In a prank reminiscent of the plot in the hit Hollywood movie "The Ring" in which people die within a week after watching a video, the prankster warned users that a deadly virus transmitted through phones had killed 20 people.

There are more than 52 million mobile users among 160 million people in Pakistan.

Farah Hussain, a spokeswoman for Warid Telecom, said that their customer service centers had been inundated with panicky subscribers inquiring about the so-called virus.

The cellular operators moved to calm down subscribers and said in a joint statement: "These rumors are completely baseless. They do not make any sense in technological terms."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=deadly-virus-phone-threat&chanID=sa011&modsrc=reuters

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Forget being glued to their seats: Kids at a suburban San Diego high school couldn't even get through their classroom doors Friday.

With only a day to go before spring break, vandals plugged locks on all the exterior gates and doors on campus with super-strength adhesive.

"A teacher who always gets there early called me on my cell phone and said, 'Guess what?'" said Carlsbad High School principal Margaret Stanchi. "But I didn't guess this."

Roughly 100 doors were sealed shut sometime before the first staff arrived at about 6:30 a.m., Stanchi said.

Custodial staff quickly unsealed the lock on a building with 27 classrooms, but the rest of the school's 3,000 students were sent to sit in gym bleachers until their classrooms were opened, one by one.

Surveillance video taken at the school failed to provide any clues to the prankster's identity, Stanchi said.

Carlsbad police were investigating the incident.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120AP_Glue_Prank.html

Sir John Hargrave is best known for his work with the humor Web site Zug.com. Hargrave recently took up the challenge to write on this subject and his book, Prank The Monkey, is inspired genius.

The book is goes far beyond childish pranks and veers deeply into the territory of cultural jamming. Hargrave goes after companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and even takes on the United Nations. Most people would shy away from his outlandish stunts for fear they might be kicked out of Wal-Mart or never be able to visit France again.

Part of Hargrave's brilliance is that he discovered when pulling a prank, unless the police are involved, nothing you do will end up on your permanent record. You can do anything you like in a corporate box store and usually the worst thing that will happen is the Manager will ask you to leave. But he takes it even further. He starts doing things with pranks that even make me squirm. Not because he's taking the joke too far, I start wondering if Wal-Mart might ban me from the stores just for looking at what he wrote. Because we all know they can.

The true genius of Hargrave is that his pranks are original and fun. Each one he illustrates makes me wish I had a time machine so I could go back in history and do the pranks before he dreamed them up. I feel inspired to go out and try antics that reach the same prankish level. Admittedly, it's hard to top what he has done. That sounds bold, but take a look at his name, Sir John Hargrave. How did an American with no political power, not a war hero, who never brokered a lasting peace agreement get knighted? He didn't. He attempted to get knighted by the Queen of England, but when that failed, he just had his name legally changed. Then went back to Buckingham Palace to taunt them with the name change.

If you consider yourself a prankster, a cultural jammer, an activist or just someone in search of a really great read, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of Prank The Monkey.

Charlotte — Greg Good, the Carolina Panthers fan who dresses up as "Catman" at home games, will receive a new pickup truck from Fox Sports after an on-air practical joke during a pre-season game went awry.

"Now all you fans out there, you might be thinking, 'Well, the starting units are out, we might change the channel.' We're going to do something special to try and keep you here tonight. We're giving a car away tonight," Johnston told viewers.

With 1:56 remaining, the telecast went to a shot of sideline reporter Tony Siragusa standing in front of the six-foot-four 340-pound Good, who was sitting in a front-row end zone seat wearing an electric blue wig and black-and-blue cape.

"The car is coming in right now," Siragusa said. "Here it comes. Beautiful. It's white. It's a Porsche."

He then handed a toy car to Good.

Good says he believed the toy was a token of the real car he was to receive and expressed excitement and joy. That turned to anger after Good, who counsels troubled youths, found out it had all been a joke.

A Charlotte Observer sports columnist took up Good's cause, writing a front-page column in Wednesday's newspaper that resulted in outraged fans e-mailing Fox Sports.

That led Fox Sports chairman David Hill to announce he would personally give Good the keys to a new Ford F-150 pickup.

"I'm coming to Charlotte Friday to apologize to Mr. Good for a joke that went terribly, terribly wrong," Hill said.

Hill said there would be punishments at Fox Sports over the incident, but said none of the announcers involved will be taken off the air.

"I take the reputation of Fox Sports very seriously and I don't want it to be sullied," he said.

Good expressed excitement at the turn his story had taken.

"I'm so surprised and so happy," he told the Observer. "I thought all I was going to get was an apology."

www.theglobeandmail.com

It is understood to have remained in place for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down and the figure removed.

A spokeswoman for Banksy said the stunt was intended to highlight the plight of terror suspects at the controversial detention centre in Cuba.

Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts - such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.

In 2005, he embarrassed the British Museum by planting a hoax cave painting of a man pushing a supermarket trolley, which he said went unnoticed for three days.

Last week, he smuggled 500 "alternative" versions of Paris Hilton's album into record shops around the UK.

Topless fake cover

The artist replaced Hilton's songs with his own remixes, which were given titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For?

He also changed the artwork to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.

The Bristolian is most famous for his graffiti artworks, which are often created in prominent public places.

Last year, he produced nine stencil sprays on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier.

The satirical images showed images of life on the other side of the barrier.

One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another showed a mountain landscape.

Earlier this summer, a piece of Banksy's graffiti art on a Bristol building was allowed to remain in place by the city council after the public voiced overwhelming support.

The stencilled image, which showed a naked man hanging onto a window ledge, won a 97% approval rating from residents on an internet discussion forum.

Banksy is due to hold what is billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles this weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5335400.stm

"Bruce kept getting madder and madder with each guy George mentioned," New York Daily News quoted a source as saying.

Unfortunately, Willis realized he was being taken for ride when Rumer came over and said, "Dad, George told me to tell you that — uh, I forget his name — was talking to me."

Nice going George Clooney!

He has also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.

A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK.

She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his version in."

But he left the original barcode so people could buy the CD without realising it had been interfered with.

Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.

His spokeswoman said he had tampered with the CDs in branches of HMV and Virgin as well as independent record stores.

He visited cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London, she added.

A spokesman for HMV said the chain had recovered seven CDs from two Brighton shops but was unaware that other locations were affected.

Artistic leeway

No customers had complained or returned a doctored version, he said.

"It's not the type of behaviour you'd want to see happening very often," he said.

"I guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his own particular brand of artistic engagement.

"Often people might have a view on something but feel they can't always express it, but it's down to the likes of Banksy to say often what people think about things.

"And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album."

A spokesman for Virgin Megastores said staff were searching for affected CDs but it was proving hard to find them all.

"I have to take my hat off - it's a very good stunt," he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm

This video is cheesy, but if you can get reactions like this, it's priceless.

But who paid for the air?

Guess what happens next!

Singer PHILIP BAILEY reveals his bandmates rarely give up an opportunity to prank each other when they're on tour - but their number one practical joke leaves a lot of soggy carpets.

Bailey explains, "You take a trash can, fill it up with water, tip it so it was leaning up against one of the band members' hotel room doors and knock on the door.

"(You'd) run down the hallway and wait for them to open it (door) and have all the water come flooding into the room."

http://www.pr-inside.com/earth-wind-fires-water-pranks-r10915.htm