'Blasphemous' porn websites shut down

ITALIAN police have closed down five US-based websites that had been blaspheming Catholicism with pornographic pictures and offensive statements about the Madonna, police said.

Investigators first learned about the sites, with names that translate into phrases including "Pig Madonna" and "Blasphemy", in 2000.

"At these addresses, the mention of God and the Madonna, besides being preceded by strongly vulgar language, was tied to explicit images of sex," the police said yesterday.