SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – It isn’t surprising that shoes are an obsession with the beauties who grace Brazil’s Carnival parades — they’re generally the biggest things they wear below the neck.

Dancers at Carnival, the pre-Lenten bash that starts this weekend and ends on Ash Wednesday, say the higher the better for their towering heels, worn with soaring feathered head-dresses and little else but glittery patches, strategically placed.

Social customs are thrown out and roles inverted during the festivities, when ordinary people dress up as royalty or in drag to celebrate before Lent, the period of repentance that lasts until Easter.

Dancers say the platform sandals, preferably with shiny straps and buckles that snake to the knee, help prevent them from tipping over and injuring their ankles while dancing the lightning-quick gyrations of the samba.

“Platforms are safer,” said Iris Sol, 28, a dancer for the drum section of the Barroca Zona Sul samba club in Sao Paulo.

“I’ve paraded with samba troupes since I was six, but the truth is that I was dancing samba when I was born,” she said.

Sandals with platform heels push body weight onto the ball of the foot, where the samba is danced. Samba platforms go as high as 17 centimetres, or 6.6 inches. Heels are extra-wide.

“Platforms make women more beautiful, elegant and taller, with better posture. They help you stick out your chest and butt a bit,” said Magaly Santos, 22, Sao Paulo’s 2005 Carnival queen.

The culture of derrieres is so big in Brazil that GNT, a popular cable channel, produced a show about them in preparation for Carnival this year. Its title? “The National Passion.”

Some Brazilians are so eager for plump backsides that they go to plastic surgeons for silicone implants.

A display of samba sandals by Fernando Pires, who designs for top dancers, included eye-catching designs like swirls of red, yellow and orange leather resembling flames, and black heels topped with lanyards of fake diamonds and pink beaded jewels.

Carnival dancers put almond oil on their feet to prevent skin from cracking and splitting. But they say blisters are inevitable during hours of late night dancing to thundering drums.

“It hurts. You get blisters and feel pain but you samba a lot because you don’t want to stop,” said Michele Eleuterio, 20, of the samba troupe Unidos do Peruche.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb 24 – A Colombian man has been sentenced to four years’ house arrest for slapping a woman’s bottom as he rode by her on his bicycle, sparking debate on whether the punishment fit the crime.

Showing re-enactments of the incident, television news shows were filled on Friday with legal experts offering opinions about the judgement handed down earlier in the week by Bogota’s district court.

Some said that to confine bicycle messenger Victor Garcia to his home for four years for smacking Diana Marcela Diaz’s buttocks was excessive. Others said it would deter other men.

One program showed three models having their denim clad bottoms smacked so hard by a phantom hand it could be clearly heard by television viewers.

The women said that while the punishment seemed extreme, they hoped the case would mean they would be safer while on foot.

“It happened to me once,” one of the models said. “I was walking very relaxed and a guy rode by on his bicycle and, ‘ta!’ He smacked me. I took off my shoe to hit him with it but he was already too far away.”

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – Serial kissers at Brazil’s racy Carnival parades can now swap saliva with even more revelers thanks to a mouth spray designed to fight germs, just one of many weird products companies have launched to profit from traditionally libidinous revelry.

The spray was launched by a local company for Carnival celebrations this weekend in Salvador, the heart of Brazil’s African culture, and Sao Paulo, its biggest city. French kissing among strangers is rife during Carnival.

Its slogan was “Kiss a lot, kiss pleasurably, kiss safe.”

“Beije,” or “Kiss,” is made with propolis, or bee hive glue. Though propolis has long been used in natural medicine, many health experts disagree about its positive effects.

Still, propolis extracts from tropical Bahia state have special qualities that fight microorganisms and boost the immune system, Brazilian researchers say.

A 35-milliliter bottle of mouthspray will sell for 5 reais ($2.35) and the local Naturapi company hopes to sell more than 100,000 bottles during the bash.

