.

The cartoon series is broadcast every day at noon in Romania and is watched by young children.

Romanian authorities cannot fine Minimax, which is licensed in the Czech Republic, but says the channel will be blocked if the cartoons are shown again before the watershed.

Lady GaGa has unveiled a love of heavy rock music.
In an exclusive interview, the New York singer told Orange she would like to work with Marilyn Manson.
Asked who she would most like to colloborate with, Lady GaGa explained: "Marilyn Manson. He's one of the only genuine rock stars of my time."
The pop vixen, currently at No.1 in the UK and US single chart with 'Just Dance', is a fan of the rock genre in general, and references attending a Killers' gig in her song 'Boys Boys Boys'.
She also said: "AC/DC is one of my favorite rock bands of all times, because I love a dirty deed done dirt cheap."
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was the Australian band's third studio album.
To enter Orange's competition to meet Lady GaGa, click through to her artist page using the link below.
To chat to her live, click through to her artist page on Friday (16 January) at 5:30pm.
You can post your questions for the Live chat now, in advance. The best ones win Lady GaGa CDs.

Electric door shocker

A Chinese man who installed a burglar-proof iron door was shocked to find it contains enough electricity to light up a 40 watt bulb.
Huang, of Zhengzhou, told Dahe Daily that he and his family had to wear rubber gloves every time they open the door.
"Each time, we touched the door, we received strong shocks that made our whole arms and body feel numb," he said.
An electrician checked the door and found it had 149 volts running through it - enough to light up a 40 watt bulb.
But he was confused about where the power was coming from as the door was still charged even after the building's electricity supply was cut off.
And Huang says there were no cables in the walls when he replaced the old wooden door with the burglar-proof iron one.
He has now dismantled the door - but is appealing for local people to help as he says his family can't live without a door indefinitely.

Former Sugababe to appear on Big Brother

Music fans will find plenty of familiar faces on tonight's Celebrity Big Brother launch show.
The roster for this year's series includes US rapper Coolio, Michael Jackson's sister La Toya and ex-Sugababe and Groove Armada collaborator Mutya Buena.
Coolio, who is perhaps best remembered for his 1995 No.1 single 'Gangsta's Paradise, is no stranger to reality shows. He has previously appeared on Celebrity Fear Factor and hosts his own webcast entitled 'Cookin' With Coolio'.
The rapper and La Toya are bookmakers' early favourites for victory.
Other musical housemates include '80s pop star Steve Strange and - former member of '90s boyband A1 - Ben Adams.
Celebrity Big Brother begins tonight at 9PM on Channel 4.

Coldplay to change songwriting style next year

Chris Martin has announced his intention to write prolifically over the coming year.
The Coldplay frontman says the band have a lot to achieve before their impending 10-year anniversary.
He told The Sun: "We feel bands need to fill their first 10 years, so we have lots to do before December 31st 2009.
"I know it's stupid, but that's kind of our deadline. We have to do something good by then."
In 2008, Coldplay enjoyed enormous success with their fourth album Vida La Vida or Death And All His Friends; but while Martin admits they have achieved some "pretty good stuff" since their debut album was released in 2000, the arrival of 2010 will bring a new era.
He added: "I'll be 33 that year, and I always feel that marks a different phase of songwriting. So I just try to keep as busy as possible till then.
"Most of my heroes did most of their great stuff before they were 33. It's not that you can't do great stuff afterwards. You just have to have deadlines, otherwise you'll spend all day in the sauna."