Rodney_Hart's Blog

MYFOXNY.COM -- Lindsay Lohan doffed her top for New York magazine earlier this year, but to Playboy's dismay she won't be doing that again (for now, at least).

The New York native turned down a $700,000 offer to do a topless photo shoot in Playboy's upcoming 55th-anniversary issue, according to Page Six.

Lohan's rep told Playboy that the headline-generating starlet will "not go down the [New York] magazine road again.

LiLo's spread in New York magazine, which emulated a famous Marilyn Monroe shoot, generated huge Internet buzz. The magazine's Web site had trouble handling the traffic in the hours after the photos were posted online February 18.

Indeed, MyFoxNY.com's stories about the photos were the most-viewed news articles on our site that week.

BY CHAD SMITH and CARRIE MELAGO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Sunday, August 24th 2008, 12:44 AM

Cassandra Wu sits handcuffed on the steps of Union Square after she was arrested Saturday for tossing water on would-be water gun fight participant.

Plans for a massive water gun fight in Union Square were foiled by cops Saturday - but one tourist there still managed to get herself in hot water.

The Australian woman was taken into custody after chucking bottled water on one participant while cops explained to the crowd that they didn't have the necessary permits for the fight.

"I can't believe this is happening," said a handcuffed Cassandra Wu, who is in town to celebrate her 30th birthday.

Wu and her family came to Union Square Saturday at 3 p.m. to watch the fight, a precursor to a three-week water gun tournament organized by a gaming group called Street Wars.

"They were advertising it. We thought it would just be a normal water fight," said Wu's sister.

But Wu picked a bad moment to playfully toss water onto one of the fighters. Cops were stopping the tournament because it lacked proper permits.

"This is terrible," said Kevin Schneider, 23, who had the water thrown on him. "You've got the community coming together and it gets ruined. We're all just trying to cool off."

Wu cried as she sat on the steps of Union Square and was later led away by police. It was unclear what charges she would face, if any.

"This is crazy," her sister said. "And this would never happen in Australia."

cmelago@nydailynews.com

Part of a news story I came across.  

The move comes as China hosts the Olympics in Beijing, where false media reports last year claimed Bibles would be banned from the games. The state-run China Daily reported last month that 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible would be distributed in the Olympic Village, which houses athletes and media.

Bibles are printed under the supervision of the Communist government. The officially atheistic country only allows them to be used in government-sanctioned churches and in some big hotels catering to foreigners.

A woman who was on duty at Kunming airport's customs office confirmed over the telephone that 315 Bibles were found in the passengers' checked baggage.

The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just "taking care" of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media and referred questions to the national customs headquarters in Beijing, which did not answer phones on Sunday.

"We're not selling them; we give them free to the people," Klein said. "We didn't come to cause trouble, we just came to bring Bibles to help out the Chinese Christians."

The Bibles were printed in Chinese, he said.

Klein said the customs officers had told him that they could each have one Bible for personal use and not more than that. He said the officers had videotaped them and were insisting that they leave the airport.

"We don't want to go without taking those books. It cost us a lot of money to bring them here," Klein said. "They're saying that it's illegal to bring the Bibles in and that if we wanted to, we had to apply ahead of time for permission."

China faces routine criticism for its human rights violations and its repression of religious freedom. Religious practice is heavily regulated by the Communist Party, with worship allowed only in party-controlled churches, temples and mosques, while those gathering outside face harassment, arrest and terms in labor camps or prison.

When the news people go on their comedy act, I have to turn the channel. Can they just do their jobs and report the news!

The bit with the gold jacket went on and on and on !!!! I am watching another from now on!

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said. 

That is too bad, I guessed they don't want change after all.