The Vatican says it is happy that Pope Benedict was left out of Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people, which included the Dalai Lama and the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians. "I am pleased the Pope isn't there because criteria were used that have absolutely nothing to do with the Pope's moral and religious authority," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

However, the editor-in-chief of Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano was quoted as saying the exclusion of the Pope from the list was a "disconcerting decision." "Any newspaper editor would have scrapped that list," La Repubblica daily quoted Giovanni Maria Vian as saying.

The magazine's fifth annual list of influential people hit newsstands on Friday, with categories including "Leaders & Revolutionaries" and "Heroes & Pioneers".

Chinese President Hu Jintao, the head of India's ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and media magnate Rupert Murdoch featured in Time's latest list.

Surfing porn at work

A city bureaucrat in western Japan was suspended from his job after officials discovered he visited porn websites at work almost every day, often spending hours gazing at nude photos, a city official said.

The 57-year-old man, who was working in the construction division of Kinokawa City in Wakayama, surfed porn sites from an office computer almost every day for eight months from June 2007, spending up to three hours a day on the websites.

Angered citizens called city hall all day yesterday, saying the suspension was not enough.

The city only found out about his activities in February when it noticed that his computer had picked up the same virus repeatedly from the sites. The bureaucrat was suspended from the office for three months and was demoted as of Thursday.

Just in time for Mothers' Day!

If anyone was wondering where French avant-garde novelist Michel Houellebecq got his talent for character assassination, the answer is clear: His mother. In his seminal 1998 novel Les particules elementaires, known in English as Atomised, Mr Houellebecq vented a lifetime of anger against his mother by portraying her as an egocentric, sexually promiscuous hippie who neglected her children.

Now it's pay-back time. Lucie Ceccaldi, 83, has returned to France from her home in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion to publish a book of her own, The Innocent One, in which she heaps insults on her son.

"My son can go and get screwed by whomever he wants, he can write another book, I don't give a toss," she says in one excerpt, widely published in French media this week.

Missing persons on playing cards

Inmates in 58 county jails across New York are getting playing cards with the pictures of missing persons in hopes the photos will jog memories and help solve cold cases.

Under a state Senate pilot programme, 7,200 decks of cards are being sent to the jails. They include telephone numbers of tip lines that offer rewards to anyone - including prisoners - who provide information about the crimes.

The cards were paid for with a $10,000 (€6,470) grant from Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno from funds he controls.

"This programme seeks to go right to the source of crime, providing incarcerated criminals information via playing cards who, in turn, may have credible information or leads that help solve these crimes," Mr Bruno said in a statement.

Drug baron sponsors kids' party

A Mexican drug baron in prison in the US threw a party with presents and clowns for 500 poor children back home despite a government crackdown on warring cartels.

"Your friend Osiel Cardenas Guillen wishes you a Happy Children's Day. You are the future of Mexico," read a banner at the event in Acuna at the border with Texas, Reforma newspaper said yesterday.

Clowns entertained more than 500 children from low-income families, who were also given small gifts at the event to mark Children's Day celebrated in Mexico on Wednesday.

The paper said Mr Cardenas sponsored the party.

Drug smugglers are viewed as folk heroes in some poor parts of northern Mexico. Wealthy gangs often pay for new churches in impoverished villages where the government lacks funds to build roads or provide electricity.

Imprisoned drug bosses in Mexico are often thought to continue leading their organizations, despite being behind bars.

Cheerleaders to cover-up

One Indian cricket team has withdrawn cheerleaders from matches while others are being told to cover up, after protests that their dances and skimpy outfits were offensive to conservative Indians. Cheerleaders, many imported from abroad, were hired to liven up India's new €580 million domestic cricket league in which eight teams play a shortened version of the traditional game.

But while drum players, blaring music and the presence of Bollywood stars cheering among spectators may have livened up stadiums, cheerleaders may be one spectacle too far.

"At the right time of course we will be open to this," Vijay Vancheswar, vice-president of GMR group that owns the Delhi Daredevils, said.