Cock Fighting Suspended Over Bird Flu
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai fans of cock fighting, a sport popular in both town and countryside, will have to wait to place their next bet until the bird flu epidemic is over, the government said Tuesday.
Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphana said cock fighting had been banned temporarily because of fears the birds were often taken long distances to their sand-pit arenas and might spread the avian influenza which has now hit 10 Asian countries.
The bird flu, which has killed at least 12 people in Vietnam and Thailand, had been spread to southern Thailand by fighting center of circulation transported there from areas with major outbreaks in the north and center of the country, she told reporters.
"Outbreaks in some areas, which should not have caught the disease, were caused by movements of fighting center of circulation," Sudarat said. "Therefore the cabinet decided today to ban cock fighting until the epidemic is over."
A four-year-old boy from the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, who died of suspected bird flu Tuesday, lived in a village where many fighting center of circulation had died, she said.
That took the number of suspected human infections in Thailand to 18, of whom 11 have died. Laboratory tests have not yet confirmed the deaths were attributable to bird flu.
Thailand has had four confirmed cases, three of whom have died and the fourth, a seven-year-old boy, is given only a 30 percent chance of survival. Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter, has killed 30 million poultry and is hopeful it has turned the corner.
The number of "red zones" -- the five-km (three-mile) area around a confirmed outbreak within which all poultry must be slaughtered -- had shrunk by half to 18 in seven provinces from 35 in 16 provinces Monday, a government spokesman said.
Last week, Thailand had "red zones" in 29 of its 76 provinces.
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AussieMark
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AussieMark
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Couples Pucker Up for World Kissing Record
MANILA (Reuters) - Couples in the Philippine capital Manila are limbering up their lips for a mass kissing session on Valentine's Day that could snatch the coveted world record from Chile.
Mayor Lito Atienza has invited 5,000 couples to smooch simultaneously for 10 seconds along the city's bay, thus beating the record set by 4,445 couples just last month in Santiago.
"We're trying to establish a world record for the most number of couples kissing at the same time," the mayor's spokesman, Armand Sebastian, said Thursday.
He said the mayor plans to personally boost the attempt on the world mark by kissing his wife.
Men and women, most of them in their 20s, poured onto a cordoned-off street in Chile's capital in January to kiss for at least 10 seconds and smash the previous record held by Canada.
MANILA (Reuters) - Couples in the Philippine capital Manila are limbering up their lips for a mass kissing session on Valentine's Day that could snatch the coveted world record from Chile.
Mayor Lito Atienza has invited 5,000 couples to smooch simultaneously for 10 seconds along the city's bay, thus beating the record set by 4,445 couples just last month in Santiago.
"We're trying to establish a world record for the most number of couples kissing at the same time," the mayor's spokesman, Armand Sebastian, said Thursday.
He said the mayor plans to personally boost the attempt on the world mark by kissing his wife.
Men and women, most of them in their 20s, poured onto a cordoned-off street in Chile's capital in January to kiss for at least 10 seconds and smash the previous record held by Canada.
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AussieMark
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Dark Whisperings Shake Dog Show Circuit
LONDON (Reuters) - Something sinister is troubling Britain's usually genteel world of dog-showing, and at the center of it all lies one question: Who called Mrs. Joyce Mann a "puppy farmer?"
Hate mail is circulating, threats have been made over the phone, Mann -- the country's top show judge -- has resigned and The Kennel Club says it has never seen anything like it.
"It is quite a nasty business," said a club spokeswoman. "Someone has set out to blacken Joyce's name at the pinnacle of her career."
And all this with the premier date on the dog show calendar fast approaching: Crufts, the world's largest dog show and the quintessence of British canine culture starts on March 4.
Joyce Mann, this year's Crufts Best of Show judge and wife of its chairman Peter, had been targeted by a fax campaign to highlight her mass breeding of Yorkshire Terriers in the 1960s -- puppy farming -- a practice common at the time, but now considered unethical.
"This has all the ingredients of a Miss Marple mystery," said Beverley Cuddy of "Dogs Today" magazine. "Dog showing is still very much a gentle middle-class pursuit, but it does have this other side.
"When people get obsessed, only winning counts, and the dog becomes irrelevant," she added.
"There have been poisonings over the years, and last year there was even a whispering campaign against Crufts winner Danny the Pekinese -- did he, or did he not, have a face lift?" she said. Danny was eventually cleared.
At first it appeared Joyce Mann might weather the smear campaign.
She released a statement last month saying she wanted to put the record straight: "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I bred a considerable number of litters."
But, noted the British show breeders periodical "Dog World": "the gossip refused to die down, and at Manchester and the Pedigree Stakes finals, the Manns were the main topic of conversation."
It was all too much. Last week, Mrs. Mann tendered her resignation, citing "stress and anguish as a result of scurrilous anonymous accusations, which have resulted in my receiving medical attention."
Her husband Peter followed, resigning from his post as Crufts chairman, a gesture of solidarity the Kennel Club accepted with "deep regret."
But tea-cups are still rattling. Who, after all, was responsible for this outrage? Dogs Today's Cuddy deduces the culprit might be a competitor who feared facing Joyce Mann in the show ring this year.
Whatever the truth, she said, dogdom will always remain a rich source of intrigue. "Have you heard the one about the Airedale with an illegal false testicle," she asked darkly.
