TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[AussieMark]

Artist Plans Titanic Iceberg Stunt

BELFAST (Reuters) - In a bizarre celebration of Belfast's industrial heritage, a Northern Ireland artist is planning to tow an iceberg to the city that built the Titanic.

Rita Duffy, who says the iceberg would represent a dramatic piece of "performance art" as it slowly melted in Belfast Lough, is working on a feasibility study with a local filmmaker before seeking funding for the project she hopes will happen in 2008.

"It can be done," she told Reuters. "We are thinking of coming down the old Viking journey from the north of Norway. It's totally possible."

When she was launched from Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard, the luxury liner RMS Titanic was the largest man-made moving object on Earth, hailed as "unsinkable" by her owners White Star.

The ship struck an iceberg off Canada on her maiden voyage in April 1912 and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Duffy says she is keeping the finale of her project a secret, but believes the iceberg could be a symbol of hope in a city scarred by decades of sectarian division.

"It comes from the story of the Titanic ... some people might see it in bad taste and I suppose some might find it amusing, but I actually see it as a deeply serious project," she added.

"I like to think this project is going some way to altering the damaged psyche of Belfast ... It's about courageously facing into that which interrupted our journey."

[TexasStooge]

Pitt and Aniston Separate - Again

LONDON (Reuters) - Sculptors in London's Madame Tussaud's museum were forced to break up a waxwork figure of Hollywood superstars Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston embracing following their separation last month.

"It involved quite a lot of work, because they were entwined and had their arms around each other," said museum spokeswoman Diane Moon Monday. "Jen had one of her hands on Brad's chest and her other hand was resting on his bottom."

The procedure, which involved remolding their arms, cost around 10,000 pounds, or the equivalent of $19,000, and the separated figures have been put back on display with their backs to each other.

Pitt, one of Hollywood's leading stars, and Aniston, who became a household name on the television series "Friends," were married in July 2000 and their entwined figure was installed in July 2004, after the museum decided they were a "safe couple."

The only other couple to be installed in the wax museum was actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but they were separate figures.

Despite the cost of separation, Moon is hopeful the couple, who separated in January this year, will reunite.

"We would like them to get back together again because that would be a nice happy ending and we don't mind spending the money entwining them again," she said.

Why am I not surprised?

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How Would You Like to Meet This Guy?

LONDON (Reuters) - A blind man has been arrested in Scotland after witnesses reported he sank his teeth into his guide dog and kicked her across the road, police said on Thursday.

The incident allegedly occurred outside a busy shopping center in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

David Todd, 34, is expected to face charges of cruelty to animals and breach of the peace.

A police spokeswoman said the 8-year old dog had been handed over to a charity dedicated to guide dogs.

"When we took her into custody, she had no apparent injuries," she added.

Todd is due to appear in court at a later date.

[AussieMark]

Bin Laden -- a Brand You Can Trust

GENEVA (Reuters) - Swiss authorities have ruled that a Geneva-based half-brother of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has the right to use the family name as a trademark.

But businessman Yeslam Bin Ladin said he had no immediate plans to bring out any goods under the name.

"I don't intend to exploit the brand Bin Ladin commercially for the time being, but registering it will prevent others from using my name to bad effect," the daily Tribune de Geneve quoted him as saying.

In July 2002 the Federal Intellectual Property Institute revoked the trademark which it had initially granted in August 2001 -- a month before al Qaeda launched suicide plane attacks on the United States that killed 3,000 people.

In revoking it, the Swiss authorities argued that the trademark could "morally wound" Swiss and disrupt public order.

But an appeals body, in a decision taken last June but only just published, said public order had not been disrupted and that trademarks should be revoked only in exceptional circumstances.

Bin Ladin has repeatedly condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and loss of life.

A dual Swiss-Saudi national who has lived in the Geneva area for two decades, he plans to market a perfume under the name "Yeslam" with the "YB" logo later this year.

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Naked Frolic Lands Prosecutor in Jail

KEY WEST, Fla. (Reuters) - A drunken Florida prosecutor who streaked across a motel parking lot and mistakenly jumped into a stranger's car landed in the slammer, a state attorney's office spokesman said on Wednesday.

After tossing back a few drinks with colleagues last weekend, Monroe County assistant prosecutor Albert "A.J." Tasker, 28, stripped off his clothes as a prank and headed toward what he thought was a friend's vehicle.

