orld-popular cartoon characters The Smurfs are now 50 years old and Belgians have prepared a big birthday bash starting early this week. The celebration will cover key European cities including Paris and Berlin. The Smurfs, the diminutive blue-colored forest dwellers, were created by late Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, fondly called 'Peyo,' through a comic strip in the late 1950s-back then, they were still called Schtroumpf. In the early 1980s, Smurfs debuted on US television and became hugely popular worldwide since then.

A judge in western Canada's Saskatchewan province on Wednesday granted a Canadian woman's civil suit against her drug dealer for selling her addictive street narcotics that caused her hospitalization due to overdose. Sandra Bergen, the drug addict, won by default after her drug dealer refused to identify the source of the narcotics.

A $10,000 reward was announced by a California family for the safe return of their small dog. Louie, the tiny 5-month old Yorkshire terrier puppy was allegedly stolen at a supermarket parking lot, from Pauline Jolly's car.

A 114-year old woman from Chicago registered to vote in the U. S. elections on Thursday. Virginia Call was visited by the chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to enlist in the official book of voters, thus enabling her to participate in the presidential polls next month.

The Berlin Zoo celebrated the first birthday of its famous polar bear Knut, who was born and then rejected by its mother. Since infancy, the polar bear has caught the attention and the endearment of people the world over. The birthday celebration, which was held Wednesday, involved more than 2,000 attendees by noon, and was highlighted by a giant birthday cake made from 300 eggs and 22 pounds of marzipan.