LONDON (Reuters) - Something sinister is troubling Britain's usually genteel world of dog-showing, and at the center of it all lies one question: Who called Mrs. Joyce Mann a "puppy farmer?"
Hate mail is circulating, threats have been made over the phone, Mann -- the country's top show judge -- has resigned and The Kennel Club says it has never seen anything like it.
"It is quite a nasty business," said a club spokeswoman. "Someone has set out to blacken Joyce's name at the pinnacle of her career."
And all this with the premier date on the dog show calendar fast approaching: Crufts, the world's largest dog show and the quintessence of British canine culture starts on March 4.
Joyce Mann, this year's Crufts Best of Show judge and wife of its chairman Peter, had been targeted by a fax campaign to highlight her mass breeding of Yorkshire Terriers in the 1960s -- puppy farming -- a practice common at the time, but now considered unethical.
"This has all the ingredients of a Miss Marple mystery," said Beverley Cuddy of "Dogs Today" magazine. "Dog showing is still very much a gentle middle-class pursuit, but it does have this other side.
"When people get obsessed, only winning counts, and the dog becomes irrelevant," she added.
"There have been poisonings over the years, and last year there was even a whispering campaign against Crufts winner Danny the Pekinese -- did he, or did he not, have a face lift?" she said. Danny was eventually cleared.
At first it appeared Joyce Mann might weather the smear campaign.
She released a statement last month saying she wanted to put the record straight: "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I bred a considerable number of litters."
But, noted the British show breeders periodical "Dog World": "the gossip refused to die down, and at Manchester and the Pedigree Stakes finals, the Manns were the main topic of conversation."
It was all too much. Last week, Mrs. Mann tendered her resignation, citing "stress and anguish as a result of scurrilous anonymous accusations, which have resulted in my receiving medical attention."
Her husband Peter followed, resigning from his post as Crufts chairman, a gesture of solidarity the Kennel Club accepted with "deep regret."
But tea-cups are still rattling. Who, after all, was responsible for this outrage? Dogs Today's Cuddy deduces the culprit might be a competitor who feared facing Joyce Mann in the show ring this year.
Whatever the truth, she said, dogdom will always remain a rich source of intrigue. "Have you heard the one about the Airedale with an illegal false testicle," she asked darkly.
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AussieMark
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Cannibal Attracts Interest from Filmmakers
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German cannibal convicted of manslaughter last week for killing and eating a willing victim has received several inquiries from film companies about making a movie of the sensational case, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
But the lawyer dismissed reports British actor Hugh Grant, famous for his romantic comedies, had expressed an interest in buying the film rights and playing the lead role. Grant's spokeswoman, Karin Smith, called the reports "absolute rubbish."
The cannibal, 42-year-old computer repair man Armin Meiwes, filmed the fetish-induced killing on video tape and the gory details of the case have caused shock and fascination worldwide.
"We've had inquiries from Germany and the rest of Europe," said Harald Ermel, who defended Meiwes in the two-month trial in Kassel, central Germany. He did not name any film companies.
"There is also interest from media wanting interviews and from book publishers," said Ermel, adding that Meiwes was likely to require a ghost writer for the memoirs he plans to write.
Ermel rejected media reports in Britain and Germany that Grant, who looks nothing like the stark-featured Meiwes, was trying to secure the film rights.
"There has been no contact on this between Hugh Grant and Herr Meiwes or his defense... This is evidently an erroneous report," Ermel said.
Meiwes was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison last Friday but could be out in less than five years if he gets parole for good behavior.
Meiwes is popular with fellow inmates because he helps them write letters, Ermel has said.
The cannibal had fantasized since puberty about eating a man to fill a void left by the departure of his father, and advertised for victims on the Internet.
Psychiatrists judged him sane but severely disturbed and Meiwes has said he will undergo counseling in jail to rid him of his "fetish for men's flesh."
Meiwes escaped a murder conviction because his victim, a 43-year-old computer engineer, had wanted to be killed and even contacted Meiwes on the Internet asking to be eaten.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence and this week lodged an appeal against the conviction.
The case has no legal precedent and is set to go before Gemany's Supreme Court, legal experts say. Ermel said it could take up to nine months before the appeal hearing begins.
"Where are we living?" news magazine Der Spiegel said this week in a report on the case. "Has all measure of the difference between normal and abnormal, right and wrong, of morality and decency been lost?"
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German cannibal convicted of manslaughter last week for killing and eating a willing victim has received several inquiries from film companies about making a movie of the sensational case, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
But the lawyer dismissed reports British actor Hugh Grant, famous for his romantic comedies, had expressed an interest in buying the film rights and playing the lead role. Grant's spokeswoman, Karin Smith, called the reports "absolute rubbish."
The cannibal, 42-year-old computer repair man Armin Meiwes, filmed the fetish-induced killing on video tape and the gory details of the case have caused shock and fascination worldwide.
"We've had inquiries from Germany and the rest of Europe," said Harald Ermel, who defended Meiwes in the two-month trial in Kassel, central Germany. He did not name any film companies.
"There is also interest from media wanting interviews and from book publishers," said Ermel, adding that Meiwes was likely to require a ghost writer for the memoirs he plans to write.
