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Canadian Man Uses iPad to Enter U.S.

A Canadian man who realized he forgot his passport as he approached the U.S. border found a new way to gain entry — his iPad.

Martin Reisch said Tuesday a slightly annoyed U.S. border officer let him cross into the United States from Quebec after he presented a scanned copy of his passport on his Apple iPad. Reisch was a half hour from the border when he decided to try to gain entry rather than turn back and make a two-hour trek back home to Montreal to fetch his passport.

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Polish Art Student Hung Own Painting in Museum

The director of a major Polish museum says it was a "witty artistic happening" when an art student secretly hung his own painting in the museum as part of a campaign to open up galleries to young artists.

Director of the National Museum in Wroclaw, Mariusz Hermansdorfer, said Wednesday he treated the campaign as a joke and has kept the painting on display — in the museum's cafe. It will be offered for sale at a charity auction.

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Mexican Grand Warlock Predicts Obama Loss in 2012

Mexico's Grand Warlock predicted U.S. President Barack Obama would fail to win re-election and two more Latin American leaders would be diagnosed with cancer, in a traditional New Year's forecast Tuesday.

The Grand Warlock, or "Brujo Mayor" in Spanish, leads a Mexican tradition of "brujeria" or sorcery centered in the southeastern city of Catemaco.

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French Diet Guru Dukan Urges Students be Graded on Weight

France's top diet guru Pierre Dukan is urging the government to grade students on their weight in a bid to curb growing obesity.

In a book to be published Thursday, Dukan suggests that students in their last two years of high school be awarded extra marks if they manage to maintain an acceptable Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

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Indonesians Have New Symbol for Injustice: Sandals

Indonesians have found a new symbol for their growing frustration at uneven justice in this young, democratic nation: cheap, worn-out flip-flops.

They have been dropping them off at police stations throughout the country to express outrage over the arrest and trial of a 15-year-old boy for lifting an old pair of white sandals from outside a boarding house used by police in northern Indonesia.

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Man Tried to Use $1M Bill at NC Walmart

Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

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India Puts Terry on Cigarette Warnings

Representatives of England captain John Terry have lodged a complaint over the apparent use of his image for a tobacco warning printed on cigarette packets in India, a report said on Tuesday.

The blurry image featuring the head and shoulders of a man resembling Terry above a warning that "Smoking Kills" was created by the government's Directorate of Visual Publicity, the Indian Express reported.

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Swedish Woman Finds Wedding Ring after 16 Years, on a Carrot

A Swedish woman who lost her wedding ring 16 years ago was flabbergasted when she found it again, around a carrot growing in her garden, media reported Saturday.

Lena Paahlsson had taken off the white gold ring before a Christmas baking session with her daughters in 1995, but it had disappeared from the kitchen counter where she placed it.

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New Year's Guests Locked out at Denver Marriott

New Year's guests at a Denver Marriott were locked out of their rooms when the clock struck midnight and their room keys stopped working.

The 628-room Denver Tech Center Marriott says a room key malfunction kept guests out of their rooms from midnight until about 3 a.m.

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Thousands of Dutch Take an Icy New Year Plunge

Thousands of hardy swimmers took a plunge into the icy waters of the North Sea off the Netherlands on Sunday for the traditional "New Year's Dip".

"It's true that it's crazy to do this, but once out of the water, it feels really good," Tjerk Drouen, 38, told AFP after his swim off Scheveningen, his cheeks reddened by the cold.

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