A Halloween prop left behind by a young man, who had dressed up as a suicide bomber, sparked a bomb scare in Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The package, with wires sticking out of it, was found on a car parked outside the Alrek student dormitory the morning-after the Halloween.

After the suspicious package was reported to the police, the dormitory and the surrouncing area surrounding were evacuated and bomb experts from Oslo summoned. The bomb squad flew 185 miles by helicopter to assess the threat.

A junior at Brooklyn's Leon M. Goldstein High School caused a fuss Tuesday when he arrived at school dressed as Adolf Hitler for Halloween. School administrators demanded he take off his beige coat decorated with a swastika armband, telling him he would have to spend the day in detention if he failed to do so.

But 16-year-old Walter Petryk, who went so far as growing a mustache to complete his get-up, refused. He said his costume was a satire of Hitler and was protected by his right to freedom of expression.

Retailers say sexy trumps traditional this year when it comes to Halloween costumes. But the princess costume remains the most popular for children.

According to a National Retail Federation survey, 34 percent of adults dress in costume on Halloween. This has been an increasing number for years. Halloween spending has also increased to $5 billion, behind the top holidays for spending -- Father's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Valentines Day, and Christmas.

An Idaho animal shelter have banned the adoption of black cats from mid-October to Halloween for fear they would be mistreated or sacrificed in rituals.

Other shelters nationwide block people from adopting the animals during this time of year. Some shelters also do not do white bunny adoptions around Halloween for the same reasons.

Taking Halloween superstitions very seriously, an Idaho based animal shelter is prohibiting the adoption of black cats until Nov. 2, hoping to save the felines from frivolous pranks and perhaps sacrifice in occult rituals.

The appearance of a black cat, according to superstition, is a bad omen, and the Kootenai Humane Society in Coeur d'Alene wants to keep their sweet critters out of harms way.