A Worm's Life

British artist Paul Hurley's transformation into a worm began innocently enough: at a supermarket in Stokeinteignhead, Devon, he picked up a few heads of lettuce, several rolls of cling-wrap, and a lot of lubricant. He drove from there to an abandoned dairy on the edge of town, where he'd set up his new domain in the woods: a meter-deep mud hole surrounded by a field of grass. He set up a rope around the perimeter to keep visitors from falling in, because only one person was going in that hole: Hurley himself.

For his last act of conversion, the 25-year old (who's single) pulled on a pair of swimming goggles, bound himself tight in the cling-wrap, used his teeth to squeeze out the lube onto chest, and wiggled into the dark, wet earth that would be his home for the next nine days.

He wanted to know, simply, what life is like for a worm. The performance was part of his "Becoming Invertabrate" series, in which he has already acted the part of a snail and a slug.

Over the course of the nine days, he had a variety of visitors: fellow artists, school children, and a TV news team who asked him what the point of the whole exercise was. Had he been able to answer them (as part of the performance, he wasn't allowed to speak), Hurley's answer would have been simple: he wanted to live as one with the earth, to discover the point where 'human-ness' and 'animal-ness' almost touch, he wanted to push the boundaries of sexual identity by living as a hermaphrodite (which all earthworms are).

The performance wasn't wholly authentic -- Hurley only ate dirt once, let himself spend the nights under a nearby tent, warm and dry, and once wiggled out of his cling wrap to go to the local pub for a pint. As to what he learned, Hurley says he learned it's wrong to pour salt on slugs and to cut worms in half. First of all, usually only the head survives. Secondly, worms are ultimately a lot more useful than people.

For his next performance, he'd like to become an insect, but hasn't decided yet which kind. Perhaps a locust? (18:24, CET)

Cheese with that Popcorn

Leonardo DiCaprio is king of the world again, though this time in a slightly different context than in "Titantic." The British food company Warburton's commissioned a survey of 2,000 moviegoers to determine the cheesiest movie lines of all-time, and Leo's cringe-inducing proclamation, yelled from the bow of the soon-to-be sunken ship, came up on top. Here are the rest of the Top Ten cheese-ball lines from the poll:

1. "I'm the king of the world!" -- Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic.

2. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner." -- Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing.

3."Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed." -- Andie MacDowell, Four Weddings and a Funeral.

4. "Ditto." -- Demi Moore, replying to Patrick Swayze's "I love you" in Ghost.

5."You can be my wingman any time." -- Val Kilmer, talking to Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

6."I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her." -- Julia Roberts, Notting Hill.

7."Today we celebrate our Independence Day." -- Bill Pullman, Independence Day.

8. "They make take our lives, but they will never take our freedom! " -- Mel Gibson in Braveheart

9."You had me at hello," -- Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire.

10. "I'm a postman." -- Kevin Costner responding to a blind woman who tells him "You're a godsend, a savior," in The Postman.

(5:43 p.m. CET)

Company That Mints Coins Isn't Making One

The company responsible for producing blank euro coins, Vereinigten Deutschen Nickelwerke (VDN), may be on the brink of insolvency. The institutional creditors of VDN subsidiary Deutsche Nickel declared in November that they wanted to write-off more than €190 million of the company's unrecoverable losses, thereby saving the mother company from its financial woes. Under the proposal, the creditors would have taken ownership of Deutsche Nickel while giving VDN an immediate loan of €1 million to keep the company afloat. But the money never arrived. Last Friday, the VDN's lead counsel, Hans-Joachim Ziems, threatened the five creditor banks in writing with the insolvency of the company. If the money doesn't arrive by Dec. 13th, the executive committee may file for bankruptcy protection. Ziems is blaming the crisis on the creditors: "The knowledge that despite having reached an agreement, the deal may never be realized because of this unprofessional conduct, is particularly bitter in light of those whose jobs are concerned." A question for VDN executives: If you mint the money, how can you run out of it? (17:35 p.m. CET)

Fresh ETA Bombings in Spain

The Basque terrorist organization ETA has claimed responsibility for a series of bombing attacks that occurred across Spain on Monday as the country celebrated the 26th anniversary of the ratification of its constitution. Small bombs exploded in Leon, Ciudad Real, Valladolid, Santillana del Mar, Alicante, Malaga, and Avila, following telephone calls from the group to the Basque newspaper Gara warning of the explosions. The police were able to evacuate the areas shortly before any of the bombs went off; several people have been reported with injuries.