Other companies or groups are selling revealing costumes, flavored condoms, drag costumes and even small patches of glitter to cover genitalia during the celebrations.

The government is distributing 25 million free condoms during Carnival this year to promote safe sex as part of its acclaimed anti-AIDS program, which provides free antiretroviral drugs for all HIV-positive Brazilians.

TOKYO (AFP) – One Japanese burglar truly knows the smell of money.

The thief dubbed the “King of the Night” stole luxury items from women’s apartments by sniffing the fragrances coming from their doors, news reports said Wednesday.

Seiichi Shirota, 46, allegedly stole 3.65 million yen (30,700 dollars) worth of luxury watches and other goods from two women’s residences in Kawasaki city, southwest of Tokyo, a local police official said.

“I targeted women’s houses as they keep brand goods and jewelry. I detected them with the smell of cosmetics and perfume escaping from the entrance doors,” he was quoted as saying by press reports.

Reports said he targeted mainly bar and nightclub hostesses who are more likely to wear perfume than other Japanese women.

Police investigators nicknamed Shirota the “King of the Night” as he often started his theft spree from around 8:00 pm after the women go to work, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said.

Police suspect Shirota was linked to some 200 burglary cases in Kawasaki and neighboring Yokohama city last year in which 60 million yen worth of goods were stolen, the daily said.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Heather Veitch is not your typical evangelical Christian.

The 31-year-old married mother of two visits one strip club a month, paying for lap dances so she can talk to the strippers about God.

The Web site for the ministry she formed with two other women — JC’s Girls Girls Girls — features glamour shots of the three that were taken by a porn film director.

The three attend porn conventions, where they pass out Bibles wrapped in T-shirts that read Holy Hottie.

Veitch’s approach is based on experience: In the 1990s, she worked as a stripper and, she says, acted in a handful of soft porn movies. She plays up her sex appeal because adult industry workers relate to that, she said.

“I understand the culture of these girls. They respect that,” said Veitch, whose work has received national and international media coverage.

In a posting on the ministry’s Web site, Veitch said she was a successful Las Vegas stripper but inwardly feared that her lifestyle was a ticket to hell.

She began attending church, became a Christian, went to beauty school and got married. A year ago, she began reaching out to sex industry workers.

She has an ally in Matt Brown, her pastor at Sandals Church of Riverside. The 1,700-member Southern Baptist congregation is contributing $50,000 to her ministry this year.

“What good would it do to send the ‘church lady’ to an erotica convention?” Brown said. “She’s going to get laughed out of the building.”

Veitch said she doesn’t keep track of how many strippers they successfully reach. Ultimately, she and Brown hope to offer alternatives, such as college scholarships, to women in the sex industry. But Veitch doesn’t think the women should have to quit their jobs before entering a church.

“What we say to that is, ‘Do we ask gluttons to stop eating too much before they come to church?’ ” Veitch said. “Sin is sin.”

Her ministry partners include a part-time first grade teacher and a stay-at-home mother.

LONDON (AFP) – A man attempting to walk the length of Britain wearing nothing but a hat, boots and a rucksack completed his marathon trek and celebrated by putting his clothes back.

“It’s nice to get warmed up again,” the self-styled “Naked Rambler” Stephen Gough, 46, told the domestic Scottish Press Association news agency from a cafe in John O’Groats, on the tip of the northeast Scottish mainland.

Gough and his partner, 34-year-old hairdresser Melanie Roberts, completed the last 20 miles of their 874-mile (1,363-kilometre) walk from Land’s End, southwest England in temperatures of about five degrees celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit).

“It has been pretty cold and the locals have been coming up to us offering us whisky and all sorts,” said Gough. “They’ve been very, very friendly. We passed a school and there were even parents coming out with video cameras.”

Gough, a former Royal Marine soldier who first completed the naked hike in 2003-2004, said he would “never say never” doing a similar stunt again.

On the first occasion his progress was slowed by 14 arrests and two jail terms.