But Tasker jumped into the back seat of the wrong car, where a woman was waiting for her boyfriend. The woman screamed, the boyfriend arrived and Key West police arrested Tasker.

"The devil made him do it," said Matt Helmerick, spokesman for the Monroe County state attorney in Key West.

Tasker, who was hired in December, was jailed on misdemeanor charges of disorderly intoxication and exposure of sexual organs. He was released on bond and is on an unpaid leave of absence from his job pending an internal investigation.

"It's embarrassing to us, it's embarrassing to him," Helmerick said. "If this guy had been a doctor or a janitor or a short-order cook, there would be no news."

[AussieMark]

Cigar Aficionados Let Down by Cuban Smoking Ban

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cigar aficionados who see Cuba as the Mecca of smoking are dumbfounded by a Cuban smoking ban they say has let down the cause for smokers' rights worldwide.

Still, the hundreds of cigar lovers and retailers who showed up at the annual Habanos tobacco industry festival were grateful for a reprieve that allowed them to light up freely for the week.

Smokers puffed away at opening night in Havana's Museum of Fine Arts and stubbed out their Montecristos and Cohibas in flower pots and on the floor in the absence of ashtrays.

"Nobody could believe Cuba would ban smoking. It's like Spain banning wine," said Jose Luis Flores, a sommelier at a top restaurant in Toledo, Spain, who attended the event sponsored by Cuba's famed tobacco industry.

"It's a bad idea to prohibit smoking in Cuba. If you can't smoke here, where can you smoke?" he said.

"Everyone is puzzled by the ban, because Cuba produces the best tobacco and the best cigars in the world and we look forward to coming here to smoke freely," said Jimmy Ng, manager of The Cigar Divan in Singapore. He was glad an exception was made for the festival he described as a "walking humidor."

Cuban president Fidel Castro, once a cigar-chomping revolutionary, gave up cigars in 1986 and now says tobacco is poison and boxes of cigars are best given to one's enemies.

One of his enemies, the United States, once considered trying to blow him up with an exploding cigar.

Cuba on Feb. 7 banned smoking in air-conditioned public buildings, theaters, schools, sports centers, buses and taxis as part of a health initiative.

"No smoking" signs have gone up in public offices and hotels removed ashtrays from lobbies, but it is far from clear how effective the ban will be in Cuba.

BAN FLOP AT PAPA'S BAR

The Floridita, writer Ernest Hemingway's favorite bar for daiquiris, prohibited smoking for the first time since it opened in 1817. But management gave up after a week because sales to its tourist clientele had plummeted, an employee said.

Travelers can still light up at Havana's airport.

The ban has not been enforced in the factories where Cuba's premium cigars are hand-rolled by workers while they listen to books and periodicals read out on the public address system.

A spokesman for cigar maker Habanos S.A., a joint venture between the Cuban state and Spanish-French tobacco group Altadis, said the company has asked authorities to make exceptions to the ban.

Spanish cigar vendors said restrictions on smoking in public, mainly bars and restaurants, are hurting their trade, with sales down by 15 percent as a result, according to one retailer.

Spain is the largest market for the 120 million cigars Cuba exports each year, a business worth $300 million in 2004. Cuba has a 30 percent share of the world cigar market.

Aficionados in town for a week of good smoking, cigar rolling courses and visits to tobacco plantations and factories, were seeking clarification on how wide-ranging the Cuban ban will be.

"It's not very helpful. If Cuba has introduced a total ban, it will put me on very weak ground," said Simon Chase, marketing director for Hunters & Frankau, which sells Habanos in Britain, and has sought to forestall a ban in that country.

"Everybody in the tobacco industry now appreciates that you have to acknowledge that tobacco smokes is, at the very least, annoying to people," he said, adding that he believed the health dangers of third party smoke have been exaggerated.

"Provided there are places where people can enjoy a cigar, and they are something you should enjoy in company, then I would be happy to return to Cuba," Chase said.

[AussieMark]

Unbelievable...

LONDON (Reuters) - A blind man has been arrested in Scotland after witnesses reported he sank his teeth into his guide dog and kicked her across the road, police said on Thursday.

The incident allegedly occurred outside a busy shopping center in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

David Todd, 34, is expected to face charges of cruelty to animals and breach of the peace.

