political news

Germans are redefining the normal purpose of a motorway by laying on an enormous party on one of the country's busiest stretches of "Autobahn".

At least 1m people are expected to drop in on a banquet being held on Sunday on a 60km stretch of motorway.

Only pedestrians and cyclists are now allowed on this part of the A40/B1.

The event is part of cultural celebrations in the western Ruhr area, Germany's former industrial heartland.

The party organisers said they had given away 20,000 tables for "the longest banquet in the world" in the middle of the motorway between the cities of Dortmund and Duisburg.

People are set to eat, drink, dance and perform plays along the traffic artery until Sunday evening.

Organisers also expected newly-weds and their guests to sit down at the world's longest wedding banquet.

One resident living next to the A40 in Essen, Waltraud Weber, told German public broadcaster WDR that she was pleased to have had an unusually quiet night. "Now we will go and party with our children", Ms Weber said.

At midday German media reported that the A40 temporarily had to be closed to cyclists due to traffic jams and overcrowding.

The party, called Still Life, is part of the region's celebrations as Cultural Capital of Europe 2010.

A billboard advert in the US state of Iowa that linked President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin was removed on Wednesday morning.

The sign, which was funded by a group of local Tea Party activists, has been replaced with a community service announcement.

Text on the sign had read: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."

The billboard had angered many in the local community, including other Tea Party activists.

A representative of the Iowa group called the billboard's owner and requested the sign be removed on Tuesday evening.

A national Tea Party representative had called the controversial poster a waste of money, time and resources.

"It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the Tea Party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true," Shelby Blakely, of the national Tea Party Patriots group, told the Associated Press agency.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Mr Blakely said.

A spokesperson for the 200-person group that organised the billboard said it was intended to critique socialism, but admits that their message was overshadowed by the fascist images.

On Tuesday, America's largest civil rights group passed a resolution condemning the Tea Party for tolerating racism and bigotry.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has not released the language of the motion, but a spokesperson has said that it calls on Tea Party members to "repudiate the racist element and activities within the Tea Party".

"We don't have a problem with the Tea Party's existence. We have an issue with their acceptance and welcoming of white supremacists into their organisations," said Ben Jealous, NAACP President.

Sarah Palin has responded to the resolution on her Facebook page.

"The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the colour of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand," Mrs Palin wrote.

A billboard advert in the US state of Iowa that linked President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin was removed on Wednesday morning.

The sign, which was funded by a group of local Tea Party activists, has been replaced with a community service announcement.

Text on the sign had read: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."

The billboard had angered many in the local community, including other Tea Party activists.

A representative of the Iowa group called the billboard's owner and requested the sign be removed on Tuesday evening.

A national Tea Party representative had called the controversial poster a waste of money, time and resources.

"It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the Tea Party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true," Shelby Blakely, of the national Tea Party Patriots group, told the Associated Press agency.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Mr Blakely said.

A spokesperson for the 200-person group that organised the billboard said it was intended to critique socialism, but admits that their message was overshadowed by the fascist images.

Tea Party condemned

On Tuesday, America's largest civil rights group passed a resolution condemning the Tea Party for tolerating racism and bigotry.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has not released the language of the motion, but a spokesperson has said that it calls on Tea Party members to "repudiate the racist element and activities within the Tea Party".

"We don't have a problem with the Tea Party's existence. We have an issue with their acceptance and welcoming of white supremacists into their organisations," said Ben Jealous, NAACP President.

Sarah Palin has responded to the resolution on her Facebook page.

"The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the colour of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand," Mrs Palin wrote.