Ermel rejected media reports in Britain and Germany that Grant, who looks nothing like the stark-featured Meiwes, was trying to secure the film rights.
"There has been no contact on this between Hugh Grant and Herr Meiwes or his defense... This is evidently an erroneous report," Ermel said.
Meiwes was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison last Friday but could be out in less than five years if he gets parole for good behavior.
Meiwes is popular with fellow inmates because he helps them write letters, Ermel has said.
The cannibal had fantasized since puberty about eating a man to fill a void left by the departure of his father, and advertised for victims on the Internet.
Psychiatrists judged him sane but severely disturbed and Meiwes has said he will undergo counseling in jail to rid him of his "fetish for men's flesh."
Meiwes escaped a murder conviction because his victim, a 43-year-old computer engineer, had wanted to be killed and even contacted Meiwes on the Internet asking to be eaten.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence and this week lodged an appeal against the conviction.
The case has no legal precedent and is set to go before Gemany's Supreme Court, legal experts say. Ermel said it could take up to nine months before the appeal hearing begins.
"Where are we living?" news magazine Der Spiegel said this week in a report on the case. "Has all measure of the difference between normal and abnormal, right and wrong, of morality and decency been lost?"
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AussieMark
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Surgeons Close Wounds with Paperclips
LONDON (Reuters) - British surgeons are endangering patients by using paper clips to close wounds and tongue depressors as splints for babies, a government agency said Tuesday.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it had uncovered an increasing trend for doctors to use medical devices in ways they were not meant to be used, and also "adapt nonmedical products for clinical purposes."
Such misuse can put patients' health at serious risk, it said.
"For example, use of tongue depressors in a neonatal intensive care unit as limb splints led to two deaths and one amputation because of fungal infection," the agency said.
Surgeons were closing wounds with paper clips and urinary catheters. Others were using wooden clothes pegs to clip devices that measure the pulse on to patients' earlobes, or using fake fingernails to fix cuts on the nail bed.
"The use of a device in these circumstances exposes users and patient to unknown and therefore unacceptable risks and may have legal and ethical implications," it said.
LONDON (Reuters) - British surgeons are endangering patients by using paper clips to close wounds and tongue depressors as splints for babies, a government agency said Tuesday.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it had uncovered an increasing trend for doctors to use medical devices in ways they were not meant to be used, and also "adapt nonmedical products for clinical purposes."
Such misuse can put patients' health at serious risk, it said.
"For example, use of tongue depressors in a neonatal intensive care unit as limb splints led to two deaths and one amputation because of fungal infection," the agency said.
Surgeons were closing wounds with paper clips and urinary catheters. Others were using wooden clothes pegs to clip devices that measure the pulse on to patients' earlobes, or using fake fingernails to fix cuts on the nail bed.
"The use of a device in these circumstances exposes users and patient to unknown and therefore unacceptable risks and may have legal and ethical implications," it said.
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AussieMark
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Man Fined for Shipping Self in Plane
DALLAS (Reuters) - A man who shipped himself across America in an air cargo crate to avoid paying a passenger fare was fined $1,500 Wednesday and sentenced to 120 days of house arrest.
A federal court at Fort Worth, Texas, also put Charles McKinley, dubbed by local media as "Charlie in a Box," on probation for one year. He had faced up to one year in prison after pleading guilty to stowing away on an aircraft.
Last September McKinley, 25, filled out an air freight order that charged his New York computer company for the shipping costs, stuffed himself in a crate and sent his 5-foot-8-inch (173 cm) body in a box that was 42 inches (107 cm) high, 36 inches (91 cm) wide and 15 inches deep (38 cm).
It was sent, without insurance, on a two-day journey from the New York area to his parents' home in a Dallas suburb.
A member of the prosecution team told reporters at a federal courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, that McKinley could have easily died.
He was discovered by a deliveryman who thought there was a corpse in the crate when he saw eyes staring at him through slats in the box when he dropped it off at McKinley's parents' home.
When the crate started to rattle and the apparent corpse came to life, the deliveryman called police, according to a police report.
The $1,500 fine is more expensive than some airlines charge a first class ticket from New York to Dallas.
DALLAS (Reuters) - A man who shipped himself across America in an air cargo crate to avoid paying a passenger fare was fined $1,500 Wednesday and sentenced to 120 days of house arrest.
A federal court at Fort Worth, Texas, also put Charles McKinley, dubbed by local media as "Charlie in a Box," on probation for one year. He had faced up to one year in prison after pleading guilty to stowing away on an aircraft.
Last September McKinley, 25, filled out an air freight order that charged his New York computer company for the shipping costs, stuffed himself in a crate and sent his 5-foot-8-inch (173 cm) body in a box that was 42 inches (107 cm) high, 36 inches (91 cm) wide and 15 inches deep (38 cm).
It was sent, without insurance, on a two-day journey from the New York area to his parents' home in a Dallas suburb.
A member of the prosecution team told reporters at a federal courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, that McKinley could have easily died.
He was discovered by a deliveryman who thought there was a corpse in the crate when he saw eyes staring at him through slats in the box when he dropped it off at McKinley's parents' home.
When the crate started to rattle and the apparent corpse came to life, the deliveryman called police, according to a police report.
The $1,500 fine is more expensive than some airlines charge a first class ticket from New York to Dallas.
