TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Mobile phone users warned of lightning strike risk

LONDON (Reuters) - People should not use mobile phones outdoors during thunderstorms because of the risk of being struck by lightning, doctors said Friday.

They reported the case of a 15-year-old girl who was using her phone in a park when she was hit during a storm. Although she was revived, she suffered persistent health problems and was using a wheelchair a year after the accident.

"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lighting strike injuries," said Swinda Esprit, a doctor at Northwick Park Hospital in England.

Esprit and other doctors at the hospital added in a letter to the British Medical Journal that usually when someone is struck by lightning, the high resistance of the skin conducts the flash over the body in what is known as a flashover.

But if a metal object, such as a phone, is in contact with the skin it disrupts the flashover and increases the odds of internal injuries and death.

The doctors added that three fatal cases of lightning striking people while using mobile phones have been reported in newspapers in China, South Korea and Malaysia.

"The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm," Esprit added.

[TexasStooge]

Beijing curbs disco to cramp "crazy" drug takers

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing has banned disco and other dance music in private rooms of nightclubs and karaoke bars to curb the flood of illegal drugs into the capital's entertainment venues, Chinese newspapers reported Friday.

"Because many drug takers regularly dance and go crazy to upbeat 'disco' music in private rooms, police have specially requested karaoke machines not have this music," the Beijing Times newspaper said.

Club owners were now expected to delete disco and "other forms of vulgar entertainment" from karaoke machines in private rooms, the Beijing News said, as part of a "responsibility agreement" written up by police.

The agreement, signed by more than 1,100 club owners, is the latest in a general crackdown on crime in nightlife venues launched this month, prompted by a sharp rise in drug trafficking and violence involving customers and staff.

The Beijing News said Thursday police were planning random urine tests for employees at Beijing's clubs, citing employees' "addiction" as a major source of drug trafficking.

[TexasStooge]

Possibly intoxicated pelican causes wreck

LAGUNA BEACH, California (AP) - The driver was sober. The bird he hit may have been under the influence.

A California brown pelican flew through the windshield of a car on the Pacific Coast Highway on Thursday, and wildlife officials said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, told the Times.

Birds can be poisoned through eating algae tainted by the acid.

The driver was not hurt. The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch.

"She's hanging in there," Birkle told the paper.

The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and in streets, the newspaper reported.

Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."

Those birds flew into buildings and pecked several humans.

Pelicans have excellent eyesight and they are unlikely to have flown into a car without some kind of intoxication, Birkle said.

[TexasStooge]

Mascot demoted for acting the goat on parade

NICOSIA (Reuters) - The six-year-old mascot for a British army battalion has been demoted in disgrace for acting the goat during a parade in full view of dignitaries.

Billy Goat has been a mascot of the First Battalion, the Royal Welsh regiment, since he was six months old and had the official rank of lance-corporal before his frisky antics during a parade marking Queen Elizabeth's official birthday earlier this month.

The army said he had been demoted to fusilier (private) as a result of his behavior.

"The goat major had a hard time keeping him in line, he was bouncing around all over the place," military spokesman Captain Crispian Coates told Reuters Saturday.

Doubly embarrassing was Billy's refusal to obey commands in front of diplomats and army top brass, Coates said.

"This is his first overseas tour. He has certainly not made a good start for himself."

[TexasStooge]

Quitting politics Timor-style -- via SMS

DILI (Reuters) - When East Timor's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta resigned his government posts, he did so via a mobile phone text message.

Ramos-Horta told a news briefing that he had sent an SMS to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri announcing his intention to quit on Sunday, and received a reply in the same format from the premier.

"I explained myself in a subsequent text message," he said.

The country has been embroiled for months in a political crisis and text messaging has emerged as the fastest and most reliable means of communication.

Thousands of protesters clamouring for Alkatiri's resignation have been mobilising themselves via SMS, and news of him stepping down on Monday spread rapidly through text messages.

