By Elaine Porterfield

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle's interim police chief has apologized for appearing in a 1986 video that showed him and other officers mocking the homeless in what the city's police department this week called an "ugly piece" of its history.

Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.

In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.

Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"

"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."

He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.

The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.

Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.

"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."

Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.

Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)

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By Edward Krudy and Pamela Niimi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As if Suffolk County, home of the Hamptons and playground of the rich and famous on New York's Long Island, didn't have enough financial problems already.

A regulatory filing on behalf of the county dated April 16 shows it accidentally missed an interest payment on some of its debt, including $76.1 million of public improvement bonds, putting the county technically in default. Oops.

The county is wealthy with income per capita well above the national average but it has run into difficulty recently, declaring a fiscal emergency last year after an independent task force predicted a three-year deficit of $530 million.

The county could have a budget shortfall of as much as $250 million by the end of next year, local officials said last month.

The error is more of an embarrassing glitch than anything else. The missed payment - just $722.65 - would be small change for many of the county's residents.

That will buy you fewer than 20 butter-poached lobster rolls (not the most expensive thing on the menu) at Dave's Grill in Montauk, a quaint fishing village on the island's northern tip, or just 10 bottles of Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Russian River 2009 at La Plage in Wading River. A mere picnic.

The mistake was pointed out by the Depository Trust Company, a clearing firm, the day after it was missed and the filing says the error was the fault of the county's escrow agent, M&T Bank.

"The county informed M&T of its error and the escrow agent immediately wired the $722.65 payment to DTC," the regulatory filing said.

So what went wrong? The county was making the first payment in a complicated arrangement that uses $17 million in state HEAL grants for medical costs, primarily related to the Foley Nursing home, said Richard Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors, the county's financial adviser.

The $722.65, part of a debt payment of over $1 million, was the portion of the payment from the HEAL grants. The $17 million is being held in an escrow account at M&T.

"M&T for reasons we can't fathom just blew it: 'Oops it wasn't in our system, we missed it'", said Tortora, president of Capital Markets Advisors. Tortora said missing the payment and having to make a regulatory filing with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board was frustrating after months spent putting the arrangement together for the county.

M&T Bank was not immediately available for comment.

Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency, downgraded Suffolk County's general obligation bond rating to A from A-plus last month, affecting about $1.4 billion of debt. General obligation bonds have the full faith and credit of the issuer and are the best gauge of how risky investors think the county is.

Fitch said it had concerns about the county's ability to become financially stable, let alone reduce its big deficit.

(This story was corrected to fix name of Suffolk County's financial advisers)

(Reporting by Edward Krudy, additional reporting by Pam Niimi; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The attorney for a Maine man who lived in the woods as a hermit for 27 years has established a fund to repay people who think they were victims of burglaries at their cottages by the recluse.

Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit, may have committed as many as 1,000 burglaries over the years for food, clothing, camping and cooking gear and other supplies that allowed him to live at a camp in the woods of the rural town of Rome, police have said.

Knight, who is 47, was arrested earlier this month while allegedly breaking into a camp for people with special needs to steal food. He is being held on $25,000 bail.

Knight's lawyer, Walter McKee, told the Kennebec Journal the account will pay for "what will be the substantial restitution he will owe for what he took."

"Chris very much wants to make things right," McKee told the Augusta newspaper via email. People who want to contribute to the fund can send donations to McKee at his Augusta law firm.

Lillie Cogswell of Wimberley, Texas, whose camp on Little North Pond was burglarized, said that her family "the monetary issue is not an overriding issue" and that there should be consequences for Knight's behavior.

"The bigger part was all of us feeling uncomfortable and not feeling safe and feeling like someone was watching us in our homes," said Cogswell.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said following Knight's initial court appearance Tuesday that she expects he will be charged in connection with 15 to 20 burglaries that were reported to police in recent years. Knight's next hearing was scheduled for June 11. So far, he has entered no plea on several burglary and theft charges.

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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/

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By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Every dog has its day, and for Afghan pooch Aiden, today is for dancing lessons while cats Lucky and Missy are legally guaranteed their nightly shrimp dinners according to their owner's last testament.

These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.

The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.

"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.

"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."

Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.

New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.

"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."

But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.

"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.

"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.

'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'

"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."

Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.

Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.

Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.

"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.

Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.

"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.

More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.

Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.

"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."

Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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By Christine Murray

LONDON (Reuters) - Revered or reviled, history shows that the placement of a public statue of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher anywhere in the capital risks becoming a lightning rod.

Reactions to the idea of Thatcher atop the empty fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square mirror the emotions stirred up by the death of Britain's "Iron Lady" on Monday.

Some mourners left flowers outside her home, while others "celebrated" with a street party and buying so many copies of the 74-year-old "Wizard of Oz" song "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" that it surged into a top 10 spot in the UK charts.

One small indication of the future prospects for a public statue of Thatcher happened more than a decade ago.

Theatre producer Paul Kelleher decapitated a statue of Thatcher in 2002, saying it "looked better that way".

The work, created by sculptor Neil Simmons, was on display at the time at London's Guildhall, just a short walk from St. Paul's Cathedral where her funeral will be held on Wednesday.

In a telephone interview with Reuters, Simmons laughed as he recalled hearing of the attack on the statue, adding that he knew it was a "poisoned chalice" when he took on the commission.

"I thought it might be sprayed with graffiti, maybe a few eggs thrown at it, but the decapitation was something else," he said.

Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson said his office would do everything it can to ensure Thatcher gets a high profile London memorial.

A tribute in Trafalgar Square would put Thatcher on equal footing with King George IV and British army generals Henry Havelock and Charles Napier who occupy the other plinths. Though she would still be some way below the 50 meter-high monument of naval hero Horatio Nelson, who won the Battle of Trafalgar.

London Labour leader Len Duvall said on Thursday that such a gesture would be "crass triumphalism", particularly as the popular tourist spot was one of the sites of the riots over a deeply unpopular "poll tax" which contributed to her downfall.

Visitors to the square on Thursday were split over the idea.

"It would become a monument of hatred, you'd have a deluge of people coming from the north to vent their anger," said 57-year-old Glasgow-born Laurie who declined to give his last name.

But 20-year old Mia Cook said Britain's first female prime minister did a lot for the country.

"I think it would be a good idea and right now there's only men around here," she said.

Kelleher's first attempt at the Thatcher statue in 2002 with a cricket bat failed to get the job done, but a second swipe with an iron pole took its head clean off.

"Mr Kelleher was an Englishman armed with a cricket bat and inevitably destined to fail," the prosecution noted. Kelleher was later sentenced to three months in jail.

Simmons's original 2.6-metre likeness of Thatcher was designed for the Members' Lobby of Britain's House of Commons where a new larger-than-life bronze statue was placed in 2007.

"I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do," Thatcher quipped to laughter and applause at the statue's parliamentary unveiling. "It won't rust. And, this time I hope, the head will stay on."

(Additional reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)

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By Tara Oakes

PARIS (Reuters) - A little-known French sports doctor who spent 16 years studying the busts of about 300 women sent a scare through a country known for its love of lingerie this week when he suggested bras were useless.

Jean-Denis Rouillon, 62, was thrust into the limelight after he told a student radio station that his work suggested wearing a bra weakened the natural muscles that hold up breasts and women should consider going bra-less.

National radio picked up the story and Rouillon, based at the small University of Franche-Comte in the eastern town of Besan on, was soon being hounded by newspapers and TV.

France Info radio interviewed a 28-year-old volunteer in the study, Capucine, who said abandoning her bra had liberated her in more ways than one, improving her breathing and posture.

"You breathe better, you stand up straighter, you have less back pain," she told the national news station.

Even the highbrow daily Le Monde weighed in, offering an historical insight into the origins of the bra dating back to the 14th century.

Rouillon told Reuters that his unpublished work is still in the early stages and he is hesitant about giving one-size-fits-all advice to women, despite the media circus.

His preliminary results on 330 women aged 18 to 35 suggested that wearing a bra from an early age does nothing to help a wearer's breasts and going without could improve firmness.

"The suspension system of the breasts degenerates," Rouillon said, explaining that bras also unnaturally hamper circulation.

"But a middle-aged women, overweight, with 2.4 children? I'm not at all sure she'd benefit from abandoning bras," he added.

(Reporting by Tara Oakes, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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KLAIPEDA, Lithuania (AP) A Lithuanian woman says she has been raising three pumas in her three-room apartment after fearing for their lives at the local zoo.

Rasa Veliute, a 23-year-old volunteer at the zoo in Klaipeda, a Baltic Sea port town, says she took the cubs home four months ago after their mother began neglecting them.

