Masked police chief sparks brief school lockdown

MONTROSE, Mich. (AP) -- A masked police chief planning to surprise Michigan high school students in a forensic science class ended up sparking a brief lockdown after being spotted by a cafeteria worker....More--Twitter Political Roast---Domain Names

Artist's Nazi saluting-gnome sparks police probe

BERLIN (Reuters) – German prosecutors in Nuremberg have launched an investigation into whether an artist's gold-coloured gnome giving a stiff-armed Hitler salute violates the country's strict laws against the use of Nazi symbols.

The gnome, standing 35 centimetres (14 inches) tall, is one of 700 made by German artist Ottmar Hoerl that were displayed in Belgium and Italy. Nuremberg prosecutors are investigating after a complaint to local police, said spokesman Wolfgang Traeg.

"We've asked both the artist and the gallery owner to explain what the intention is," said Traeg, spokesman for the Nuremberg prosecutors. "It's not a crime if it can be proved that the artist was being critical of the Nazis."

Giving the outlawed Hitler salute or using Nazi symbols is a crime in Germany punishable by up to three years in prison.

Hoerl, who also created the giant blue and yellow euro symbol that was erected in front of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt in 2001, said he was astonished by the fuss about his bearded dwarfs.

"I'd have been executed by the Nazis if I had portrayed the 'super race' as gnomes in 1942," the 59-year-old German artist was quoted telling Stern magazine's online edition.

The golden gnome, with an impish grin, was originally one of 700 used in a 2008 exhibition called "Dance with the Devil" in the Belgium city of Ghent. The gnomes were also displayed without objection in Bolzano, Italy and Aschaffenburg, Germany.

"In Belgium everyone understood what was meant," Hoerl said. The gnomes have the word "poisoned" inscribed on their base.

The gnomes are for sale -- 50 euros (£43) each -- and about 400 of the 700 originals still in the collection are currently on display in Aschaffenburg.

Hoerl has a penchant for gnomes. In 2006 he produced 1,200 gnomes in the colours of Germany's national flag -- black, red and gold -- for an exhibition in Karlsruhe.

Gnomes originate in Germany from the late 19th century and feature in many German fairy tales, both as a force for good and evil.

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Odd News-Kids' "power station" sparks radiation alert

BERLIN (Reuters) – A toy nuclear power plant built by two six year-olds sparked a public alert in Germany, only for authorities to discover the would-be security threat was the shell of a computer with a radiation warning sign stuck to it.

Fire services and police cordoned off several streets and told residents to stay indoors in the western town of Oelde after the two boys left their mock power station on the street when they went home for dinner Monday evening.

"It wasn't a prank, they were just playing," a local police spokeswoman said Tuesday. "The boys tried to go back later to carry on but the fire brigade wouldn't let them through."

The lock-down of the area began when a passer-by saw the metal object with the yellow and black symbol on it, took fright and alerted authorities, the spokeswoman said.

Police sent out warnings on local radio for residents to remain in their homes while a radiation detector was rushed to the scene to investigate the old computer casing and the warning sign, which the boys had printed out from the internet.

After the object had been identified, the boys' parents explained to police the children had gone out to "play nuclear power station" that evening, the spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Sophie Hares)