SUNDSVALL: Nearly 700 children from Sweden ate their way into the record books, chewing 5,000 meters of licorice cords in eight minutes and 25.75 seconds, organisers said. The 673 children, who beat the Guinness book of world records' time by 2.5 seconds on Saturday, accomplished the feat during an outdoor fair in Sundsvall, in northern Sweden. Each child ate, on average, more than 7.4 meters of candy. Many of the children reportedly complained of stomachaches later.Our Lady in a sariWASHINGTON: A sari-clad statue of Mother Mary, revered by Indian subcontinental Catholics as `Vailankanni - Our Lady of good health', was installed in Washington this weekend, the event coinciding with the golden jubilee of independence of India and Pakistan. The oratory, established after a three-year fund raising drive by sub-continental Catholics, was first proposed by Pakistan's Michael D'Souza and designed on the architectural concepts by Bijoy Isaac, an India-born architect.Besides India and Pakistan, Catholics from the United States, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have been closely involved with the $ 350,000 project.Non-stop ElvisPAWLISH: British Elvis fan Gary Jay finally stopped singing after rocking through 100 of the king's hits in 10 hours - reportedly breaking the world record for the feat. Holiday camp worker Jay, 33, claimed late last night that he earned a place in the record books for notching up 10 hours of singing hits like Blue suede shoes, Love me tender and You ain't nothing but a hound dog. The Elvis look-alike arranged his marathon singing session in this southwestern English town to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death. He said (croakingly) after the mammoth effort: ``It was very difficult towards the end because my voice was going, but there was a crowd of 4,000 people there and I couldn't let them down.'' Jay added that he had broken the former record of seven-and-a-half hours set by US singer Alvin Prestley.Fiery blunderLOS ANGELES: A camper who thought it would be more environment friendly to burn her used toilet paper sparked a fire in Southern California's Angeles National Forest that has charred more than 4,000 hectares and had more than 1,700 fire fighters battling the blaze. The fire was about one-third contained yesterday, but was burning in an inaccessible area that had not been torched in 44 years, forcing authorities to call in water-dropping aircraft. No deaths and only five minor injuries to fire fighters have been reported. US forest service spokeswoman Susie Woods said the fire broke out when the camper decided to burn her toilet paper instead of burying it. ``I guess you could say it was a bad judgement call,'' Woods said. The camper could be billed for the 1.6-million-dollar cost of fighting the fire so far, but authorities have said they will not pursue any civil or criminal action against her. The total cost is expected to reach about eight million dollars.Discovery's featCAPE CANAVERAL: Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts deftly snagged a satellite loaded with valuable data about Earth's ozone layer on Saturday, accomplishing their final objective in orbit. Scientists at Kennedy Space Centre cheered and congratulated one another once the satellite was back on board. ``Great job, Discovery,'' mission control in Houston said. The crew of six is due back with the satellite on Monday. Nine days after releasing it to measure atmospheric gases, the astronauts closed in on the satellite using the same kind of approach that will be needed for the future space station. Then payload commander Jan Davis slowly reached out with discovery's 50-foot robot arm and grabbed the probe as the spacecraft sped 180 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