The pumas also known as mountain lions or cougars are named Kipsas, Gipse and Kinde. Veliute says they eat a lot of chicken and get along well with her East European shepherd dog.

There is no Lithuanian law barring keeping the animals at home, and the zoo did not object to Veliute's actions. But Veliute told reporters Friday that the pumas have grown fast and will likely return to the zoo this summer.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The British and the Americans are quarreling albeit with tongues in cheek over territory again, this time over who has the world's smallest park.

One, in Portland, Ore., is essentially a concrete planter, 2-feet in diameter, with soil and some vegetation, and the Guinness Book of World Records says it's the smallest.

The other is about 5,000 miles away, in England. Those guys don't claim to have a physically smaller park theirs is 15 feet by 30 feet. But they are disputing whether Portland's is a park at all.

What started as two Brits' stunt to drum up publicity for a charity run at their park sparked some cross-pond banter. One online commenter wrote: "If that's a park then my window box should take the title."

Someone who said they were from Portland replied: "Yes, but our park has leprechauns. Does yours?"

Leprechauns? Yes, that's right. The faux-feud has helped unearth the curious story of a Portland newspaper columnist's quest to get the park declared the smallest and his claim that it was home to leprechauns.

The tale stretches back to 1946, when newspaperman Dick Fagan returned from World War II. From his office at the Oregon Journal newspaper, he could see a hole in the street where a light post was supposed to be erected. Fagan got tired of looking at the hole and planted flowers in it.

An Irishman with a vivid imagination, Fagan wrote about the park in his columns spinning tales about leprechauns who lived there. Somehow, Guinness proclaimed Mill Ends Park the world's smallest park in 1971.

Jamie Panas, the record-keepers spokeswoman, said she didn't know how that determination was made. But she said the entry in the Guinness database reads, in part: "It was designated as a city park on 17 March 1948 at the behest of the city journalist Dick Fagan (USA) for snail races and as a colony for leprechauns. "

Snail races? That's right. Snail races.

Over the years, Portland has been kind to the tiny park, giving it equal care as that afforded to the 200 or so normal-size parks scattered around the verdant city.

St. Patrick's Day ceremonies have been held there. It has plants and other vegetation. Strange objects have appeared mysteriously within it a miniature swimming pool with a diving board, a tiny Ferris wheel and a UFO.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, those protesters against income inequality, gave the park some recognition. In December 2011, a small group put miniature protest signs and toy tents in the teeny park and held a protest (a month earlier they had been evicted from a very real park they had occupied for six weeks). One of the protesters was arrested for refusing to leave.

And now, Portland's littlest park is getting big headlines. It started with a British sports management company called KV Events, based in Lichfield, north of Birmingham. It was promoting the "world's shortest fun run," around Prince's Park in Burntwood.

The park has the Guinness title of the United Kingdom's smallest park. It has a fence, a bench and three trees. It was founded in 1863 to commemorate the marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

Promoters Paul Griffin and Kevin Wilson decided to have some fun, launching a faux challenge to Portland's claim figuring that would generate publicity for the race and for the charity the race is intended to benefit.

The gauntlet was thrown down when Wilson told LichfieldLive.co.uk, a local website, that the Portland park was just a "glorified flower pot." Griffin followed up with interviews on Portland broadcast stations.

"We understand the definition of a park to be a fenced area, usually in a natural state, possibly for recreation purposes," Griffin said on KPAM radio's "Bob Miller Show."

Parks, said Griffin, are places where you can take family and friends for a picnic.

"We don't think you can do that in your fair park," Griffin quipped.

Portlanders have come to the defense of their Lilliputian park. Someone put a toy soldier with a bazooka in the vegetation as well as a fence a defensive perimeter.

"We Americans have a pretty good track record when it comes to taking on the Brits. Perhaps they're still smarting over that whole American Revolution thing," said Mark Ross, spokesman for Portland Parks & Recreation.

Wilson says he has no intention of actually asking Guinness to take away Portland's title. There is talk, however, of a North Atlantic alliance: A sister-park relationship between the two, whatever that might look like.

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By Tara Oakes

PARIS (Reuters) - One of the grandest luxury hotels in Paris will put most of its of furniture and fine wines under the hammer next week to help raise funds for a lengthy restoration.

