Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■ AUSTRALIA
`Sexecutives' wanted
Condom makers say it's the world's best job -- a "sexecutive position." A company is seeking testers for its condom products. "Got what it takes to be an official condom tester?" asks an advertisement launched by Durex Australia next to a photo of a busty young woman. "With this job on your CV, it really will be a chance to brag to your mates," Durex Marketing Manager Sam White said. The position is unpaid, but testers would get free Durex products. In return, testers have to report back on the feel and performance of the products. "To apply, simply explain why you think rou're right for the position (missionary is acceptable)."

■ CHINA
Four-story restroom opens
They're flushing with pride in a southwestern city where a recently opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 3,000m2. Officials in Chongqing are preparing to submit an application to Guinness World Records to have the four-story, free-of-charge public restroom listed as the world's largest, state-run China Central Television reported on Friday. "We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist area where the bathroom is located. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."

■ JAPAN
Hello Kitty doghouse for sale
The country's cutest cat will be cushioning one lucky dog when the canine's owner buys a ?3.9 million (US$31,660) doghouse set to go on sale later this month. The one-of-a-kind fancy residence, large enough for a lapdog like a Chihuahua or terrier, is decorated with 7,600 crystal beads and has a pillow in the shape of Hello Kitty's face, Sanrio Co, the company behind the feline character, said in a statement on Friday. Products created in previous years for the weeklong sales event aimed at adult Kitty fans include a Kitty-themed "i" minicar from Mitsubishi Motors Co and a Hello Kitty Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, which sold last year for 2.52 million yen (US$20,460), he said.

■ JAPAN
Heavy rains continue
Heavy rain continued to take its toll in the south yesterday, with a man drowning in a flooded rice paddy, and four people injured in flood-related accidents. Thousands had to evacuate their homes. By midday yesterday, a powerful weather front had dumped over 500mm of rain in the south since Wednesday. In Ehime prefecture (state), a 73-year-old man fell into a flooded rice paddy and was swept into a swollen river where his body was later found, prefectural police spokesman Masaru Hosoda said. In the hardest-hit area, Kumamoto prefecture, three men suffered minor injuries after their cars hit a large pothole caused by a mudslide.

■ MALAYSIA
Singer's back brings arrest
Religious police detained a Muslim singer at a popular club, saying too much of her back was exposed by a sleeveless blouse she wore while performing. Siti Noor Idayu Abd Moin, 24, has been ordered to go before the sharia, or Islamic court, at Ipoh in the northern state of Perak, on Aug 6, to face charges of "revealing her body" and "promoting vice," the New Straits Times said. "I was surprised when the officers told me this top was too revealing," Noor Idayu said after being released from a night's detention on a bond of 1,000 ringgit (US$290).

■ BELGIUM
Dinner guest finds bodies
A Belgian man appeared in court on Friday after a woman at his dinner party found the bodies of his wife and stepson in the freezer as she put away the leftovers, prosecutors said. The woman went to the police after discovering the 46-year-old woman and her son, 11. Officers arrested the man in the town of Verviers, near Liege in east Belgium, on Wednesday. Prosecutors want the suspect, aged 43, to be remanded in custody to allow more time for an investigation into the deaths. A representative from the local public prosecutors' office said the suspect had not made a confession, but added that the couple argued a lot.

■ RUSSIA
Wrestling fans beat officials
Russia's national wrestling championship disintegrated into rioting when dozens of angry fans spilled onto the mats and beat up match officials in protest at the result of a bout. The violence broke out over Thursday's gold medal match in the 84kg weight class between freestyle world champion Sazhid Sazhidov and European champion Georgy Ketoyev. Fans were furious about a decision to award victory to North Ossetia's Ketoyev over Sazhidov from Dagestan. The organizers had to call in riot police reinforcements who finally restored order at the 5,000-seat Luzhniki Olympic arena.