[TexasStooge]

Indian "superhero" tells fans not to imitate stunts

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bollywood's new flying superhero has asked fans, especially children, not to imitate his onscreen death-defying stunts after a man leapt off a cinema balcony in central India, breaking his leg.

"The action scenes are meant to be enjoyed, not imitated. Please do not indulge in these stunts," Hrithik Roshan, who plays "Krrish", a Superman-style hero who saves the world from a mad scientist, wrote in a newspaper on Monday.

Newspapers said at least two people had hurt themselves trying to imitate the stunts from the film that opened last week.

A 24-year-old man was in a hospital with a fractured leg in the central city of Bhopal after he leapt from a cinema balcony and landed on the audience below.

An 11-year-old boy also suffered injuries in a separate accident, newspapers said, but no details were given.

"Those action scenes are dangerous... I did the action scenes with full safety precaution," Roshan said.

"...stop scaring me by trying to do my stunts in Krrish."

The $10 million "Krrish" opened to huge box-office collections, as children and adults made a beeline to watch Bollywood's own superhero leap from tall buildings, beat up the baddies and woo his lady love with song and dance.

[TexasStooge]

Calif. pelicans held on suspicion of being drunk

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - Four pelicans suspected of being drunk on sea algae were being tested at a Southern California wildlife centre on Saturday after one of them crashed headlong into a car.

Three of the California brown pelicans were found wandering dazed in the streets of Laguna Beach after another pelican struck a vehicle's windscreen on a nearby coast road.

It suffered internal injuries and a long gash in its pouch and was undergoing toxicology tests.

Officials at the Wildlife Care Centre said the seabirds may have been under the influence of algae in the ocean that can produce domoic acid poisoning when eaten.

The other pelicans were rounded up after assistant wildlife director Lisa Birkle warned the public to be on the lookout for birds acting "drunk," disoriented or being in an unusual place.

Shellfish tainted with domoic acid was thought to be the culprit behind a 1961 attack of seabirds on people and cars in the oceanside California town of Capitola that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie "The Birds."

[TexasStooge]

Teen burns down house over test grades

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) - A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.

The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his 7-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.

The boy's parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teen-ager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.

[TexasStooge]

Man fatally shot with bow and arrow

NASH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Authorities have arrested a Texarkana-area man in connection with the weekend death of a neighbor, who police said was shot with a bow and arrow.

Nash police investigator Tommy Davlin said Jerry Don Parker, who was in his 50s, was hit in the right side of the chest with an arrow Saturday afternoon. Bowie County authorities arrested James Shope, 49, a short time later. The bow was not immediately recovered.

Shope was being held Sunday night in the Bi-State Justice Building Jail on a murder charge, authorities said.

Davlin said in a story in Sunday’s online edition of the Texarkana Gazette that Shope’s wife told authorities the men, who lived next door to each other, had been arguing all day.

Nash is a suburb of Texarkana.

[TexasStooge]

Boy George scolded for ducking NY community service

By Jeanne King

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer Boy George was threatened with jail by a New York judge on Monday for failing to complete a community service requirement because he wanted to do something less humiliating than raking leaves.

Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara gave George until August 28 to complete the five days of community service, which was imposed in March when he admitted to falsely reporting a burglary, escaping more serious charges of drug possession.

Defence lawyer Louis Freeman had argued in court earlier this month that the singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was hoping to avoid the humiliation of dragging a rake around a city park and wanted to work with an AIDS charity.

Freeman said if the singer was forced to sweep streets or a park, "It would turn into a media circus."

Ferrara appeared angry and insisted that George, who did not speak during the court appearance, would be treated the same as any other offender.

"This is a simple matter," Ferrara told the 45-year-old singer. "Five days of community service. It's up to you as to whether it will be an exercise in humiliation or an exercise in humility. Your choice.

"If you do community service you go out that door," he said pointing to the exit. "But I'm going to make you a promise. If you don't do this community service, you go through the back door," he said, threatening the singer with jail.

The charges against Boy George, who made his name as the cross-dressing front man for the 1980s chart-topping British pop band Culture Club, resulted from an October 7 incident when police responded to his call reporting a burglary and found 13 bags of cocaine in his apartment.