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AussieMark
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Secret of Homing Pigeons Revealed
LONDON (Reuters) - The secret of carrier pigeons' uncanny ability to find their way home has been discovered by British scientists: the feathered navigators follow the roads just like we do.
Researchers at Oxford University spent 10 years studying homing pigeons using global positioning satellite (GPS) and were stunned to find the birds often don't navigate by taking bearing from the sun.
Instead they fly along motorways, turn at junctions and even go around roundabouts, adding miles to their journeys, British newspapers reported on Thursday.
"It really has knocked our research team sideways," Professor Tim Guilford said in the Daily Telegraph.
"It is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the roundabout," he said in The Times.
Guilford said pigeons use their own navigational system when doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first time.
But when they have flown a journey more than once they home in on an habitual route home.
"In short it looks like it is mentally easier for a bird to fly down a road...they are just making their journey as simple as possible."
LONDON (Reuters) - The secret of carrier pigeons' uncanny ability to find their way home has been discovered by British scientists: the feathered navigators follow the roads just like we do.
Researchers at Oxford University spent 10 years studying homing pigeons using global positioning satellite (GPS) and were stunned to find the birds often don't navigate by taking bearing from the sun.
Instead they fly along motorways, turn at junctions and even go around roundabouts, adding miles to their journeys, British newspapers reported on Thursday.
"It really has knocked our research team sideways," Professor Tim Guilford said in the Daily Telegraph.
"It is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the roundabout," he said in The Times.
Guilford said pigeons use their own navigational system when doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first time.
But when they have flown a journey more than once they home in on an habitual route home.
"In short it looks like it is mentally easier for a bird to fly down a road...they are just making their journey as simple as possible."
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AussieMark
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Blast Blows Roof Off Public Toilet
LONDON (Reuters) - An underground explosion blew the roof off a public toilet on Wednesday in the central English city of Stoke-on-Trent.
"Fortunately nobody was inside at the time, but it is right in the city center, near our night clubs and cultural quarter," said Terry James, spokesman for the city council.
He said the explosion, which happened about 4 a.m., had been caused by a high voltage power cable running beneath the "superloo," an automated toilet.
The electricity supplier was investigating the incident, James said.
LONDON (Reuters) - An underground explosion blew the roof off a public toilet on Wednesday in the central English city of Stoke-on-Trent.
"Fortunately nobody was inside at the time, but it is right in the city center, near our night clubs and cultural quarter," said Terry James, spokesman for the city council.
He said the explosion, which happened about 4 a.m., had been caused by a high voltage power cable running beneath the "superloo," an automated toilet.
The electricity supplier was investigating the incident, James said.
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AussieMark
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Man Lives with Dead Brother for 18 Months
LONDON (Reuters) - A British retiree did not notice his brother had been dead for 18 months despite sharing a mobile home with him.
When Herbert Silver, 72, finally called police and told them his brother George, 75, had died, they went to the bachelors' home expecting to find a body. Instead they found a skeleton, British newspapers reported Thursday.
"I admit that I didn't go into his room for a few hours, a few days...well quite a while actually," Herbert Silver told the Daily Telegraph.
Silver said he had thought it a "bit odd" when his brother failed to emerge from his bedroom in the tiny home they shared in Blissford, southern England, but told the Daily Mirror:
"George liked to keep himself to himself, and to be honest so do I." A postmortem indicated George Silver had been dead for up to 18 months.
LONDON (Reuters) - A British retiree did not notice his brother had been dead for 18 months despite sharing a mobile home with him.
When Herbert Silver, 72, finally called police and told them his brother George, 75, had died, they went to the bachelors' home expecting to find a body. Instead they found a skeleton, British newspapers reported Thursday.
"I admit that I didn't go into his room for a few hours, a few days...well quite a while actually," Herbert Silver told the Daily Telegraph.
Silver said he had thought it a "bit odd" when his brother failed to emerge from his bedroom in the tiny home they shared in Blissford, southern England, but told the Daily Mirror:
"George liked to keep himself to himself, and to be honest so do I." A postmortem indicated George Silver had been dead for up to 18 months.
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AussieMark
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Booze-Laced Cookies Hit Sour Note
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A public outcry over the launch of alcohol-flavored cookies in Australia prompted the government Thursday to order a review into whether promoting the liquor-laced nibbles breached advertising rules.
Biscuit maker Arnott's release this week of Tia Maria Tim Tams and Kahlua Slices prompted fears that the chocolate-coated cookies would give children a taste for alcohol.
After a barrage of complaints, the government said it would check guidelines for the promotion and placement of alcohol products. "It is disappointing a product like this appears when the government has done a lot to warn young people about the dangers of alcohol and excessive drinking," said a spokesman for Parliamentary Health Secretary Trish Worth.
Arnott's, owned by the Campbell Soup Company, said it would cooperate with the review but would not withdraw the biscuits from sale.
Cookie-lovers would have to consume their bodyweight in cookies within one hour to reach the blood-alcohol content of 0.05, the legal limit for drinking and driving, as the cookies contain no more than 0.1 percent alcohol, said company spokeswoman Toni Callaghan.
"But we have no plans to undertake any print or broadcast advertising for either product," Callaghan told Reuters.
