■UNITED STATES
Blaine breaks world record
Magician David Blaine set a new world record on Wednesday for breath-holding: 17 minutes and 4 seconds. The feat was broadcast live during The Oprah Winfrey Show and the studio audience in Chicago cheered as divers pulled Blaine from a water-filled sphere. He looked relaxed afterward and said the record was “a lifelong dream.” The previous record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set on Feb. 10 by Switzerland’s Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records. Before he entered the sphere, Blaine inhaled pure oxygen through a mask to saturate his blood with oxygen and flush out carbon dioxide. Next, Blaine said he plans to try to break the world record for staying awake. The current record is 11.5 days, he said. However, Guinness said it no longer acknowledges such attempts because of health concerns.
■CHILE
Seniors get free Viagra
A working class suburb of Santiago began handing out free Viagra to senior citizens on Wednesday. Lo Prado Mayor Gonzalo Navarrete said he launched the program because “an active sexuality improves the overall quality of life.” About 1,500 residents of the working-class area are eligible to receive as many as four pills of the erectile dysfunction drug each month, the mayor said. They have to be at least 60 and be registered with the municipality’s health service. “A doctor will have to certify that they suffer from erectile dysfunction and that their condition would not put them in danger of suffering cardio-respiratory side effects,” Navarrete said. He said he has assured about US$10,000 in financing for the program through the end of the year.
■UNITED STATES
Jurassic dung auctioned off
A pile of dinosaur dung 130 million years old sold at a New York auction for nearly US$1,000. The prehistoric deposit fetched US$960 at Wednesday’s auction, a spokeswoman for Bonhams New York said. The fossilized dung is from the Jurassic era, the auction house said. It looks like a rock on the outside and a colorful mineral inside. The buyer was Steve Tsengas of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. The 71-year-old owns OurPets, a company that sells products to treat dog and cat waste. Tsengas bought the dung in hopes of motivating his employees and using it as a marketing tool by displaying it at the company’s booth at trade shows, he said. “Poop,” he said, “is a big business in the pet industry.”
■ECUADOR
Right to sexual bliss mulled
A new inalienable right could be enshrined soon in Ecuador’s Constitution: the pursuit of sexual happiness for women. The proposal by a member of the ruling party has created a stir in this socially conservative Andean nation, where a constitutional assembly is at work. Assembly member Maria Soledad Vela, who belongs to President Rafael Correa’s party and sits on a committee defining fundamental constitutional rights, said women have traditionally been seen as sexual objects or in a solely reproductive role in Ecuador. On Monday, Vela said the right to sexual enjoyment means ensuring women can make free, responsible and informed decisions about their sex lives. Opposition Assembly member Leonardo Viteri accused Vela of trying to decree orgasm by law, saying it “isn’t possible.” “I never asked for the right to orgasm, only the right to enjoyment,” Vela responded.
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