Melbourne, Aug 27 : The Italian priest, who was organising an online beauty competition for nuns, has called off his plans amid protests from faithful and local religious authorities.

The Rev. Antonio Rungi thought that the ‘Miss Sister 2008’ would give nuns more visibility within the Catholic Church and fight the stereotype.

But later changed his mind after seeing reports that suggested that nuns would be metaphorically put on a catwalk, insisting that he had been misunderstood.

Rungi said what he had in mind was not just external beauty but the "overall beauty."

"I wanted to make a blog on vocations, one where everybody could bring their own experiences," the Courier Mail quoted Rungi, as saying.

London, Rome - Britain and Italy criticised Tuesday Russia's decision to recognize the independence of Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in London said that the British government "categorically rejects" the Russian decision.

On Tuesday Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing the breakaway regions' independence after Russian lawmakers on Monday unanimously passed a resolution to that effect.

London, August 22 : Italian researchers are developing gadgets that can drift like plankton, which they believe may help improve their understanding of the world’s oceans.

Experts at the University of Genoa say that their "smart plankton", which will carry sensors and communicate using flashing lights, will drift through the ocean collecting data.

Davide Brizzolara, a researcher associated with the project, says that using this approach will provide greater coverage than static underwater sensors do, and would be cheaper than using autonomous underwater vehicles.

Lampedusa  - Around 350 illegal immigrants arrived on the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa by sea on Friday, bringing the total in the past two days to 800.

Italian coastguard vessels intercepted an unknown number of makeshift craft on Thursday and Friday, which predominantly contained immigrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, Italian news reports said.

The immigrants have been taken to an already overflowing reception centre on Lampedusa where around 1200 immigrants are currently being held, the reports said.

Aptech Limited, a leading IT education and training company, has tied up with Italy’s Seven Rings International to train graduates in Soft Skills and Corporate Computing Skill Development.

Under the agreement, Aptech would be the exclusive training delivery partner for participants of Seven Rings International in India.

Turin, Italy - At least five people died in a lightning strike, drowning, electrocution, high winds and the downing of a tree as storms struck northern Italy, Poland and Austria.

A 10-year-old boy died Friday in Turin, Italy, after being hit by lightning while a 37-year-old Italian man drowned off Genoa the same day when he was swamped by high waves in the Mediterranean.

A female German tourist, 27, was missing in the rough waters near Ventimiglia, west of Genoa, and other swimmers narrowly escaped drowning before being rescued nearby.