The bombings come after several months during which ETA's future seemed to be in doubt. A raid in France two months ago yielded a large arms cache and some top members of the group leadership, raising hopes that the group was on its last legs. Monday's bombings come close on the heels of similar small attacks last Friday, and have ruined any chance of peace talks with the government, which the political arm of ETA had been hinting at as recently as last month. (5:24 p.m. CET)

US Consulate Attacked in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia saw yet another attack against Western installations on Monday. A car bomb exploded outside the United States consulate in the port city of Jiddah and a raging gun battle ensued as attackers forced their way in to the heavily guarded building. At least five non-American consulate staff were killed, and the attackers temporarily held third-country nationals hostage as they waited in the consulate's visa department. So far there are no reports of Americans being injured in the attack although a number of wounded locals were brought to area hospitals following the explosion. Security forces have reportedly sealed off the area and stormed the building. Smoke was seen rising over the city following the attack and gunshots were heard again a full 30 minutes following the initial explosion. The attack is the latest in a series of attacks against Westerners in Saudi Arabia since 2003 when car bombs killed 26 residents of an apartment compound housing foreign workers in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh. Since then, at least 45 Westerners have been killed in a number of separate attacks. (12:30 p.m. CET)

Lionel Richie Vouches for Intelligence of Miss World Contestants

Elsewhere in China, the 2004 Miss World contest came to an end on the tropical island of Sanya, where it was being hosted for the second time since the Chinese government lifted a ban on beauty contests last year. The winner: Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, a 20-year-old aspiring teacher from Trujillo, Peru, who takes over the title from Rosanna Davison, the daughter of Irish singer Chris de Burgh. It was a contest in which long names did as well as long legs: Claudia Julissa Cruz Rodriguez, from the Dominican Republic, was voted runner-up.

Lionel Richie, on hand to sing hits like "Hello" and "Say You, Say Me", tried to express the importance of the contest. "These are unbelievable women," he said before voting -- via telephone, SMS, and over the Internet -- began. "They are not only beautiful, they're smart. The world has a difficult decision in front of them." After receiving her crown, Mantilla Garcia said, "This has been the most fantastic night of my life." Then she received the additional honor of having Lionel Ritchie put his arm around her. (11 a.m. CET)

Schroeder Draws Fire over China Trip

On his sixth state visit to China, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrives in Beijing on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to discuss, among other things, ending the 15-year old EU weapons embargo against the country. The ban, a European response to the bloody crackdown of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, "no longer fits the times," government sources have said. "China is one of the world's most important markets," Schroeder said in Berlin before leaving. "For that reason, I can't understand those who criticize our working alongside one another economically." In an interview with the Chinese state news service, Xinhua, Schroeder also underscored the similarities between Germany and China, saying he hoped to deepen the "strategic partnership" between the two countries and create a "very intense political dialogue."

Not everyone is thrilled about Schroeder's enthusiasm. Many politicians in Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Green Party, are firmly against lifting the ban. Christa Nickels, a Green and head of the human rights committee of the German parliament, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper the move "wouldn't exactly be an advertisement for democracy." The deputy chair of the Greens' parliamentary group, Christian Stroebele, told the newspaper Die Welt that China's steps to improve its human rights record don't go far enough to warrant lifting of the ban. Schroeder and the 43 business leaders he has in tow will be in China until Wednesday, after which they will head to Tokyo for a two-day visit. (12 p.m. CET)

What Would Jesus Sing?

The middle-school teacher from Como, in the north of Italy, made her Muslim students a well-intentioned but, as it turned out, explosive suggestion: If they wanted, they could change the lines of a Christmas song from "This is Jesus's day" to "This is the day of virtue." To multicultural ears, the remark may seem like nothing more than an attempt to be inclusive, but in Catholic Italy, it's the stuff of scandal. On Sunday, Il Giornale, the Italian daily that's run by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's brother, ran the following headline on their front page: "Jesus Banned from Christmas Carol."