While Halloween remains the top topic on the Internet this week, the rest of this week's searches were dominated by two huge news stories, one from each side of the pond. Once again it has been proven that if you can't bring Muhammad to the Moose, you must bring the Moose to Muhammad.

The biggest story, of course, was the capture of the Washington sniper (actually, snipers), which ranks as the #5 topic on Lycos this week. As far as searches for the snipers by name, about two-thirds were for John Allen Muhammad and one-third for his ward and sidekick John Lee Malvo. Forty percent of searches for Muhammad asked for John Allen Williams, although Muhammad isn't "Williams" any more than Muhammad Ali is "Cassius Clay."

The popular sniper-related searches of prior weeks were joined by a number of other phrases this week. The Bushmaster .223 rifle, the weapon used in the crimes, received enough searches to rank #31 on the Lycos 50. We also received a number of queries for police chief Charles Moose, as well as the phrase used by Muhammad in his message to the police, "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose." (Most searches were just for the four words duck in a noose.)

Over in England, it is a sexual assault making news rather than a homicide. The scandal revolves around the recently released autobiography of TV star Ulrika Jonsson. In the book, Jonsson alleges that she was date raped in 1988 by a prominent, but unnamed, British television host.

Unnamed in the book, that is. During Jonsson's interview tour for the book, talk show host Matthew Wright gave the name of the alleged attacker, UK morning show host John Leslie (by accident, claims Wright). The name was later corroborated by a report in the newspaper the London Evening Standard. Since then, more allegations have emerged about possible rapes in Leslie's past, and the scandal has ended his career in a sudden fashion.

The story has British Lycos users flocking to the Internet for more information about Jonsson and Leslie, so the scandal ranks at #7 on this week's Lycos 50. Most searches are for Jonsson, with many spellings and many search phrases that specify Ulrika rape. We also get plenty of searches for Leslie, the Evening Standard, and Wright.

But wait, that's not all. A number of other news stories spark Internet searches this week but don't make the Lycos 50, including the deaths of actor Richard Harris and senator Paul Wellstone, the extortion lawsuit filed by Michael Jordan against former mistress Karla Knafel, and the possible discovery of a burial box belonging to Jesus' brother James, as reported in the magazine Biblical Archaeology. All these stories will be discussed in tomorrow's News Quiz article.

It's no surprise that with so much going on, searches for news spike this week, mostly due to the sniper case. Searches for CNN and ABC News are triple normal, searches for FOX News and NBC News are quadruple normal, and even just searches for the generic word news are up 55 percent. The Ulrika rape scandal means that British news searches like BBC News are up 50 percent as well.

SKEEZE VS. TEASE: Well, if Christina Aguilera (#10) was trying to revive her career with her new sexy persona, she has more than succeeded. This week Aguilera passes Britney Spears (#12) in Internet searches for the first time ever. Other than the month after September 11, this is the only time in Lycos 50 history that Britney Spears has dropped out of the top ten, and with Ulrika Jonsson at #7 this is the first week in Lycos 50 history that Britney Spears does not rank as one of the top two women online.

HEAVEN SENT: With the World Series reaching an end, baseball moves up to #25. The champion Angels still can't get respect online, however, with far fewer searches than champions of years past like the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees.

Actually, Angels mascot the Rally Monkey is more popular than all the Angel players combined. The simian supporter of slugfests gets as many queries this week as Antonio Banderas, Blue Man Group, and -- egads -- classic adult film Debbie Does Dallas.

SURPRISE HIT: We are stunned to see The Ring (#39) on the Lycos 50 this week, but this remake of a Japanese horror flick joins The Blair Witch Project and The Fast and The Furious as films to make the Lycos 50 without big stars, big special effects, and a big promotional budget. If you're wondering why we never called it as "One to Watch," well, it wasn't. The movie didn't receive an abnormal number of searches until the week it opened. Then in the last two weeks searches tripled and then tripled again.

NO MONEY: News was on everyone's mind this week, so financial concerns were a bit less important. That means that IRS and mortgage rates both drop off the Lycos 50 after 23 and 14 weeks, respectively.

SHORT SUBJECTS: Halloween is huger than huge, but two topics that commonly make the Lycos 50 this time of year, Day of the Dead and witchcraft, fall far short in 2002... This week's biggest riser was novelty dance music act Las Ketchup, up 22 spots to #26... All the news kept a number of topics with rising popularity off the Lycos 50, including rock bands Nirvana (#54) and Good Charlotte (#56), the beginning of the NBA (#53) season, and movie/sign-of-the-apocalypse Jackass (#57).

NEW THIS WEEK: Ulrika Jonsson, Bushmaster .223 rifle, The Ring, haunted houses, Xbox, Daylight Savings Time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons.

DROPOUTS: IRS, mortgage rates, Greek mythology, Napster, Pokemon, Christopher Columbus, Bali bombing, Boss's Day.

TWO YEARS AGO: By appearing naked in Penthouse, alleged presidential sexual harassment target Paula Jones (#8) nearly upstages presidential candidates Al Gore (#6) and George W. Bush (#7) on the Lycos 50.

TOMORROW: Another news quiz -- after last week's events, how can we resist?