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BERLIN (Reuters) –
Germans, who sometimes see themselves as guardians of the environment, are hoarding energy-guzzling incandescent light bulbs ahead of a looming European Union-wide ban, the GfK market research agency said.

The Nuremberg-based GfK reported sales of incandescent bulbs had soared about 35 percent in the first half of the year ahead of a ban that starts Tuesday — even though it was proposed by German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel in 2007.

Some German retailers said they have seen sales of 100-watt incandescent bulbs soar 600 percent since the end of July.

The EU is planning to phase out use of the incandescent bulbs as part of its push to save energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. From Tuesday the light bulbs above 75 watts can no longer be produced or imported in the EU.

The ban will be expanded each year and by 2012 production and importing of all incandescent bulbs will be prohibited.

The EU Commission projects the ban on the energy-inefficient bulbs will save about 40 terawatt hours of energy in the EU per year — enough to meet the energy demands of a small country.

The idea to ban incandescent bulbs came from Gabriel in 2007 when Germany held the EU's rotating presidency. The German said the switch to energy saving bulbs could save about 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

(Reporting by Kim Bode; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Jon Boyle)

MOSCOW (Reuters) –
Josef Stalin was in the dock on Monday when a Russian court held a preliminary hearing in a libel case brought by his grandson over a newspaper story which said the tyrant had ordered the killings of Soviet citizens.

Rights groups say the case shows a creeping attempt in modern Russia to paint a more benevolent picture of the Soviet Union's most feared leader, under whose rule millions perished.

Stalin's grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is seeking 9.5 million roubles ($299,000) from the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and 500,000 roubles from the author of an article published last April claiming Stalin personally signed politburo death orders.

Leonid Zhura, a convinced Stalinist who is representing Dzhugashvili in court, said that the article — based on declassified Kremlin documents — damaged Stalin's reputation.

"Half a century of lies have been poured over Stalin's reputation and he cannot defend himself from the grave so this case is essential to put the record straight," said Zhura.

"We want to rehabilitate Stalin," he told Reuters. "He turned populations into peoples, he presided over a golden era in literature and the arts, he was a real leader."

A phrase in the article saying Stalin and the secret police committed grave crimes against their own people caused particular offence, Zhura said.

The many sides of the Stalin myth — bloody tyrant and war leader, pipe-smoking Kremlin puppet master and economic miracle worker — are still the subject of a heated debate in Russia 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gilded words of praise for the dictator were unveiled last week on the marbled halls of a central Moscow metro station and Stalin was voted Russia's third most popular figure in history in a nationwide poll last year.

MILLIONS DIED IN LABOR CAMPS

Russia buried last August Soviet-era dissident and author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was sent to a Gulag (labor camp) for making a joke about Stalin, in a religious ceremony which bore all the hallmarks of a state funeral.

But in the public arena in today's Russia, there is very little talk about the millions of Soviets who perished in Gulag labor camps or from famine during Stalin's rule.

Recent Russian teachers' manuals have described Stalin as an effective manager who acted rationally in conducting a campaign of terror to modernize the Soviet Union.

"There is a change in society's view of Stalin," Anatoly Yablokov, who authored the Novaya Gazeta article, said after the preliminary court hearing.

"We hear much more now about how much of an effective manager Stalin was, much more than in the 1990s, and much less about the repression," he said.

Stalin's opponents are enraged and say the change is being fueled by Kremlin leaders who want to forget the 1990s, when former President Boris Yeltsin spoke openly about some of the Soviet Union's darkest secrets.

"The authorities are trying to build a bridge to the Soviet Union over the Yeltsin years to idealize Stalin," said Nikita Petrov, an historian from the Memorial human rights group.

"They have decided it was too dangerous to delve into the horrors of our history. It is deeply sad. It is the football hooligan's view of history."

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

BERLIN (Reuters) –
German election officials said on Monday they were investigating whether exit poll data were made public on Twitter before polls closed Sunday and there might be an appeal against the result if laws had been broken.

"We are currently investigating the facts of the case," said deputy electoral commissioner Uwe Korzen-Krueger in the eastern state of Saxony where the investigation was launched.

There were three state elections Sunday in the run-up to the September 27 federal election: Saxony, Saarland and Thuringia. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives looked set to hold onto power in Saxony but may be unseated in the two other states.

Korzen-Krueger said preliminary results — that may or may not be based on exit poll data — appeared on the Twitter social networking site about an hour before polling stations closed at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) and could have influenced the vote's outcome.

"An appeal against the election could be possible," he told Reuters.

The exit poll data, usually put together by private polling institutes, are often given to party leaders in the hours before the polls close.

Electoral commissioners are concerned the results of the federal election on September 27 could also be jeopardized if exit poll results are made public before polling stations close.

"The premature publication of exit poll results is a breach of the law in all three states as well as on a federal level — an offence which can be punished by a fine of up to 50,000 euros," the federal election office said Monday.

