Church leaders in York say the Christmas display at one of the city's tourist attractions could expose children to "evil forces".

Instead of the usual Father Christmas, visitors to Satan's Grotto at York Dungeon are greeted by a man dressed as the Devil with a red face and horns.

As well as meeting the alternative Santa, visitors to the grotto are handed "gifts" such as severed fingers, and can write on a scroll to sign their souls away.

Mr Simpson, from St Michael-le-Belfrey in the city centre, said concerns were raised at a regular meeting with clergy from Baptist, Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.

"There are real evil forces and we in our work come across people who are damaged seriously through their involvement with occult forces.

On its website the dungeon says the festive attraction includes elves impaled on spikes and robins roasting over an open fire with Santa being put in a witch's cauldron and boiled.

A spokesman for York Dungeon said: "There are many people who are tired and weary of the commercial aspect of Christmas and for those people our attraction comes as a light relief.

Giving the Gift of War

By Nick Turse

Back in October, CUBIC Defense Applications Inc. of San Diego, California, through the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, Training Systems Division, was awarded a $7.7 million contract for a "Combined Hungarian Range Instrumentation and Simulation Training Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System" -- a laser-tag-like set-up for Hungarian military training exercises. The jolly acronym for this project is wholly in the spirit of the season: CHRISTMS!

Murderer ... evil Arshad

Mother-in-law 'in curry'

By ANDY RUSSELL

A butcher who chopped up his mother-in-law with a meat cleaver is believed to have put her body parts in pies and curries.

Muhammed Arshad, 37, hid the remains of the mum of six above his takeaway - but they were never found. Forensic experts said the parts were taken down to the kitchen of the shop where 'the blood trail stopped.'

Fearsome ... tool used to kill

The qualified butcher, who also worked in a pie factory, was jailed for life yesterday for murdering Zainab Begum, 56.

A Lancashire Police source said: "It is very macabre but we had to consider the possibility the body was fed to customers."

Air Commodore Greg Evens, who took command of Australia's 350 soldiers in Iraq last month, said Iraqi insurgents were hiring assassins from neighboring Middle Eastern countries with the promise of cash payments for every soldier they killed.

"This is a difficult adversary," he told Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Popdizzy desired products: Children's knitted gimp suit

Here we see the proper technique of how a mannequin can give oral sex to a woman 5 feet away in a leotard.

>> 1950s Japanese Sex Guide <<
  The Japanese might have brought us bukkake, but
  the nation has not always been so sexually
  advanced. These pictures are from a more
  innocent time, when the parents of today's
  generation had to be taught how to hold hands
  as well as other, more advanced, seduction
  techniques.
http://snipurl.com/aymd

U.S. soldier sentenced to three years for killing Iraqi teen
04:32 PM EST Dec 11

PAUL GARWOOD

BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. soldier was sentenced to three years in prison for killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager.

Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr., 30, of Wilson, N.C., pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.

His sentencing included a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonourable discharge.

Horne was among six soldiers based in Fort Riley. Kan., charged with killings in recent months - two for slayings in Kansas and four for deaths in Iraq.

In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.

The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.

Violations carry severe reprisals -- publishing houses can be fined $1 million and individual violators face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In a further wrinkle, even if publishers obtain a license for a book, they believe the regulations bar them from advertising it, forcing readers to find the dissident works on their own.

Officials from the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees OFAC, declined comment, but spokeswoman Molly Millerwise described the sanctions as "a very important part of our overall national security."

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A top municipal official in Phoenix died in a bizarre incident that saw him crawl out of his fast-moving vehicle, stand atop its roof and extend his arms outward before tumbling off.

AP Photo