Osama bin Laden is obsessed with singer Whitney Houston, even though her music is "evil," claims a Sudanese poet and novelist. The writer, Kola Boof, says bin Laden told her he had a "paramount desire" for Houston, wanted to possess her, and talked about having her husband, Bobby Brown, killed. The 37-year-old writer's autobiography, Diary of a Lost Girl, is excerpted in the magazine Harpers' Bazaar.

A club plans to include nude women in its shows when it opens in a building owned by an Australian church, prompting anger from clergy members. The Dean of St. David's Anglican Cathedral in Hobart, Tasmania is upset about flyers advertising full frontal nudity at the nightclub.

A judge at the U. S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday overturned an appeal by a man who had sued the city for entering his apartment without a search warrant, after he was mauled by his own pet tiger. The ruling appeared in public records on Monday. Antonie Yates was arrested on Oct. 4, 2003, at a Philadelphia hospital where he had gone for treatment of a deep bite by his pet tiger. Yates, who also possessed an alligator has been charged with reckless endangerment.

A bar in eastern China is allowing its customers to release their anger, frustration or pent up emotions by hitting its staff. The China Daily says the "Rising Sun Anger Release Bar" located in Nanjing, eastern China allows customers to smash glass and even hit the restaurant's specially trained workers.

Tickets for the world's first tourist space flight planned for 2008 have been snapped up by celebrities and royalty. The commercial spaceline said that tickets were sold to its first 150 passengers at $200,000 per ticket. Some of the takers were former soap star Victoria Principal, designer Philippe Starck, and a unidentified senior member of a royal family have all bought tickets for the world's first tourist space flights planned for 2008. Meanwhile, Bryan Singer, the director of "Superman Returns," has also signed up.