A police spokeswoman said the 8-year old dog had been handed over to a charity dedicated to guide dogs.

"When we took her into custody, she had no apparent injuries," she added.

Todd is due to appear in court at a later date.

[rainstorm]

Naked Frolic Lands Prosecutor in Jail

KEY WEST, Fla. (Reuters) - A drunken Florida prosecutor who streaked across a motel parking lot and mistakenly jumped into a stranger's car landed in the slammer, a state attorney's office spokesman said on Wednesday.

After tossing back a few drinks with colleagues last weekend, Monroe County assistant prosecutor Albert "A.J." Tasker, 28, stripped off his clothes as a prank and headed toward what he thought was a friend's vehicle.

But Tasker jumped into the back seat of the wrong car, where a woman was waiting for her boyfriend. The woman screamed, the boyfriend arrived and Key West police arrested Tasker.

"The devil made him do it," said Matt Helmerick, spokesman for the Monroe County state attorney in Key West.

Tasker, who was hired in December, was jailed on misdemeanor charges of disorderly intoxication and exposure of sexual organs. He was released on bond and is on an unpaid leave of absence from his job pending an internal investigation.

"It's embarrassing to us, it's embarrassing to him," Helmerick said. "If this guy had been a doctor or a janitor or a short-order cook, there would be no news."

just a night of fun, hehe

[AussieMark]

It Isn't Often You See Breast Cream Used in Public

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A promotion for breast enhancing cream that involved three models having a 15 minute mammary massage in public has caused a furor in Thailand, with family groups saying it violates traditional values and morality.

Despite Bangkok's racy reputation as the "anything goes" sex capital of southeast Asia, most Thais are uncomfortable with public nudity and all newspaper pictures of the demonstration had the breasts blurred out.

"The campaign is just to promote the product without considering the damage to society," Ladda Thangsupachai of the Cultural Watch Center told the Nation newspaper on Friday. "This is taking advantage of society and an irresponsible act."

Executives of St Herb Co., which makes the "breast beautifying" cream, said they laid on the stunt merely to counter suggestions their advertising claims were exaggerated.

The Nation said Ying, one of the models, was embarrassed at having to bare herself in front of the cameras, but did believe her breasts had become firmer and the gap between them smaller as a result of the treatment.

St Herb is likely to evade the wrath of regulators because the cream is "breast beautifying" rather than "breast enlarging" -- a trick missed by makers of a "breast enlarging bra" now under scrutiny from the Thai Food and Drug Administration.

Whether it works or not, a headline in the Thai Post tabloid summed up the controversy best in a society obsessed with marketing gimmicks: "Big breast bras good for people with small brains."

[AussieMark]

We're Here to Bug You: Video Mocks Police

HAVANA (Reuters) - "Good Morning, we've come to install your microphones," an agent says at the door in the opening line of an underground video making the rounds in Cuba.

"In what part of the house do you usually talk bad about the government?" he asks the nervous resident, a driver who pilfers gasoline and coffee from the state.

The spoof of Cuba's feared security police is in hot demand among Cubans, for whom black jokes and complaints about communist bureaucracy is a major pastime.

Made privately by well-known figures of Cuba's film industry, the 15-minute video is being passed around as a DVD. While many Cubans are talking about the video, not all have seen it because few Cubans have computers and even fewer DVD players.

Films satirizing the state's inefficiency have been tolerated in Cuba since the early days of President Fidel Castro's government, in power since a 1959 revolution.

But the bold video called "Monte Rouge" breaks Cuban taboos by poking fun at the Big Brother aspect of Cuban society, where Cubans feel they are constantly being spied on.

The secret police has received so many complaints, the two agents explain in the video, that it has changed methods to frank and open surveillance with target participation.

"Why me?" asks the perplexed driver.

"Most people just criticize the power blackouts and Granma (Communist Party daily) and ask how long this system will go on for. But you have made very wise comments about our emigration policy that have really been helpful," the agent answers.

"We are not interested in the good things you have to say about the system," he instructs the driver.

Told to say "something subversive" to test the mikes -- placed in his toilet where the agents also offered to install a mini-bar -- the man blurts out that he wants a satellite dish, an illegal possession prized by Cubans eager to watch foreign television.

One of the agents offers to sell him a dish, but not to say anything to his colleague, in a final jab at state corruption.