Australia banned an alcoholic milkshake called "Moo Joose" in 2002 due to fears it would encourage under-age drinking.
The milk drink had an alcohol content of 5.3 percent, stronger than most standard Australian beers.
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A public outcry over the launch of alcohol-flavored cookies in Australia prompted the government Thursday to order a review into whether promoting the liquor-laced nibbles breached advertising rules.
Biscuit maker Arnott's release this week of Tia Maria Tim Tams and Kahlua Slices prompted fears that the chocolate-coated cookies would give children a taste for alcohol.
After a barrage of complaints, the government said it would check guidelines for the promotion and placement of alcohol products. "It is disappointing a product like this appears when the government has done a lot to warn young people about the dangers of alcohol and excessive drinking," said a spokesman for Parliamentary Health Secretary Trish Worth.
Arnott's, owned by the Campbell Soup Company, said it would cooperate with the review but would not withdraw the biscuits from sale.
Cookie-lovers would have to consume their bodyweight in cookies within one hour to reach the blood-alcohol content of 0.05, the legal limit for drinking and driving, as the cookies contain no more than 0.1 percent alcohol, said company spokeswoman Toni Callaghan.
"But we have no plans to undertake any print or broadcast advertising for either product," Callaghan told Reuters.
Australia banned an alcoholic milkshake called "Moo Joose" in 2002 due to fears it would encourage under-age drinking.
The milk drink had an alcohol content of 5.3 percent, stronger than most standard Australian beers.
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Girl Suspended from School for Saying 'Hell'
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A second-grade girl from Pittsburgh was suspended this week from her public elementary school for saying the word "hell" to a boy in her class.
But 7-year-old Brandy McKenith says she was only warning the boy about the eternal comeuppance he could face for saying: "I swear to God."
"I said, 'You're going to go to hell for swearing to God,'" Brandy was quoted as saying in an article that appeared on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Wednesday.
School officials were unavailable for comment. A Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman told the newspaper that the student code prohibits profanity but does not provide a clear definition of what profanity is.
The girl's parents, who said they believed their daughter's version of the story, were flabbergasted by the suspension and complained to the school principal.
"Kids are bringing guns and knives to school. ... They've got dope. And we're worried about 'hell'?" said her father, Wayne McKenith.
Meanwhile, the incident drew the attention of civil liberties experts as far away as New York.
"There was no threat and the word was being used in its intended way, not in a vulgar manner," civil liberties attorney Christopher Murray said in a statement distributed by his New York law firm.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A second-grade girl from Pittsburgh was suspended this week from her public elementary school for saying the word "hell" to a boy in her class.
But 7-year-old Brandy McKenith says she was only warning the boy about the eternal comeuppance he could face for saying: "I swear to God."
"I said, 'You're going to go to hell for swearing to God,'" Brandy was quoted as saying in an article that appeared on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Wednesday.
School officials were unavailable for comment. A Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman told the newspaper that the student code prohibits profanity but does not provide a clear definition of what profanity is.
The girl's parents, who said they believed their daughter's version of the story, were flabbergasted by the suspension and complained to the school principal.
"Kids are bringing guns and knives to school. ... They've got dope. And we're worried about 'hell'?" said her father, Wayne McKenith.
Meanwhile, the incident drew the attention of civil liberties experts as far away as New York.
"There was no threat and the word was being used in its intended way, not in a vulgar manner," civil liberties attorney Christopher Murray said in a statement distributed by his New York law firm.
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Discussion about "Girl Suspended from School for Saying 'Hell'"
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'Vagina Monologues' Silenced Before Shanghai Debut
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The curtain has fallen on Eve Ensler's controversial but internationally acclaimed women's rights play, "The Vagina Monologues," in China's most cosmopolitan city before it had even begun.
Despite reports that the play had been killed by a jittery government, Shanghai city officials insisted Tuesday there were unrelated problems.
"Research shed light on some problems with the play," said a spokesman for the Shanghai Drama Center, adding it may be staged in future. "It's our own problem, not the government's."
The play had been due to open in Shanghai Tuesday and run for a month, marking its first performance in Chinese to the general public. The city's Cultural Bureau declined comment.
The play is going ahead in the conservative capital, Beijing, with a scheduled opening on Friday
Sources involved in the play told Reuters that Shanghai arts officials were refusing to talk.
Despite the development of an increasingly open-minded attitude toward sex in China, the play may have fallen victim to a lingering wariness and conservatism among official ranks.
The word "vagina" is repeated more than 100 times in the play. The slang word for vagina is considered so offensive in China it is usually written as an "X" in print media.
Two books by Shanghai-based women authors -- Zhou Weihui's "Shanghai Baby" and Mian Mian's "Candy" -- were banned in 2000 for their graphic descriptions of sex and drug-taking.
"The Vagina Monologues" has been performed in more than 39 countries since its debut in 1996, touted as a celebration of female sexuality, while discussing issues like violence against women.
The play was first performed in Chinese in December 2003 to an audience of students at the Guangdong Art Academy where it received standing ovations from those present, state media said.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The curtain has fallen on Eve Ensler's controversial but internationally acclaimed women's rights play, "The Vagina Monologues," in China's most cosmopolitan city before it had even begun.
Despite reports that the play had been killed by a jittery government, Shanghai city officials insisted Tuesday there were unrelated problems.