■ IRELAND
Arrest costs bookmakers
Ireland's top bookmaker, Paddy Power PLC, paid out more than 10,000 euros (US$13,500) on Friday to people who bet that Al Gore would be arrested. The trouble was, the company neglected to specify which one. The former US vice president and global-warming activist was rated as a 14-1 outsider in a list of US celebrities likely to be arrested next. On Wednesday -- the day after the betting went live on Paddy Power's Web site -- Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was arrested and charged with illegally possessing marijuana and prescription drugs. Paddy Power said it was paying out winnings to about 50 people, because it had failed to identify which Gore it meant. "We got a good stoning," the Dublin-based company said in a statement.

■ SPAIN
Government limits AC
The Spanish government led by example on Friday on energy waste, ordering pubic buildings to stick to a minimum setting of 24?C for air conditioners. Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said she felt obliged to set the right example as air-conditioning units munch large amounts of electricity. "A temperature of 24?C is sufficient to maintain people's well-being and that will be the limit," she said. The minister also announced that an energy efficiency study was under way in an effort to cut around 30 percent of electricity use in public buildings.

■ GEORGIA
Officials blacklist firms
The ex-Soviet republic of Georgia plans to ask foreign banks to freeze the accounts of Russian firms operating in its breakaway region of Abkhazia, officials said on Friday. "We have a so-called blacklist of Russian firms which have bought, or through intermediaries have bought, real-estate properties belonging to Georgians in Abkhazia," Georgia's minister for refugees, Georgy Kheviashvili said on Friday. The Abkhazian administration survives largely thanks to financial support from Russia.

■ PANAMA
Cusa wins canal bid
The first bid in a US$5.2 billion project to widen the Panama Canal was issued on Friday to a Panamanian company, officials said. Minister of Canal Matters Dani Kuzniecky said: "Today, with this bid begins the project to widen the canal." Cusa won a US$41 million bid to dig 6.7km of new channel in the canal modernization to accommodate larger ships. The Panamanian company, formally known as Constructora Urbana, won out over 13 Asian, European and US consortiums for the right to move sediment and earth on the Pacific side of the canal.

■ UNITED STATES
IMF looks for successor
The IMF executive board will meet tomorrow to consider the selection process for a successor to IMF chief Rodrigo Rato, a spokeswoman said on Friday. "There will be an informal meeting of the executive board on July 9 on the selection process of the managing director," spokeswoman Conny Lotze said. Rato said last week he was stepping down for personal reasons in late October, two years before his mandate is to expire. The surprise announcement on June 28 has spawned speculation about his successor at the 185-country financial institution.

■ UNITED STATES
Boy recants duck story
An 11-year-old who said he stabbed a mother duck and two ducklings, then later recanted his story, will not face charges, a district attorney said. There was insufficient evidence to support any charges, District Attorney Nola Foulston said on Friday. The case of the duck, which had nested near a school with her two ducklings, received national attention in May. A boy told classmates he hated ducks and had stabbed them multiple times. Students and teachers held a ceremony to share their grief and alarmed officials said the boy needed mental treatment. He later claimed he was just joking and denied killing the ducks.

■ UNITED STATES
Girl busted for drunk driving
An 11-year-old girl was charged with drunken driving after leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 160kph that ended when she flipped the car in an Alabama beach town. A video camera in the police car captured the look of surprise on the officer's face when he approached the wrecked car and got a look at the motorist. The Mobile Press-Register newspaper said the patrolman saw the Chevrolet speeding and flashed his lights to signal the driver to stop. Instead, the car sped faster before sideswiping another vehicle and flipping over in the Gulf Coast town of Orange Beach, Alabama, on Tuesday night.

■ UNITED STATES
Student gets calls for Hilton
Since she was issued Paris Hilton's old cellphone number, university student Shira Barlow has been constantly getting calls with birthday wishes, party inquiries and requests to get on guest lists at top Los Angeles nightclubs. At first Barlow, a junior communications major, thought the random references to "Paris" were some kind of nickname. Barlow replaced her phone after it fell into a toilet. When she got the new phone, her wireless company insisted she be assigned a new number with a 310 area code rather than her 415 prefix. Barlow was given a recycled phone number that previously belonged to Hilton. The practice stems from efforts by regulators earlier in the decade to conserve phone numbers to minimize the splitting of area codes.

This story has been viewed 1190 times.