Crucified frog sculpture sparks outrage  

A former Italian senator has declared a sculpture of a crucified frog displayed at a Bolzano, Italy, art museum a public obscenity. 
Renzo Gubert, a Roman Catholic, said late German artist Martin Kippenberger's sculpture of a  
frog nailed to a cross with a mug of beer in one hand and an egg in the other violates public obscenity laws with its display at Museion, ANSA reported. 

Local Bishop  
Wilhelm Egger said he discussed the controversial artwork with Pope Benedict XVI, who is vacationing in the nearby town of Bressanone but he didn't share the pontiff's comments on the work.  Despite the furor that erupted over the sculpture, curators at Museion have refused to remove the sculpture from display.  ''Museion opposes the exploitation of the work for political propaganda,'' the museum said in a statement. 

Bolzano, also called Stadt Bozen in German, is an autonomous Italian region in an area that changed hands from Austria to Italy after World War I.

Woman finds grasshopper in canned spinach  

A Denver-area woman says she opened a can of spinach and found half a dead grasshopper inside.  "I just think it's very gross," Donna Labrador told the Denver Post. "I will never eat another can of veggies again. Probably not spinach, anyway." 

Labrador planned to saute the spinach in olive oil to make a late dinner Wednesday to share with her 3-year-old daughter, Isabella. But she said the grasshopper was such a disturbing find she skipped dinner Wednesday and breakfast Thursday morning.  She called the company that canned the spinach and got the promise of a mailer to send in the grasshopper for tests. She said she was hoping for a refund as well.  The grasshopper, wrapped   up in toilet paper, was in her refrigerator. Labrador said   that by Friday she might be hungry enough to resume eating -- although not canned vegetables.  Grasshoppers are eaten in many parts of the world, and experts say they can be an excellent source of protein.