Madonna fashion designs on sale around the world

Madonna fashion designs on sale around the world
LONDON -- Material girl, indeed.
A line of clothing co-designed by pop queen Madonna went on sale around the world Thursday in branches of Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & amp; Mauritz.
Pieces in the M by Madonna collection, co-designed by H & amp;M design chief Margareta van den Bosch, include a leather trench coat, sequined shift dresses, cream-colored calf-length pants and matching cropped jackets.
In Britain, the items are priced between 16 and 295.
"I am a Madonna fan but the reason I am buying the clothes is that they are very nice and feminine and the prices are very reasonable," said Magda Grabowik, 32, as she lined up to pay for a coat, jacket and dresses at H & amp;M's Oxford Street store.
Madonna said working on the fashion line had been "an exciting and new creative challenge."
H & amp;M said the collection reflected Madonna's "timeless, unique and always glamorous style."
Movie pirates put a hiton disc-sniffing dogs
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Lucky and Flo, the two Labradors who helped sniff out nearly 1 million illegal discs last week within days of joining Malaysia's anti-piracy effort, have been moved to a safe house, a news report said Thursday.
The New Straits Times reported that a source had tipped off officials about a bounty offered for killing the sniffer dogs, who are on loan for a month from the Motion Picture Association of America. The amount was not disclosed.
"The dogs are a genuine threat to the pirated disc syndicates, thus the instruction to eliminate them," Firdaus Zakaria, the enforcement director of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, was quoted as saying.
Lucky and Flo, who were pressed into service on March 13, gained fame after they sniffed out a massive shipment of pirated movie DVDs in office complex in southern Johor state on March 19.
The canines detected the discs hidden behind locked doors, which officials broke open with crowbars to reveal a cache of nearly 1 million discs worth 2.8 million. Five Malaysians and a Vietnamese man also were arrested in the operation.
It is the first time dogs have been used by authorities anywhere in the world to detect contraband discs, according to Mike Ellis, regional director for the MPAA.
Chef drops items to fightcruelty to animals
LOS ANGELES -- Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is cooking up kinder, gentler menus.
As part of a new initiative to fight animal cruelty, Puck said Thursday he will no longer serve foie gras, the fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese.
His 14 fine-dining restaurants, more than 80 fast-casual eateries and 43 catering venues will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free; veal from roaming calves; and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.
Puck said guests at his restaurants want to know their food is made with fresh, organic ingredients and that the animals were treated well.
The move came after three years of protests by Farm Sanctuary, an animal-rights group that launched wolfgangpuckcruelty.org -- relabeled Wolfgang Puck Victory as of Thursday -- and organized a leafletting campaign outside Puck's restaurants.
Today's birthdays
Comedian Marty Allen is 85. Singer-producer Ric Ocasek is 58. Singer Chaka Khan is 54. Actor Richard Grieco is 42. Actress Keri Russell is 31. Actress Nicholle Tom is 29.