If convicted on the drug charges, the singer could have been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Instead, was ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation program and was fined $1,000 (550 pounds), which he has paid.

George rose from supermarket shelf stocker to international pop star in 1982 with the song "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?," which topped the charts in 18 countries. Culture Club went on to sell almost 20 million albums.

In 1995, George recounted his drug-induced fall from grace and how he had finally kicked his heroin habit in the autobiography "Take It Like a Man." Later, he made a new career as a disc jockey and record producer.

[TexasStooge]

After Pitt/Jolie, Namibia plans biggest barbecue

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibia is moving on from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and now plans to make headlines by staging the world's largest barbecue.

The southwest African country was caught up in a media furore when the Hollywood stars chose to have their first baby there last month.

It is hoping the 9 tonnes of sausages with which it plans to feed some 45,000 people in September at a Windhoek football stadium will keep up the interest.

"The Namibian record will be set with 9 tonnes of boerewors (sausages) which, if stretched, will be 7.5 kilometres (4.6 miles) long," said Uschi Ramakhutla, a spokeswoman for the Meat Company of Namibia, which is organising the event.

Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba is expected to be the 44,159th person in the food line -- pushing Namibia ahead of the current Guinness Book of World Records title holder for world's biggest barbecue, Australia, which hosted 44,158 people at a one-day cook-out in 1993.

There was no immediate word on whether Jolie and Pitt would score an invite to the Namibian celebration, despite their honoured status in the country.

The pair last month welcomed the birth of their baby daughter Shiloh at a remote seaside resort -- a choice Namibian officials said could help to put the country on the tourist map.

[TexasStooge]

Chewing tobacco in noodles sickens 30

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Thirty Cambodians suffered food poisoning after eating homemade noodles contaminated with chewing tobacco that had dropped into the batter from the cook's mouth, police said Monday.

The victims, mostly children, began vomiting after eating noodle soup for breakfast Friday in a village in Banteay Meanchey province, about 190 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh, said Deputy District Police Chief Yort Ray.

An investigation turned up traces of chewing tobacco in the noodles — and led police to 39-year-old wholesale noodle vendor Sieng Seng, who had supplied the shops where people got sick.

Sieng Sang, an avid tobacco chewer like many poor Cambodian women, said she had not realized a wad had dropped into the flour as she was talking.

Police gave her a lesson in hygiene and told her to be more careful when opening her mouth while cooking, Yort Ray said.
_____________________________________________________________

You can get the same sickening effects with Hamwinkies!


Image courtesy of E!'s "The Soup"

[TexasStooge]

N.D. woman catches piranha in reservoir

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) - State wildlife officials have a fish story with some teeth to it. Game warden supervisor Dick Knapp and district game warden Jason Scott responded to a call over the weekend of a woman catching what she thought was a piranha at the Casselton Reservoir.

The small fish with big, sharp teeth is native to the Amazon River in South America.

Knapp said the catch was confirmed by biologists. The state Game and Fish Department believes the four-inch-long red-bellied piranha probably came from someone's aquarium.

"It had to have been somebody's pet," said Greg Power, the state fisheries chief.

Introducing a foreign species to North Dakota waterways is illegal, but officials said they have no idea who put the piranha in the reservoir, which Power said is a small fishery on an unnamed creek that has been dammed. Knapp said the warm-water fish would not have survived the winter, anyway.

Power said the piranha likely was too small to have done any damage to other fish in the reservoir, which has trout, panfish and other species.

He said he has heard of piranha being caught in other states, but that this might be a first for North Dakota.

"We have had goldfish that were put in (lakes) ... but never a piranha," Power said.

[TexasStooge]

Aggressive peacocks ruffle Texas feathers

ARLINGTON, Texas (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/AP) - With attacks reported on people and cars, residents of an Arlington neighborhood say a flock of peacocks has become uncharacteristically aggressive as four males seek the attention of one hen.

Dorothy Nelson, a longtime resident, said the behavior is a classic symptom of having "too many men."