The sumptuous Hotel Crillon, hushed after the departure of its last guests in March, has been transformed into a buyer's wonderland as it closes its doors for a two-year renovation.

Full suites of furniture are on display ahead of a series of auctions scheduled for April 18-22, with about 3,500 lots including carpets and curtains expected to raise hundreds of thousands of euros.

Buyers seeking to recreate a little bit of the hotel in their homes can even stock up on reception counters, staff uniforms and bathrobes.

"A sale like this is a unique moment, a real cherry on the cake," auctioneer Stephane Aubert from auction house Artcurial said.

Such vast hotel sales are rare, with once-in-a-lifetime treasures available.

A highlight is the hotel's mirror-encrusted bar designed by 20th-century French sculptor Cesar, who gave his name to the annual French film awards where, similar to the Oscars, miniature reproductions of one of his works are distributed.

The artist's signature is inscribed on the twinkling glass front of the bar - protected beneath a perspex panel ever since a cleaner unwittingly took the first version for graffiti and scrubbed it off. Cesar was able to return and sign again before his death in 1998.

Dominating one side of Place de la Concorde, the Crillon has housed the great and the good since its construction as a private home under French King Louis XV in 1758.

The ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette took music lessons on its first floor only to be guillotined years later in the shadow of the palace's grand neoclassical fa ade.

Since its conversion into a hotel in 1909, it has welcomed U.S. pop singer Madonna, former president Bill Clinton and was the site of the formal founding of the League of Nations.

U.S. composer Leonard Bernstein regularly set up home in a top floor suite with a view onto the Arc de Triomphe. One anonymous client rents that same suite every year to watch the finale of the Tour de France with friends and an unspecified amount of champagne.

Bidders with deep pockets can fork out for the piano Bernstein is believed to have used during his stays, while fans of lesser means can still hope to go home with light fittings and rugs.

A large part of the Crillon's vast wine and spirit cellar is likely to be snapped up by connoisseurs, including a rare Louis XIII Black Pearl Remy Martin cognac with a list price of 7,000 euros ($9,200). Mini-bars and chairs customized by artists are also being auctioned for two French charities.

Profits raised from the auction will fund a sweeping modernization to bring the hotel up to date while preserving its character, with work due to last until 2015.

The Ritz in Paris is also out of action for a revamp, with both hotels aiming to reinvigorate their classic grandeur and poach customers tempted by high-end newcomers such as the Shangri-La opened in Paris in 2010.

A sad tale of a grand old dame selling off her jewels? Not at all, according to Aubert.

"It's part of the story of these objects that they go and have a new life," he said, eyeing up his favorite lots - the silver-plated cocktail shakers from the bar.

($1 = 0.7642 euros)

(Reporting by Tara Oakes; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) The Montana man whose dog ate $500 says he's going to find a better place to stash his cash when he travels.

Wayne Klinkel tells the Independent Record (http://bit.ly/16TPFGC) he doesn't carry a wallet on his chiropractor's advice.

Sundance, his 12-year-old golden retriever, ate the bills during a visit the Klinkels' daughter in Denver last Christmas.

Sundance was left alone in the car with five $100 bills and a $1 bill when they stopped for dinner.

The dog dined on the $100 bills, but left the dollar.

Klinkel says he collected fragments from the dog's droppings. His daughter found more when the snow melted.

He says he washed the remnants of the bills and sent them taped together to the Treasury Department in hopes of having them replaced.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) A grocery store employee said Thursday that he is thanking God and his belt buckle for saving him from a stray bullet that smashed through the market's front door.

The bullet lodged in the metal buckle worn by Bienvenido Reynoso, who had only recently started his job at 8 Brothers Supermarket in Philadelphia.

"It saved my life," Reynoso said of the belt. "I keep it for (my) whole life now."

Reynoso, 38, said he was about to wheel a hand truck outside the market in the city's Grays Ferry section when he heard gunshots around 4 p.m. Wednesday. He hit the floor.

Surveillance footage shows a man on a bike firing a gun outside the market. One person outside the store was hit in the abdomen and was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

At first, Reynoso didn't realize he could have been a second victim.

"When I check my body, I don't see nothing, no blood, nothing," he said in an interview at his home Thursday. "And I said I'm going to be OK."

Then someone noticed a hole at the bottom of Reynoso's shirt. That's when he found the bullet stuck to his belt buckle.