The video was director by Eduardo del Llano, who plays the part of one of the agents, with cinema and television soap opera actor Luis Alberto Garcia as the victim.

[AussieMark]

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LONDON (Reuters) - A blind man has been arrested in Scotland after witnesses reported he sank his teeth into his guide dog and kicked her across the road, police said on Thursday.

The incident allegedly occurred outside a busy shopping center in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

David Todd, 34, is expected to face charges of cruelty to animals and breach of the peace.

A police spokeswoman said the 8-year old dog had been handed over to a charity dedicated to guide dogs.

"When we took her into custody, she had no apparent injuries," she added.

Todd is due to appear in court at a later date.

[AussieMark]

Firm's Valentine Cards Spark Lovers' Tiffs

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A pharmaceutical company which sent anonymous Valentine's cards to Dutch gynecologists in a publicity stunt has been forced to apologize for sparking family arguments.

The doctors and their partners were furious with the company -- whose Web site says it mixes "the ingredients for health and happiness" -- after the firm sent cards saying "Now shall we tell everyone?," De Telegraaf newspaper reported Thursday.

A second card was dispatched to the 800 doctors the next day explaining that the first had been a gimmick to promote a new product.

In some cases, the cards caused so much distress that the company, Organon, sent apologetic bouquets of flowers, the newspaper said.

[AussieMark]

Most Single Japanese Women Want to Stay Unmarried

TOKYO (Reuters) - Most single Japanese women prefer not to marry and believe they can live happily alone for the rest of their life, a poll showed Friday, casting another shadow on the future of a country plagued by a falling birthrate.

About seven in ten single Japanese women surveyed by the conservative Yomiuri newspaper said they would rather stay unwed.

"The result reflects a recent trend among single women who no longer attach social stigma to choosing the single life," the daily said.

Japan's government is struggling to stem a tumbling birthrate and keep the population from shrinking.

The country's fertility rate -- the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime -- fell to 1.29 in 2003, the lowest in the post-World War II period.

In Tokyo, the figure was a startling 0.9987.

Underscoring concerns that an aging population may dent future growth in the world's second-largest economy, Japan said Monday that its population grew only 0.05 percent in the year to Oct. 1, its slowest increase in 54 years. Japan's population totaled an estimated 127,687,000 as of Oct. 1, 2004.

A government think tank has forecast that Japan's population will peak in 2006 and start to shrink the following year.

If present trends persist, the population would fall to about 100.6 million in 2050. Among oft-cited reasons for the falling birthrate are higher education levels, changing attitudes toward marriage and individual freedom, the high financial burden of child rearing, and the hardships involved for working women given long hours on the job and a persistent dearth of daycare.

The Yomiuri said 74 percent of surveyed men and women in their 20s said they believe women can be happy unmarried, while the rate dropped to 66 percent of those in their 30s and 58 percent in their 40s. "The result depicted a tendency among younger generations to remain single, leading observers to the conclusion that the number of people who marry late will further increase and will lower the birthrate," the newspaper said.

Unless steps are taken, the shortage of children will create problems for Japan including damage to its economic growth prospects, higher social welfare costs for individuals, and even psychological problems from poorly socialized youth, said a government white paper released in October.

[AussieMark]

Thieves Snatch Diamond Truck at Airport

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Thieves hijacked an armored truck carrying diamonds and jewelry from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Friday and escaped with their haul, Dutch airline KLM said.

A spokesman declined to put a value on the loss.

The robbers were heavily armed, a source close to the investigation said. The empty truck was later recovered.

"KLM security staff were threatened during the heist but no one was injured," an airline spokesman said.

Police and airport authorities declined further comment.

[AussieMark]

Indian Village Boy's NASA Claim Crashes to Earth

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - An Indian teenager from one of the country's most backward states appears to have fooled governments, the media and even the president into believing he had topped the world in a NASA science exam.

In a country hungry for international recognition, 17-year-old Saurabh Singh was feted as a national hero after announcing he had won NASA's International Scientist Discovery examination, which he said he took at Oxford University.

The Uttar Pradesh state government rewarded him with a 500,000 rupee ($11,500) prize and more than 100 members of the state's upper house each donated a day's salary to him.

But as he was at the president's official residence awaiting an audience during the week, his story unraveled.

An Indian news portal, rediff.com, contacted NASA, which denied any knowledge of the exam.

"Right now, no one knows where this examination comes from," Rediff quoted NASA education official Dwayne Brown saying.

