With a record-breaking zero percent second quarter economic growth rate hitting the United Kingdom, Britons have little choice except to further tighten their belts. As food prices continue to soar, expensive meat had become a prime target for shoplifters, prompting British supermarkets to attach security tags on steaks, joints, chicken and other premium-price meats.

Villagers at a southern Philippine community reported that a ghoul has killed their livestock. Panicked local residents at Barangay (village) Lower Manongol in Kidapawan City, southern Philippines say that a ghoul, which takes a human form by day but turns into a blood-sucking and flesh-eating monster as darkness falls, was responsible for the killing of three goats who were seen without its inner organs, including hearts and livers.

In an attempt to help overweight officers get back in shape, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has hired a full-time diet coach to chalk out special diet plans for them. Rana Parker, who joined the force in July, was working as a diet coach at Head Start, the federal aid program for children. Now she will target recruits and help instill in them good eating habits and finding time for balanced meals.

British school teachers are advocating for education reforms, including a return to an early 1980s style of teaching, characterized by a strong liberal education. In essence, teachers are calling for more hours for play and less rigid methods in teaching young Britons how to read. Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, told Guardian Unlimited, "Teachers want a return to a system which is liberal and flexible and not top-down and imposed by government. We want a return to a time when there was a potential for magic moments in the classroom. "

Pope Benedict XVI publicly baptized on Monday an Egyptian-born Muslim journalist, known for his renunciation of Islamic beliefs. The traditional Easter vigil service held on Monday at St. Peter's Basilica, marked the beginning of 55-year-old Magdi Allam's life as a Roman Catholic, after he admitted that he has been a non-practicing Muslim all his adult life. Taking "Christian" for his middle name, Allam, a deputy director for the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, wrote in an article, "I had to do this. Beyond extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent in a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam. "