Police took the bullet and shirt as evidence. But Reynoso, the father of a young daughter, got to keep the belt, which he said he got in New York three years ago.

Christian Vinas, 21, was working behind the counter and also dived to the ground when the shooting began. Reynoso had perfect timing in dropping to the floor, he said.

"That has to be God," Vinas said. "Out of all the places you could get hit in the body, you get hit right there. It was truly amazing."

Police arrested a 24-year-old suspect and charged him with attempted murder and aggravated assault.

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Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

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By Alexandria Sage

PARIS (Reuters) - Right in the heart of Paris, sandwiched between the Champs-Elysees and the River Seine, sits Avenue Winston Churchill.

So why not a Rue Margaret Thatcher, some French politicians are asking.

A conservative city councilor, Jerome Dubus, will propose that the French capital pay homage to Britain's outspoken former prime minister by naming a street after her at the next council meeting this month. Thatcher died on April 8.

But in a country where centuries-long tensions with its neighbor across the Channel linger - the avenue commemorating Britain's role in World War Two notwithstanding - the idea is not without its critics.

The president of the council's communist and far-left party, Ian Brossat, countered with a proposal to rename a square or street for Bobby Sands, the IRA prisoner who died in a 1981 hunger strike in protest over British rule in Northern Island to which Thatcher refused to yield.

"Lacking any personality and a leader, the UMP (conservative party) is looking for its good fairy in the past, and across the Channel," Brossat wrote in a short statement.

The Paris suburb of St. Denis already has a short street named for Sands in a cluster of streets named for former Socialist and Communist politicians, members of the French Resistance and poets. Avenue du President Wilson, in honor of the United States' World War One-era President Woodrow Wilson, is not far away.

Thatcher's death has divided public opinion in Britain, where opponents of her free-market ideology have spoken against the blunt politician dubbed the "Iron Lady.

In London, government ministers have proposed erecting a statue of Thatcher in city landmark Trafalgar Square, whose central column honors the 1805 naval victory of Lord Nelson ... over France.

(Editing by Mark John and Sonya Hepinstall)

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HELSINKI (AP) Vladimir Putin, banned in Finland?

Finnish police say the Russian president's name was mistakenly placed on a secret criminal register that could theoretically have gotten him arrested at the border.

TV station MTV3 reported Wednesday that Putin was placed there for his contact with Russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves, though he wasn't suspected of a crime in Finland. But National Police Board spokesman Robin Lardot told the AP the listing was a mistake and that Putin's name was removed from the list.

"The National Police Board has investigated the case and indeed found that such a mistaken entry was in the register," Lardot told The Associated Press. "We have ordered it to be removed and are investigating the case very thoroughly. We don't know how it got there." He declined further comment.

Putin's inclusion would be a major source of embarrassment in bilateral relations.

Finnish Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen, whose ministry oversees the police, conveyed her "sincerest apologies" to Putin over the mistaken entry.

"The Interior Ministry considers it of grave concern if a member of the police has made such groundless entries into the database of suspects."

MTV3 said the content of the register is known only to a few top officials. But in a statement later Wednesday, police called it a "computerized personal data file intended for nationwide used by the police."

They said it includes information on people who are suspected of offenses punishable by prison "or having contributed to an offence subject to imprisonment of more than six months, or to an unlawful use of narcotics."

The Night Wolves says on its Web site that the club's prototype was born in the 1980s from the desire to protect musicians who were holding illegal concerts during the Soviet era.

The muscle-flexing Russian leader has not been averse to being associated with tough bikers and has described motorcycles as "the most dramatic form of transport."

Three years ago, he leaped onto a Harley Davidson to join about 5,000 bikers at an international convention in southern Ukraine sporting black sunglasses, black jeans and black fingerless gloves.

The head of Finland's national police force, Mikko Paatero, apologized for the "mistaken" inclusion of Putin's name in the database.

"This kind of incident is extremely exceptional and is not acceptable under any circumstances," Paatero said in a statement.

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PARIS (Reuters) - The gilded Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris has lost some of its sparkle after thieves made off with the historic monument's bronze plaques in the latest theft from a Parisian landmark.

Despite the watchful eye of its elaborate statues of nymphs and winged horses high above the Seine River, two plaques proclaiming the name of the monument were seized by thieves this month, officials said.