The city's Community Service Department called a neighborhood meeting last week to discuss what to do about the flock.

"What happens sometimes is the peacock male will see its reflection in the car's paint and think it's another male peacock, then move to protect his territory," said Mike Bass, the department's assistant director.

Residents of the Fannin Farm neighborhood, which is bisected by a 106-acre greenbelt, said the peacocks have been there for at least seven years.

One woman said her daughter was scratched on the stomach by one of the peacocks. Other neighbors complained about the birds' feeding on gardens.

"There are neighbors who will not visit my home any more because of the peacocks," resident Elfreda Makil said. "Not everyone's going to love them."

Sandy Vaughn, a flock defender, has placed mirrors in her yard to attract the attention of the alpha male, which some neighbors call "Big Daddy."

"He pecks at the mirrors, but he's not broken one yet," Vaughn said.

Neighborhood residents decided at the Thursday meeting to place more mirrors in the neighborhood to try to hold the peacocks' attention and keep them away from people and vehicles.

They also agreed to reassess the situation after mating season, with thinning the flock remaining an option.

Several residents opposed the idea of trapping and relocating the flock's alpha male. Resident Charlotte Shaw said people have come to associate the neighborhood with peacocks.

"It isn't just us that enjoys these birds, it's all of Arlington that enjoys these birds," Shaw said. "These birds belong to everyone."

[TexasStooge]

'Penny jar' stops bullet fired at NYC home

NEW YORK (AP) - A tenant leader who has campaigned against drug dealers in her neighborhood says a "penny jar" prevented a bullet that hit her apartment from doing more damage.

Brenda Scott, 56, president of the Ebbets Field Houses Tenants Organization in Brooklyn, said she was in her bedroom Saturday night when she heard a loud noise "that sounded like thick glass crackling."

She found a bullet hole in her front door. "The heavy-duty penny jar in my front hallway stopped the bullet from going all the way through" the apartment, said Scott, a retired second-grade teacher.

Scott said she is sure the bullet wasn't a stray.

"Out of 1,319 apartments in the complex, it hit my door," she said. "The message is, 'Watch out.'"

"Sure, I'm scared," said Scott. "I don't want to die, but it's not going to stop me."
___

Information from: Daily News

[TexasStooge]

Fla. man wrongly fined for feeding squirrels

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) - Retired Kennedy Space Center mechanic Jack Garrison doesn't own a dog. He doesn't own a squirrel, either, though he admits he likes to feed the squirrels in his backyard.

Recently the Florida man was issued notices of fines totaling nearly $1,400. The infractions, which Garrison calls just plain nuts, included a barking dog violation along with four squirrel-related charges -- from squirrel disturbing the peace to squirrel at large.

The city of Melbourne has admitted its mistake. It says someone called to complain that Garrison was feeding the squirrels in his backyard, and an automated computer program spit out the charges. Authorities have issued Garrison an apology.

[TexasStooge]

How is dingo urine gathered? Carefully, study says

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Australian researchers say they have discovered a new repellent that can help with everything from rehabilitating old mine sites to reducing the amount of roadkill. It's dingo urine.

Researchers at Curtin University have been startled by the effectiveness of urine from Australia's wild dogs in scaring off kangaroos which chew through areas of new-growth vegetation.

The university's Michael Parsons said the discovery could have important applications in helping to re-establish plant life on old mine sites by repelling kangaroos, unique Australian marsupials which number in the tens of millions.

Researchers looked at the effectiveness of chemicals found in the urine of dingoes and non-native predators like coyotes.

"When we presented tame kangaroos with coyote urine, they became interested in the new smell, but when presented with the dingo urine they were startled and fled," Parsons said.

He told Reuters on Tuesday that the effect of urine on wild kangaroos was even more dramatic.

Parsons's team is looking at ways of delivering the repellent effectively at mine sites and how much would be needed, as well as whether it could be used to reduce the number of collisions between kangaroos and vehicles on outback roads.

He said the university was also trying to isolate and synthesise the active chemicals in dingo urine so that it could be made in quantities large enough to be commercially viable.