Similar concern erupted after the re-election of conservative President Horst Koehler by the federal assembly in May, when some parliamentary deputies revealed the results of the vote on Twitter minutes before the official announcement.

Election officials in Saxony are still trying to find out whether the Twitter messages Sunday were based on exit polls and whether to take legal action.

Korzen-Krueger said a Twitter account holder, a local politician for Merkel's conservatives, was exactly right with his forecast of the results in Saxony, where the conservatives look set to hold onto power — as they do in the federal election on Sept 27.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Ay, ay, ay, ay! Guadalajara finally boasts the world’s biggest mariachi band.

A total of 549 musicians got together to win the record for the birthplace of mariachi Sunday, playing several songs in just over 10 minutes, closing with favorites “Cielito Lindo” and “Guadalajara.”

A representative of the Guinness Book of World Records, Stuart Claxton, made it official at the International Mariachi Festival.

The old record belonged to 520 mariachis who performed in San Antonio, Texas, in 2007, said Francisco Beckman, an organizer of the record-breaking attempt.

Record-breaking is all the rage in Mexico.

On Saturday, thousands in Mexico City claimed they put on the largest “Thriller” dance by people performing simultaneously in one place. The Guinness official at that event said a decision on whether they did will be made in a week.

Mexico also boasted the world’s biggest cheesecake and group kiss earlier this year.

MEXICO CITY – They say they beat it. Thousands of Mexicans claimed they broke the record for most people dancing to “Thriller” simultaneously in one place on Saturday, which would have been Michael Jackson’s 51st birthday.

“We did it!” organizer Javier Hildago shouted to thousands of people wearing black fedoras, white gloves, aviator shades and ghoulish face paint, breathless after trying to recreate the groundbreaking 1983 video.

Did they? The Guinness Book of World Records will decide in a week.

The current record was set in May by a group of 242 College of William & Mary students who performed the routine in Williamsburg, Virginia, according to Guinness.

Hildago claimed 12,937 people danced Saturday in front of Mexico City’s Monument of the Revolution, led by a Michael Jackson impersonator wearing a red-and-gold sequined jacket.

But Guinness must certify whether all those people really performed the entire, intricate routine. The impersonator, who goes by the name Hector Jackson, and most of those in front of a huge crowd of onlookers certainly looked pretty good.

“More people responded than we even imagined!” Hector Jackson said. “Mexico gave the best tribute in the world to Michael Jackson.”

Some of those who took part were born more than two decades after “Thriller” was released.

Guillermo Rodriguez, 2, wore a wig of dreadlocks, a black fedora and a white glove as he practiced the moves minutes before the event, holding up a cell phone that blared a recording of the song into his ear.

His father, Guillermo Rodriguez Sr., is not a huge fan himself. But he said his son has become mesmerized by the Jackson videos that Mexican television have often played since the pop icon died June 25.

“Michael Jack!” the toddler screeched, pointing a chubby, un-gloved finger at a Jackson T-shirt held up by a nearby hawker.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Police in Florida say a burglar who made off with a man’s valuables returned to the home later and snatched what he couldn’t carry on his first trip: a 100-pound plasma-screen TV.

A Pensacola Police investigator was on the scene when the robber came back hours after the first burglary.

The man who lived at the house, Steve Fluegge, says he was shocked the burglar came back and stole the television. The suspect had already stolen Fluegge’s wallet, watch and video game system.

Police and K-9 units canvassed the neighborhood, but couldn’t find the burglar or the TV.

Investigators had left the TV in the backyard, where the burglar put it, so they could dust for fingerprints.

Police have offered to pay for the TV.

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Information from: Pensacola News Journal, http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com

OCALA, Fla. – Authorities say they’ve taken more than 400 animals, including sheep, goats, ducks and even four endangered turtles, from a filthy central Florida home.

Marion County Sheriff’s officials investigated Friday and removed dead and living animals from the home of Ileana Verguizas and Andrew Gonzalo Perez. The animals, many covered in fleas and matted with feces, were kept in crates and pens. Cats, dogs, rabbits and parrots were also among the animals found.

Authorities said Verguizas and Perez were trying to raise quail and kept their eggs for months, hoping they would hatch. Some rotted and exploded.

No arrests have been made but authorities say an animal cruelty investigation is ongoing. Officials hope to rehabilitate all the animals for adoption.

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Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com

FERNDALE, Mich. – Police in Michigan say a first date went from bad to worse when a Detroit man skipped out on the restaurant bill, then stole his date’s car.

Police say 23-year-old Terrance Dejuan McCoy had dinner with a woman April 24 at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. The woman says the two met a week earlier at a Detroit casino and she knew McCoy only as “Chris.”

The woman told police that McCoy said he left his wallet in her car and asked for keys. He then sped away in the 2000 Chevrolet Impala.

The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reports that police identified McCoy by a photo he’d sent to the woman’s cell phone, and his phone number.

McCoy is charged with unlawfully taking the car, a five-year felony. He waived a preliminary exam and was bound over for trial Thursday.