Free Republic

She's from Russia with love -- and armed with sex toys, drugs and secret videotape. At least eight prominent Kremlin critics have been caught in a hidden camera sex sting by a sultry young Moscow model in what they say is a classic KGB-style "honey trap." Little is known about the woman, Ekaterina Gerasimova, except that she's in her 20s, has dazzling blue eyes, uses the social networking Web nickname "Mu Mu" and has disgraced a growing list of pols and media types in videos that are surfacing on the Internet.

Welsh singing star Charlotte Church branded US President George Bush "a right weirdo" and opera legend Pavarotti a "big fat diva", it has been reported. The singer took a swipe at the famous men during an appearance on Glasgow-based Clyde 1 radio to promote her new single, Crazy Chick. Church, 19, said gaffe-prone Bush had no idea where Wales was when she met him after performing for outgoing President Bill Clinton in Washington in 2000.

Firemen in Germany had to use a 38.5-toncrane to hoist a German man weighing 660 pounds out of his apartment and take him to hospital, the fire brigade in the northern city of Hamburg said on Monday. "Because the man was so heavy, we couldn't carry him on one of the normal stretchers, so we had to use the crane," said Hamburg fire brigade spokesman John Ralfs. Ten firemen were needed to lift the 63-year-old man onto a hospital bed placed inside a large industrial container, which the crane had hoisted level with his first-floor balcony. The crane then lowered...