For now, the university is receiving supplies of the real thing from Australia's Dingo Conservation Society, but he said how it is gathered is a tightly held secret.

"At one stage we fashioned a little urine catcher to walk dingoes and collect it from, but that tended to be risky," Parsons said.

[TexasStooge]

Twinkie Burritos? Twinkie Lasagna?

CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - Twinkies -- they're not just for dessert anymore. The new "Twinkies Cookbook" has recipes for everything from a Twinkie Burrito to Twinkie Lasagna.

Theresa Cogswell compiled about 50 recipes for the book.

Many were submitted to Hostess, as part of Twinkies' 75th anniversary celebration last year.

Cogswell tells Illinois' Daily Southtown newspaper that one of her favorites is a berry-laden Patriotic Twinkie Pie.

It's red, white and blue.

Cogswell says it makes a great centerpiece for a Fourth of July picnic, which you can also eat for dessert.
_____________________________________________________________

Also in the "Twinkies Cookbooks", Hamwinkies!


Image courtesy of E!'s "The Soup"

[TexasStooge]

Photographer snaps America's past in today's scenes

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - Photographer Greta Pratt knew she hit the jackpot when the nine Abraham Lincolns sat down on the wood fence outside the 16th president's old Kentucky home.

Nine unsmiling, bearded Lincoln impersonators, with black stovepipe hats, starched white shirts, black ties and long, black flock coats arguing over which one was the most authentic -- you can't ask for anything more in Pratt's world.

Unless, of course, it's the cleaning lady pushing her vacuum cleaner past the concrete tee-pees at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, or tourists downing fries and Cokes at the picnic tables nestled among rockets at the Kennedy Space Center.

Or it might be boys in baseball caps begging Gen. George C. Custer for his autograph, perhaps before he rides off to his doom in a re-enactment of the battle at Little Big Horn.

Pratt's photographic universe is actually an intersection -- the place where the American past slams into the American present. And it is on full display in her new book of photos called "Using History" (Streidl).

In the book, three generations of prosperous white males celebrate Thanksgiving dinner at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center wearing Brooks Brothers suits, shirts and ties, all capped by little Indian headdresses. The dinner cost $120 a person, headdresses included.

A few pages later a green-tinted Lady Liberty eats popcorn in the bleachers at Madison Square Garden. She is Jennifer Stewart, who once won a Statue of Liberty look-alike contest and started dressing as the statue and even went to Japan with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Pratt often uses clever juxtapositions of photos to tell her tale of how Americans incorporate their country's past to explain their attitudes to the present.

RACIAL OVERTONES

For example, in one photo a black woman lectures an all-black audience on history in front of a statue of a hooded Ku Klux Klansman at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. And in the photo directly opposite, young white boys in 19th century garb march in an "Arrival of the Whites" parade in Deadwood, South Dakota.

In another photo with a racial overtones, she catches the nervousness of a young black waiter as he arrives for work at a "Bonny Blue" ball in Richmond, Virginia, where an all-white guest list is dressed up as Confederate soldiers or Southern belles. The man has to drive his car past a none-too-friendly-looking Confederate soldier in a search of a 20th Century convenience called a parking space.

Pratt opens her book with a photo of a white-haired couple viewing a re-enactment of the gun fight at the OK Corral in Deadwood. Facing that photo is a picture of a car with a "Wanted Dead or Alive" poster of Osama bin Laden pasted on the window.

For her, that was a way of showing how the mystique of the Old West permeates every fiber of the American present, she said.

"The Osama poster made it all come home for me. I didn't want a funny picture but I wanted to examine who Americans are and how the writing of history defines the characteristics of out group identity," Pratt said in a recent interview.

ROAM COUNTRY FOR DECADE

"President Bush uses the mythology of the cowboy perfectly and a 'Wanted Dead or Alive' poster works perfectly as well to bring Americans together," she added.

Pratt, a former photographer for Reuters and a 1987 Pulitzer Prize nominee at United Press International who has also published in the New York Times magazine, spent about a decade roaming the country in search of how Americans put their past to use and misuse.