"Research shed light on some problems with the play," said a spokesman for the Shanghai Drama Center, adding it may be staged in future. "It's our own problem, not the government's."
The play had been due to open in Shanghai Tuesday and run for a month, marking its first performance in Chinese to the general public. The city's Cultural Bureau declined comment.
The play is going ahead in the conservative capital, Beijing, with a scheduled opening on Friday
Sources involved in the play told Reuters that Shanghai arts officials were refusing to talk.
Despite the development of an increasingly open-minded attitude toward sex in China, the play may have fallen victim to a lingering wariness and conservatism among official ranks.
The word "vagina" is repeated more than 100 times in the play. The slang word for vagina is considered so offensive in China it is usually written as an "X" in print media.
Two books by Shanghai-based women authors -- Zhou Weihui's "Shanghai Baby" and Mian Mian's "Candy" -- were banned in 2000 for their graphic descriptions of sex and drug-taking.
"The Vagina Monologues" has been performed in more than 39 countries since its debut in 1996, touted as a celebration of female sexuality, while discussing issues like violence against women.
The play was first performed in Chinese in December 2003 to an audience of students at the Guangdong Art Academy where it received standing ovations from those present, state media said.
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AussieMark
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Handing Out Condoms for Carnival Safe Sex
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil Monday began handing out a record 10 million contraceptives to stop the spread of AIDS during Carnival when casual sex rises.
With the pre-Lenten festival less than two weeks away, the "nothing gets past a condom" campaign focuses on the 14 million Brazilians, or 15 percent of those sexually active, who don't believe condoms prevent the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus.
"Carnival is a time when there's a lot of contact, you've got people wearing very few clothes, which ends up stimulating more intense sexual relations," said Health Minister Humberto Costa, as he handed out the first condoms of the campaign aimed at middle class and poor Brazilian men between 18 and 39.
The promotion of condoms in this year's Carnival has upset Brazil's Catholic Church, which opposes the distribution of contraceptives by the nation's highly successful anti-AIDS program on the grounds that it promotes promiscuity.
Brazil is the world's biggest Roman Catholic country and the church has said Kama Sutra poses and condom themes in floats in this year's Rio de Janeiro Carnival parade, as promised by one Samba group, will mean Brazil is "discredited in front of the world with unacceptable scenes."
"We respect all religions' positions, our concern is the health of the population," said Costa, after he played a radio jingle "I'm the condom my love, you can get into this without any sweat, use me and abuse me, I'm the condom you can trust."
Keen to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with the church the minister had earlier vetoed the initial campaign's slogan "Put faith in the condom" proposed by the ministry.
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil Monday began handing out a record 10 million contraceptives to stop the spread of AIDS during Carnival when casual sex rises.
With the pre-Lenten festival less than two weeks away, the "nothing gets past a condom" campaign focuses on the 14 million Brazilians, or 15 percent of those sexually active, who don't believe condoms prevent the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus.
"Carnival is a time when there's a lot of contact, you've got people wearing very few clothes, which ends up stimulating more intense sexual relations," said Health Minister Humberto Costa, as he handed out the first condoms of the campaign aimed at middle class and poor Brazilian men between 18 and 39.
The promotion of condoms in this year's Carnival has upset Brazil's Catholic Church, which opposes the distribution of contraceptives by the nation's highly successful anti-AIDS program on the grounds that it promotes promiscuity.
Brazil is the world's biggest Roman Catholic country and the church has said Kama Sutra poses and condom themes in floats in this year's Rio de Janeiro Carnival parade, as promised by one Samba group, will mean Brazil is "discredited in front of the world with unacceptable scenes."
"We respect all religions' positions, our concern is the health of the population," said Costa, after he played a radio jingle "I'm the condom my love, you can get into this without any sweat, use me and abuse me, I'm the condom you can trust."
Keen to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with the church the minister had earlier vetoed the initial campaign's slogan "Put faith in the condom" proposed by the ministry.
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AussieMark
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Catholic Backlash Over Pope on a Pogo-Stick
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of angry Roman Catholics have written to Britain's BBC complaining about a planned cartoon show mocking the Pope as a puerile preacher on a pogo-stick, the broadcaster said Tuesday.
Petitions are circulating in parishes and some Catholics are even risking jail by refusing to pay their TV license fees if the show goes out as planned this summer.
"I am not prepared to pay for the Holy Father to be mocked," said human rights activist James Mawdsley who met Pope John Paul after the Vatican intervened to have the campaigner released from a Burmese jail.
Luke Coppen of the Catholic Herald newspaper said the cartoon was "gratuitously insulting" and had caused "quite a big uproar." The BBC said complaints about "Popetown" -- a satirical cartoon about office politics in the Vatican -- had numbered "a few thousand."
Extracts from the show have appeared on the Internet where discussion boards are buzzing.
Mawdsley hit the headlines in December 2001 when the Pope helped secure his release from a Burmese jail where he had served 14 months of a 17-year sentence for handing out pro-democracy leaflets.
"I will not pay the 1,000 pound ($1,800) fine, so that means prison -- never mind," he told Reuters.
Mawdsley said at least 6,000 people had written to the BBC complaining, while 28,000 had signed a protest petition.
A spokesman for the Catholic church in England declined to comment.