While the bronze used to make the two stolen plaques sells at about 10 euros ($13.06) per kg, the city of Paris declined to comment on the value of the ornamental pieces stolen.

"We have no idea whether they were taken for their metal or by collectors," a town hall spokeswoman said.

She said they would be replaced as soon as possible with identical copies.

"It's not a question of metallic value but of historic value," she said.

French police have struggled with metal theft in the years since the global economic crisis hit, with 5,800 hours of train delays caused in 2010 by the removal of copper from railways.

General metal theft in Paris dropped by about a quarter between 2011 and 2012, a police official said, meaning that whoever removed the plaques from the bridge were part of a die-hard few left targeting public monuments.

Thieves routinely hack bits of steel off the pedestrian Pont des Arts bridge further down the river, city officials say.

Several bronze busts -- including one of composer Bizet -- were looted in 2006 from Pere-Lachaise, the oldest cemetery in Paris and last resting place of luminaries including poet Oscar Wilde and Doors singer Jim Morrison.

Described by the French capital as its most elegant bridge', the ornate Pont Alexandre III was unveiled for the 1900 World Fair in the Belle poque period that saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower change the Parisian skyline forever.

The name inscribed on the plaques was a nod to contemporary Franco-Russian friendship, cemented by Alexander III's son Tsar Nicolas II's role in laying the bridge's foundation stone.

Historic weight is proving no protection however from thieves looking to pilfer materials or curios.

The skeleton of an elephant once owned by King Louis XIV was attacked in the Paris Natural History Museum in March when a man removed a tusk with a chainsaw and then attempted to flee. The tusk and the man were both found soon after.

"The animal fortunately suffered little in the attack," the Museum said. ($1 = 0.7658 euros)

(Reporting By Tara Oakes, editing by Paul Casciato)

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By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Maine man who walked into the woods shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and lived as a hermit for almost three decades, supporting himself by stealing from nearby camps, was arrested last week, police said on Tuesday.

Christopher Knight, 47, had lived nearly without human contact in a tent near a pond outside of Rome, Maine, about 20 miles north of the state capital Augusta, state police said.

They arrested him early on Thursday morning at the Pine Tree Camp, where he was stealing food, police said. They said Knight, now being held at Kennebec County Jail, confessed to burglarizing the camp about 50 times, taking food, clothing, propane tanks and other essentials.

"Everything he owned except for his eyeglasses was stolen," said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman with the Maine State Police.

Knight told the officers who arrested him that he had spoken with only one other person - a lone hiker - during his years of solitude.

The man survived the brutal winters of central Maine, where winter overnight temperatures can drop well below freezing, by sleeping in multiple sleeping bags inside a tent that was covered with a tarp.

He appeared neatly groomed and clean-shaven in a police booking photo. Police also released photos of Knight, wearing a cap and jacket, carrying a large plastic bag inside a walk-in cooler at the Pine Tree Camp where he was apprehended.

Knight had built himself a large camp in the woods near North Pond, his tent covered by a tarp that was carefully tied to the surrounding trees, evidently to provide some shelter from the elements, according to photos released by police. He had painted garbage cans in camouflage patterns, covered shiny tools and made other efforts to conceal his presence, police said.

McCausland said Knight offered police no reason for his decision to go into the woods. The Chernobyl accident was the last major event he remembered before beginning his hermitage, he told police, but the nuclear accident had not prompted his decision.

Knight has been charged with one count of burglary so far, but additional charges are likely to follow, McCausland said. In total Knight is suspected of some 1,000 thefts over his 27 years in the woods.

His presence was long suspected by local residents and camp operators from whom he had stolen, according to local media.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Cynthia Johnston and Dan Grebler)

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By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Winai Sawaengkarn closes his eyes before reaching into a wooden box and drawing a black card. He beams, and his watching mother sweeps him up into a tight embrace, overjoyed that he will not have to serve in the army.

Winai, 21, is just one of thousands of Thai men taking part in April's army recruitment lottery that will determine if they serve in the military. Others unwilling to chance fate volunteer for a shorter stint.

"I've been lucky. But I'm happiest for my mother," said the delivery man, who shouted when he saw his black card which exempts him from military service.

Men over 21 must serve in the army, which has always been at the forefront of Thai politics but has come in for some rare criticism since 91 people died in anti-government protests in 2010.