She visited Civil War re-enactments and a restaurant in the shape of a giant "Mammy." She photographed Revolutionary War soldiers crossing a steel bridge, listened to the Lincoln impersonators bicker back and forth and took countless pictures of men and women draped in American flags.

Always she is struck by how the images of the past wind up being put to present-day uses -- sometimes tacky ones like the soda machine at Mount Rushmore having a photo of Mount Rushmore on it.

"When I first started, I could not find anything to do with African-American history. Now there museums and plantations with slave quarters restored," Pratt said.

And, of course, a tourist can now rent a slave quarter for the night. Although it might not be as well air-conditioned as the Wigwam Motel.

[TexasStooge]

Think maybe these women want to buy some stuff?

By Jeffrey Goldfarb

LONDON, England (Reuters) - Record numbers of women are watching the World Cup soccer tournament, but advertisers have overlooked the trend and almost exclusively pitched male-skewed brands using familiar methods.

"It's a new phenomenon, which has been undervalued and underestimated," said Maurice Levy, chief executive of Publicis Groupe, the world's fourth-largest advertising and marketing services conglomerate.

"We've certainly missed an opportunity."

Television viewership data from around the world provided to Reuters shows that 39 percent of the tournament's audience so far has been female. That is the same percentage as for the entire 2002 World Cup, and by the time a champion is crowned in July, the figures are expected to be higher.

"We haven't even played the matches yet where the female share of viewing is likely to be the highest," said Kevin Alavy, the analyst for media-buying firm Initiative who compiled the TV data, explaining that more women tend to watch the later matches that determine the eventual winner.

"By the end of the tournament, the female share will be well in excess of 39 percent," he said.

Nevertheless, the bulk of World Cup advertising has centered on traditionally male consumer goods like beer, cars and electronics, and featured bawdy humor, men playing soccer, and bikini-clad women.

More than $1 billion will be spent on advertising during the tournament, analysts have estimated.

Even those ads that have targeted women during the World Cup have appealed to them as sufferers rather than fans.

Low-cost airline easyJet promoted female-only getaways during the tournament, while the Swiss tourism board tried the lure of strapping young men with more than soccer on their minds.

"Dear girls, why not escape during this summer's World Cup to a country where men spend less time on football and more time on you?" the commercial beckoned.

"Have we really thought through how to connect to an audience of women who clearly have a big passion for something?" wondered Richard Pinder, ad agency Leo Burnett's president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

"It certainly appears there was a chance to break through and recognize who the real audience is," he added. "I think it's really something we have to look at for the next World Cup."

Some advertising executives said it wasn't cost effective to reach women during the tournament, with skyrocketing sponsorship deals and escalating TV ad rates. Others noted that women tended to be more casual watchers than men, making it harder to get their attention during a broadcast.

German sporting goods maker Adidas, one of the World Cup sponsors, said that although it produced female apparel for the men's tournament, it was saving its main female-targeted advertising for the women's tournament.

"It's the male World Cup, not the female one, therefore messaging is obviously more male-driven," said Uli Becker, the company's head of global brand marketing. "At next year's women's World Cup in China, we'll have our answers to women's football.

"Have we missed anything by not targeting more toward mom sitting in the room, or the daughter? No. It's a family activity, and we are actually talking family. I don't think we've missed anything," Becker added.

Female audiences have grown across the globe, in big markets and small, including the United States, Brazil, England and Korea, which had a female majority of 51 percent watching the country's match against Togo.

Croatia has seen the biggest gains in female fans since 2002, jumping to a 42 percent share from 20 percent, according to the data from Initiative, which is owned by Interpublic Group , the world's third-largest advertising conglomerate.

Of the 14.4 million Britons watching England's match against Sweden, 47 percent were women, the highest for any of its matches in the last three World Cups.

"As England progress into the knockout stages of the 2006 World Cup and overall levels of interest continue to rise," Initiative said, "the female viewing share is likely to keep on rising."