A meeting planned with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hastily called off and the boy returned to his village of Narhai, where he is now under police investigation.

Singh had also said President Abdul Kalam and Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Columbia shuttle explosion in 2003, had sat the test. Kalam's office denies this.

Singh insists he met Kalam, although some Indian newspapers say the meeting was canceled as he waited to go in.

"It was really inspiring," Singh told Reuters by phone. "And let me tell you, he saw my certificate and praised me for the achievement, while you all are asking all kinds of questions and trying to dub me as a fraud."

The certificate, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, declared "You are the member of NASA" (sic) and is signed by Singh and "Chief of NASA, Cin K. Kif" -- NASA's former administrator was Sean O'Keefe. It also lists the name of Singh's father, common practice in Indian documents.

Singh says he flew to London on Indian Airlines -- which does not fly to the city -- and took a taxi to Oxford University and back every day for the exam from January 4-8, a round trip of about 230 km (140 miles).

Singh told Reuters he stayed in a hotel, but told a Hindi language newspaper he stayed at Buckingham Palace.

The Indian school where he says he sat the preliminary exam along with 200,000 others does not exist. The Bansal institute, where he says he studied mathematics, has never heard of him.

Singh cannot produce his passport to back his claim. That, he says, is with institute director P.K. Bansal.

"How can we possess his passport when we don't even know him?" Saturday's The Indian Express quoted Bansal saying. ($1 = 44 rupees)

[rainstorm]

thats the way to make a buck!!

[AussieMark]

It Isn't Often You See Breast Cream Used in Public

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A promotion for breast enhancing cream that involved three models having a 15 minute mammary massage in public has caused a furor in Thailand, with family groups saying it violates traditional values and morality.

Despite Bangkok's racy reputation as the "anything goes" sex capital of southeast Asia, most Thais are uncomfortable with public nudity and all newspaper pictures of the demonstration had the breasts blurred out.

"The campaign is just to promote the product without considering the damage to society," Ladda Thangsupachai of the Cultural Watch Center told the Nation newspaper on Friday. "This is taking advantage of society and an irresponsible act."

Executives of St Herb Co., which makes the "breast beautifying" cream, said they laid on the stunt merely to counter suggestions their advertising claims were exaggerated.

The Nation said Ying, one of the models, was embarrassed at having to bare herself in front of the cameras, but did believe her breasts had become firmer and the gap between them smaller as a result of the treatment.

St Herb is likely to evade the wrath of regulators because the cream is "breast beautifying" rather than "breast enlarging" -- a trick missed by makers of a "breast enlarging bra" now under scrutiny from the Thai Food and Drug Administration.

Whether it works or not, a headline in the Thai Post tabloid summed up the controversy best in a society obsessed with marketing gimmicks: "Big breast bras good for people with small brains."

[AussieMark]

Crows Culled to Save Tower of London Ravens

LONDON (Reuters) - If legend is to be believed, the future of the British monarchy lies in the hands of a sharp-shooting warder at the Tower of London.

For the six ravens who roam one of Britain's landmark fortresses are under threat from up to 200 crows who have invaded their royal domain, spreading disease and stealing food.

So every Sunday at dawn, before the daily tourist invasion begins, Yeoman Warder Derrick Coyle roams The Tower with his .22 air rifle to cull the crows.

For the beefeater, it is a weighty responsibility securing a haven for the ravens. Legend has it that if the ravens leave, The Tower of London will fall and so will the monarchy.

The 17th century monarch Charles II decreed that there must always be six ravens in residence.

"Urban crows are on the increase and they are a growing problem for us," said a spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces, which runs the Tower of London.

"The ravenmaster has his own culling strategy. He goes out at dawn and looks for the crows that he knows are ill -- they have matted feathers and a mangy appearance," she told Reuters.

Rarely has a collective noun been more appropriate in English -- a gathering of crows is known as a murder of crows.

The sharpshooter is particularly on the lookout for crows who might have swallowed rat poison.

The ravens themselves eat like kings -- from chicken hearts bought each morning by the ravenmaster at London's Smithfields Market to biscuits soaked in blood.

But life in the lap of avian luxury has apparently not always been so appealing.

One raven, Grog, spent 21 years at the Tower when he suddenly felt the need for a change in 1981 -- he was last spotted in the East End of London outside a pub called the Rose and Punchbowl.