Those who volunteer serve six months, but others choose the annual lottery, which goes on for 10 days in recruitment centers around Thailand.

Nobody wants a red card, which means serving for two years, with the chance of a posting in the dangerous south.

"I haven't slept in a week. I prayed before coming here that he wouldn't get a red card," said Noppakorn Leelahemkattana, mother of a 20-year-old son.

Only those not considered physically capable of service, the mentally ill and those who have significantly altered their physical appearance - such as transgenders, who are more visible in Thai society than in many other nations - are exempt. Students can defer while in full-time education.

Some wealthy and well-connected Thais have been known to pay bribes to keep their sons from military service, but others see the army and its 9,000 Thai baht ($310) a month salary as a way out of poverty and a means to discipline unruly sons.

"I want my son to be a soldier, he drinks too much and could do with the discipline," said Acharaya Goonyatip. "If he's sent to the south, I would make peace with that. We all have to die anyway." Her son subsequently drew a red card.

STILL TREATED WITH DEFERENCE

Created as a permanent organization in 1852, the Royal Thai Armed Forces has been treated with deference on the whole, despite some occasional criticism in a country that has seen 11 successful military coups since 1932.

But that started to change in 1973 when it suppressed a student uprising. The army has also come in for part of the blame in the deaths of 91 people after the government ordered a crackdown on a 2010 anti-government protest.

Its sometimes draconian ways, such as drills that involve being forced to drink liters of water and then vomit, or punishments like rolling head first on gravel pits, have been criticized from within and without.

Some people also question the fact that the army does little to help the vulnerable in its midst. Drug use is prevalent, and some recruits are sexually abused.

"There was a lot of drug abuse, people on amphetamines. We had officers inspect our urine once or twice a month," said Manit Iamsomboon, an engineer who served two years in the Royal Thai army after drawing a red card.

A commanding general with the Territorial Defence Command acknowledged that there were problems with drugs, which he said were an endemic social problem.

"I would say about half of our recruits every year have used drugs at one point or another," said Wichit Seeprasert. "We can help them temporarily stop because we do checks but after they leave it's out of our control."

Among those singled out for special treatment are transgenders, who are not allowed to change their gender on their national identification cards and may be unlucky enough to be recruited if their physical changes are still slight.

But there has been little overt public outcry and no calls to change the system, which is viewed with resignation as something of a male rite of passage.

"This is part of every Thai man's life," said aspiring chef Jom Radidgumpu, who was filing papers to defer until his studies were over. "You can leave it up to fate or you can volunteer."

(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A business analyst from Virginia beat out 8.15 million other entries to win ESPN's annual prediction contest for the NCAA basketball championship - but has gained more attention for the handle he created than his powers of prognostication.

Craig Gilmore, inspired by several pints of beer and using the name Lannay Kekua, won the contest, accurately picking Louisville to defeat Michigan in Monday night's college basketball championship game before the 64-team tournament began.

Lannay Kekua was the name an apparent hoaxster created to fool Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, leading the football player to think he had an online and telephonic relationship with a woman who in reality never existed. Reports of her death during the season became a touching story until it unraveled as an embarrassing hoax.

Gilmore said he chose the name in order to tease two of his buddies who are Notre Dame graduates.

"People were sending me messages on my ESPN profile saying, 'Dude, we're just rooting for you because it would be great if Lannay Kekua's entry wins the ESPN bracket,'" Gilmore said.

ESPN advertises the winner will "have a chance" to win the grand prize of a $10,000 gift card for electronics retailer Best Buy, and Gilmore received an email saying he would be entered in a drawing.

"You're telling me I beat out over 8 million other people and I'm not guaranteed the prize?" Gilmore said.

If he does win the prize, he has already told his wife he plans to buy an 80-inch 3D television.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Eric Walsh)

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By Teo Jion Chun

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore businessman accused of bribing three Lebanese soccer match officials with prostitutes has been released on bail after he entered a not guilty plea in court on Tuesday.

Businessman Eric Ding Si Yang, who once worked for the local New Paper tabloid as a football tipster, will contest the three corruption charges that had been filed against him, his lawyer Thong Chee Kun told reporters.

Bail was set at S$150,000 ($121,000) and Ding will appear in court again on April 18.

Ding left court on Tuesday wearing sunglasses and a shiny long sleeved green t-shirt accompanied by six men and a woman. He shook hands with a reporter from the New Paper before leaving in a black car.