The clash comes at a critical time for the BBC. A furious row with the government over its reporting of the run-up to war with Iraq left the corporation bloodied and weakened. And now its future funding is up for review.
Last week, it was accused of caving in to the government after several lines were cut from its satirical radio show "Absolute Power," which poked fun at Prime Minister Tony Blair and the culture of spin.
The BBC declined to comment on media reports that it was thinking of shelving Popetown.
CHX Productions, which is producing the show for the BBC and uses the voice of American comedienne Ruby Wax for its pogo-ing Pope, also declined to comment.
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of angry Roman Catholics have written to Britain's BBC complaining about a planned cartoon show mocking the Pope as a puerile preacher on a pogo-stick, the broadcaster said Tuesday.
Petitions are circulating in parishes and some Catholics are even risking jail by refusing to pay their TV license fees if the show goes out as planned this summer.
"I am not prepared to pay for the Holy Father to be mocked," said human rights activist James Mawdsley who met Pope John Paul after the Vatican intervened to have the campaigner released from a Burmese jail.
Luke Coppen of the Catholic Herald newspaper said the cartoon was "gratuitously insulting" and had caused "quite a big uproar." The BBC said complaints about "Popetown" -- a satirical cartoon about office politics in the Vatican -- had numbered "a few thousand."
Extracts from the show have appeared on the Internet where discussion boards are buzzing.
Mawdsley hit the headlines in December 2001 when the Pope helped secure his release from a Burmese jail where he had served 14 months of a 17-year sentence for handing out pro-democracy leaflets.
"I will not pay the 1,000 pound ($1,800) fine, so that means prison -- never mind," he told Reuters.
Mawdsley said at least 6,000 people had written to the BBC complaining, while 28,000 had signed a protest petition.
A spokesman for the Catholic church in England declined to comment.
The clash comes at a critical time for the BBC. A furious row with the government over its reporting of the run-up to war with Iraq left the corporation bloodied and weakened. And now its future funding is up for review.
Last week, it was accused of caving in to the government after several lines were cut from its satirical radio show "Absolute Power," which poked fun at Prime Minister Tony Blair and the culture of spin.
The BBC declined to comment on media reports that it was thinking of shelving Popetown.
CHX Productions, which is producing the show for the BBC and uses the voice of American comedienne Ruby Wax for its pogo-ing Pope, also declined to comment.
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AussieMark
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- Location: near Sydney, Australia
McDonald's Gives Fast Food a Facelift
LONDON (Reuters) - McDonald's fast food chain, renowned for cheap hamburgers and plastic decor, has given one of its London restaurants an upmarket makeover to lure in the ladies who lunch.
The outlet on the Strand in downtown London has eschewed brash colors in favor of chrome, leather armchairs, retro seating, glass and sophisticated lighting.
The decor does not include the customary life-size model of beaming clown Ronald McDonald.
"The luxury new look offers customers the chance to dine in high style surroundings for a fraction of the cost. In terms of ladies who lunch, we think we can give Harvey Nichols or The Ivy a run for their money," restaurant spokeswoman Amanda Pierce said.
"We're aiming for it to become a star spotters' paradise," she said.
Forty restaurants across Britain will be redone in the same style as London's flagship restaurant.
LONDON (Reuters) - McDonald's fast food chain, renowned for cheap hamburgers and plastic decor, has given one of its London restaurants an upmarket makeover to lure in the ladies who lunch.
The outlet on the Strand in downtown London has eschewed brash colors in favor of chrome, leather armchairs, retro seating, glass and sophisticated lighting.
The decor does not include the customary life-size model of beaming clown Ronald McDonald.
"The luxury new look offers customers the chance to dine in high style surroundings for a fraction of the cost. In terms of ladies who lunch, we think we can give Harvey Nichols or The Ivy a run for their money," restaurant spokeswoman Amanda Pierce said.
"We're aiming for it to become a star spotters' paradise," she said.
Forty restaurants across Britain will be redone in the same style as London's flagship restaurant.
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AussieMark
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- Location: near Sydney, Australia
Two Thirds of Employees Enjoy Work Romance -Survey
LONDON (Reuters) - Whether it's a frisson by the filing cabinet, a gaze over bar graphs or hot flushes at the water-cooler, romance blossoms in the workplace for nearly two thirds of British employees, according to a survey.
Yet office love reduces productivity, with half of coupled-up colleagues admitting their work suffers as a result, according to the "Work-Love Balance" survey Monday.
Rather than focusing on the photocopying, three in ten people said they had "enjoyed physical intimacy" in their workplace, citing the lift and stairwell as the most expedient locations.
Despite the naughty nurse stereotype, health care and medical workers are the least likely to indulge in work romances, while the leisure and tourism industry is a libidinous hotbed which ensnares eight out of ten employees, the survey found.
Employment law and human resources consultants Human and Legal Resources, who carried out the survey among 1072 workers last month, said long working fostered romance.
"We spend the majority of our time at work; we work in close-knit teams with like-minded people. No wonder, then, that the camaraderie and teamwork that employers actively encourage among their employees so often blossoms into something deeper."
LONDON (Reuters) - Whether it's a frisson by the filing cabinet, a gaze over bar graphs or hot flushes at the water-cooler, romance blossoms in the workplace for nearly two thirds of British employees, according to a survey.