Neither is it a job for life. The Governor of the Tower has been known to dismiss ravens for "conduct unbecoming."

In 1986, one miscreant called George was given his marching orders after developing a taste for TV aerials.

[AussieMark]

Beauty Pageant to Choose Miss HIV

GABORONE (Reuters) - There is a catwalk banquet, hordes of journalists, traditional dancing and time-consuming hair styling -- but at Botswana's beauty pageant every competitor must be HIV positive.

At a palm tree-studded resort and conference center in the capital Gaborone, 12 girls are competing this weekend for the title "Miss HIV Stigma Free."

"We are saying here we are, we are HIV positive and it doesn't mean it's the end of the line," 33 year old reigning Miss HIV Kgalalelo Ntsepe told Reuters in her cluttered one room cottage, where she displays trophies of her win in 2003.

Largest global diamond producer Botswana has one of the highest HIV rates in the world with an estimated third of the population infected.

The government is using its mineral wealth to provide life prolonging anti-retroviral drugs -- but many do not know their HIV status or are unwilling to come forward for treatment. Organizers say the pageant aims to tackle that stigma.

"After I started the medicine, I became stronger and stronger," said Ntsepe, who was diagnosed in 2001.

"We are trying to say there is life with this medication. Some don't believe I'm HIV positive because I'm so healthy," she said.

AIDS groups welcome the pageant, which is sponsored by British bank Barclays. "It may just be a pageant, but it is important because it brings together people with HIV who are open about their status," said Brad Ryder, spokesman for the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Programme.

"They need support, they need to come out and get acceptance for their condition."

[AussieMark]

Flirting Youths Outrage Iranian Hardliners

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Outraged by scenes of young boys and girls using Shi'ite Islam's most sacred mourning day as an opportunity to flirt in public, Iran's religious hard-liners are calling on authorities to stamp out such "vulgar displays."

Failure to do so, some newspaper commentators said, would force pious citizens to take matters into their own hands.

"Let the officials realize that the heroic and passionate people of Iran can easily deal with a handful of hoodlums and promiscuous elements that ridicule our sanctities," the hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily said in an editorial last week.

The main focus of hardline anger was a gathering of several hundred youngsters at Mohseni square in affluent northern Tehran earlier this month on the night of Ashura.

Ashura is the day Shi'ites commemorate the death of Imam Hossein in a 680 AD battle which cemented the schism between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam. In Iran, where Shi'ite Islam is the official religion, it is supposed to be marked by mourning.

"In the sunset of Ashura, women and girls in tight clothes and transparent scarves and guys dressed in Western fashion lit candles while laughing their hearts out," said the Ya Lesarat weekly, mouthpiece of the feared Ansar-e Hizbollah hardline vigilante group, members of whom later dispersed the crowds.

Other newspapers printed pictures from the Mohseni square gathering, focusing on young girls wearing make-up, laughing and mingling freely with the opposite sex.

"In this disgraceful event which was like a large street party, women and girls ... as well as boys ... mocked Muslims' beliefs and sanctities in the most shameless manner," Jomhuri-ye Eslami said.

Public displays of affection between unrelated men and women are banned in Iran. Western dress, make-up and pop music are also frowned on by hard-liners upon as signs of moral turpitude.

"IMMORAL SCENES"

"Some long-haired guys would openly cuddle girls creating awful and immoral scenes. Fast, provoking music ... nearby gave the street party more steam," it added.

Tehran residents said the Mohseni square Ashura gathering has swelled in size over recent years, attracting growing numbers from the generally more affluent parts of the city.

But political analysts said the trend observed at Mohseni square was in evidence, to a lesser extent, elsewhere.

"In general, religious events like Ashura have become a way for young people to interact freely in public," said one analyst who follows religious affairs closely.

"The religious side of it is much less important to them than the social aspect," the analyst, who declined to be named, added.

Religious figures in Iran, including President Mohammad Khatami -- a reformist cleric, have noted with dismay that Iran's disproportionately youthful population, around two-thirds of whom were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution, are increasingly turning away from religion.

Mohsen Kadivar, a mid-ranking cleric and philosophy lecturer whose views have landed him in prison, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month that young people in secular Turkey were more interested in religion than those in Iran.

"This shows that religion is voluntary. Forcing it on society has the opposite effect," he said.