Ding's release on bail comes one day before a hearing in which FIFA-recognized referee Ali Sabbagh and assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb are expected to enter their pleas and request bail. The Lebanese officials each face one charge of "corruptly receiving gratification... to fix a football match."

The three officials had arrived in Singapore last week to take charge of the AFC Cup match between local side Tampines Rovers and East Bengal of India, but were hastily replaced hours before kick off by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

They are currently being held in separate cells, with the prosecution arguing against bail at an earlier hearing on Friday for fear they were part of a syndicated operation.

The officials face a maximum fine of S$100,000 and a five-year prison term if found guilty. Ding faces the same punishment on each charge.

(Writing by Kevin Lim. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

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CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (AP) Workers are putting the finishing touches on a new statue of the late Pope John Paul II that its backer is calling the tallest one of the pontiff in the world.

The 13.8-meter (45.3-foot) white fiberglass figure will tower over the southern Polish city of Czestochowa, home to the predominantly Catholic country's most important pilgrimage site, the Jasna Gora monastery.

Funded by a private investor and put up on his land, the statue of the Polish-born pontiff shows him smiling and stretching his arms to the world. On Tuesday, workers were joining the pieces together and painting them before the official unveiling of the statue Saturday, to be attended by church and city authorities.

Leszek Lyson, who is funding the project, called the pope "a great and good man who has done a lot for the world: ended communism and opened borders in Europe, reached out to people in his pilgrimages around the world."

He said the statue "should make everyone stop and think about life."

Its construction comes as the traditionally respected church is facing criticism for its conservative views on the family and ethics, and its opposition to abortion, in-vitro fertilization and gay marriage.

Poland has long been predominantly Roman Catholic, but church statistics show attendance shrinking from some 50 percent of parish members in the 1980s; to 45 percent in 2005, the year the pope died; to 41 percent in 2010.

Born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, southern Poland, John Paul was elected pope in 1978, a surprise choice from communist-controlled eastern Europe.

In Poland, he is credited with inspiring the Solidarity movement that helped end communism in 1989. His death was a time of national mourning.

Lyson told The Associated Press that he wants the new statue to remind future generations of the Polish pope.

However, 22-year-old Ewelina Gozdek, who was watching the preparations with her friends, was skeptical. "It is an attraction now in a city where nothing ever happens, but will be forgotten soon enough," she said.

The unveiling ceremony will mark three years since Lyson saved his son from drowning and is a sign of thanks.

He is also trying to get the statue into Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest one of John Paul.

That will generate comparisons with two John Paul statues in other countries.

Last year, an adapted version of a controversial 5.5-meter (18-feet) bronze sculpture of Pope John Paul II went on display in Rome. The original had irked many Romans who said it was ugly and didn't adequately capture the likeness of their beloved pope.

In Santiago, Chile, a small statue of the pope was inaugurated on San Cristobal Hill in 2011, after a proposal to build a 13-meter (43-foot) one was rejected as too big.

Poland already boasts that it has the world's tallest statue of Jesus, unveiled in 2010 in the western town of Swiebodzin.

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BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - Malian authorities will give French President Francois Hollande another camel after the one they gave him in thanks for helping repel Islamist rebels was killed and eaten by the family he left it with in Timbuktu, an official in Mali said.

A local government official in northern Mali said on Tuesday a replacement would be sent to France.

"As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel," said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"The new camel will be sent to Paris. We are ashamed of what happened to the camel. It was a present that did not deserve this fate."

Hollande was presented with the camel when he visited Mali in February several weeks after dispatching French troops to the former colony to help combat al Qaeda-linked fighters moving south from a base in the north of the country.

The president joked at the time about using the camel to get around traffic-jammed Paris. But he chose in the end to leave it with a family in the town on the edge of the Sahara desert.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was tasked with giving Hollande regular updates on the camel's status and had to inform him of its death last week, French media said.

"The news came in from soldiers on the ground," said a French government official.

French leaders have received many gifts of exotic or wild animals from Africa and further afield over the years.

Last week, a robber chainsawed a tusk off the skeleton of an elephant offered to Louis XIV by a Portuguese king in 1668. Police caught the robber as he fled, tusk under his arm.

(Reporting by Adama Diarra in Bamako and Brian Love in Paris; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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