Yet office love reduces productivity, with half of coupled-up colleagues admitting their work suffers as a result, according to the "Work-Love Balance" survey Monday.
Rather than focusing on the photocopying, three in ten people said they had "enjoyed physical intimacy" in their workplace, citing the lift and stairwell as the most expedient locations.
Despite the naughty nurse stereotype, health care and medical workers are the least likely to indulge in work romances, while the leisure and tourism industry is a libidinous hotbed which ensnares eight out of ten employees, the survey found.
Employment law and human resources consultants Human and Legal Resources, who carried out the survey among 1072 workers last month, said long working fostered romance.
"We spend the majority of our time at work; we work in close-knit teams with like-minded people. No wonder, then, that the camaraderie and teamwork that employers actively encourage among their employees so often blossoms into something deeper."
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AussieMark
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- Location: near Sydney, Australia
Controversy Over Prisoner Handcuffed During Labor
PARIS (Reuters) - French Justice Minister Dominique Perben on Tuesday criticized prison guards who handcuffed a prisoner to her hospital bed while she gave birth on New Year's Day.
"It should not happen again," Perben told RMC radio. "Things should be handled differently, it's absurd.
"I was present for the birth of my own children, so I can understand the astonishment of those reading about this story," father-of-three Perben said.
The Paris-based International Prison Observatory (OIP) said the prisoner had been handcuffed -- despite vociferous protests from medical staff -- after she had refused to allow a member of the prison escort to attend the birth.
The OIP, an independent prisoners' rights pressure group, said prison rules in force for more than 40 years stated a prisoner should only be handcuffed during medical treatment if considered to pose a security risk.
"We don't want Mr Perben to ask for details, we want him to give instructions," said the OIP's Francois Bes. Socialist deputy Julien Dray has raised the matter with a state watchdog that monitors the behavior of law enforcement agencies, he said.
PARIS (Reuters) - French Justice Minister Dominique Perben on Tuesday criticized prison guards who handcuffed a prisoner to her hospital bed while she gave birth on New Year's Day.
"It should not happen again," Perben told RMC radio. "Things should be handled differently, it's absurd.
"I was present for the birth of my own children, so I can understand the astonishment of those reading about this story," father-of-three Perben said.
The Paris-based International Prison Observatory (OIP) said the prisoner had been handcuffed -- despite vociferous protests from medical staff -- after she had refused to allow a member of the prison escort to attend the birth.
The OIP, an independent prisoners' rights pressure group, said prison rules in force for more than 40 years stated a prisoner should only be handcuffed during medical treatment if considered to pose a security risk.
"We don't want Mr Perben to ask for details, we want him to give instructions," said the OIP's Francois Bes. Socialist deputy Julien Dray has raised the matter with a state watchdog that monitors the behavior of law enforcement agencies, he said.
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AussieMark
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Cross-Border Church Visit Costs Man $10,000
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Crossing the U.S.-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a U.S. citizen $10,000 for breaching Washington's tough new security rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, a resident of rural Maine who lives so close to the Canadian border the U.S. customs office is right next door to his house.
Like the other half-dozen residents of Township 15 Range 15, crossing the border is a daily ritual for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and pray.
There are many such situations in rural areas along the largely unguarded 8,900-km (5,530-mile) border between Canada and the United States -- which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.
As a result, Albert says did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the United States after attending mass in Canada, as usual.
The local U.S. customs station is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security.
Two days later, Albert was summoned to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.
Ottawa has granted special passes to some 300 U.S. citizens in that region so they can enter the country when Canadian customs posts are closed, but the United States canceled a similar program last May.
That forces local residents to make a 200-mile detour along treacherous logging roads to get home via the nearest staffed border checkpoint.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection would not comment specifically on Albert's case because of privacy laws.
"Since 9/11, we've enhanced our security and, yes, some of the situations require inconvenience to people, so we have to go along with what the regulations are," said Janet Rapaport, a public affairs officer with the bureau. She added that local residents had been told about the stricter controls.
Albert has appealed the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday mass since.
"I feel like I'm living in a jail," he said.
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Crossing the U.S.-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a U.S. citizen $10,000 for breaching Washington's tough new security rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, a resident of rural Maine who lives so close to the Canadian border the U.S. customs office is right next door to his house.
Like the other half-dozen residents of Township 15 Range 15, crossing the border is a daily ritual for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and pray.
There are many such situations in rural areas along the largely unguarded 8,900-km (5,530-mile) border between Canada and the United States -- which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.
As a result, Albert says did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the United States after attending mass in Canada, as usual.
The local U.S. customs station is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security.
Two days later, Albert was summoned to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.
Ottawa has granted special passes to some 300 U.S. citizens in that region so they can enter the country when Canadian customs posts are closed, but the United States canceled a similar program last May.
That forces local residents to make a 200-mile detour along treacherous logging roads to get home via the nearest staffed border checkpoint.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection would not comment specifically on Albert's case because of privacy laws.
"Since 9/11, we've enhanced our security and, yes, some of the situations require inconvenience to people, so we have to go along with what the regulations are," said Janet Rapaport, a public affairs officer with the bureau. She added that local residents had been told about the stricter controls.
Albert has appealed the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday mass since.
"I feel like I'm living in a jail," he said.
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