He suffered a similar fate this time round. In September last year, he was jailed for two weeks for breach of the peace by walking in his birthday suit along the A701 highway near the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

A two-month sentence followed for breaching his bail conditions.

Gough and Roberts managed the final leg of their journey without a hitch, although they were picked up twice last week following complaints, including one from an outraged church minister. No charges were brought.

The couple are planning to hitch a ride back to their base on England’s south coast in the next few days.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Dutch prostitutes gave the public a peek behind the curtains of Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District on Saturday, hoping to stave off an attempt by city politicians to stop lingerie-clad women from advertising themselves in neon-lit windows.

Thousands of tourists and Dutch visitors took up the offer by the district’s sex clubs and topless bars to step in for a free drink and a look around to counteract the establishments’ seedy reputation.

Women allowed visitors into the cubicles where they conduct their business to explain hygiene regulations and the alarm system used when a prostitute encounters a difficult customer.

“The Red Light district has received a lot of negative publicity recently,” said organizer Mariska Majoor, an ex-prostitute who runs the district’s Prostitution Information Center. “We want to show the world that it is safe out here.”

The open house came in response to proposals by the head of Amsterdam’s Labor Party, the city’s largest party, to discourage women from marketing themselves in windows.

The intimately lit rooms were sparse, with just a bed, a bedside table and a shower.

A young woman showing a room to a group of five men said customers are immediately offered condoms and asked if they want to shower before their 15-minute session, which normally costs $60.

“You would not expect to find something like this in conservative Cambridge,” British tourist Leigh Shaw-Taylor said after wandering past sex clubs and shops selling sex toys.

In a book released a few months ago, Labor party leader Lodewijk Asscher urged the authorities to crack down on window prostitution, saying it fostered crime and attracted pimps, drug addicts and human traffickers.

A recent study found that despite health rules, about 7 percent of Dutch prostitutes have HIV/ AIDS.

“You must draw a line between tolerance and disinterest,” Asscher wrote on his Web log. “Tolerance means legalizing prostitution, but then you must also be ready to combat the problems associated with it.”

Local authorities already have closed down the red-light district in the eastern town of Arnhem.

The open house idea was supported by the information center, Amsterdam’s Sex Museum, and the Salvation Army, which is active in the area.

Majoor said not all the sex workers were happy about opening their business premises to gawking, photograph-taking tourists.

“I completely understand their anger, she said. She said she hoped the women would see the intention was not to “humiliate, but promote their work.”

Prostitution in Amsterdam boomed during the city’s 17th century Golden Age, when women catered to sailors from merchant ships in what was then the world’s richest port city.

The area in the city center became a major tourist draw in the 20th century. The Dutch government legalized prostitution in 2000 with an eye to making it easier to tax and regulate.

SAUSALITO, California (Reuters) – As several naked couples watched a live demonstration of sexual technique, Xaviera Hollander, the former prostitute and author of “The Happy Hooker,” stayed dressed but freely shared details of her past lovers, men and women alike.

Hollander, 62, was in the San Francisco area to attend the screening of a new documentary about her, to speak at a sex workshop and to reflect on her colorful past that made her a matriarch of the sexual revolution.

“I want to be remembered as a living legend. I don’t want to disappear like Mae West or Greta Garbo,” she said in an interview.

During a three-and-a-half hour seminar led by an outgoing couple, Hollander — who insisted she was not an exhibitionist — let the others do the heavy breathing. As the woman leading the workshop assisted by a male partner moaned with pleasure, another woman in the audience was so moved by the show that she too went into ecstasy.

Hollander watched the event sponsored by the Center for Sex and Culture passively from a few feet away. But as her memoir of more than 30 years ago tells, she has seen it all before.

Born Vera De Fries in Indonesia to Dutch parents, Hollander and her life are the stuff of movies, and four years ago, she approached director Robert Dunlap to document her story.

The filmmaker, who is married to Hollander’s cousin, jumped at the chance. He spent the next few years following her around Europe, interviewing friends and past lovers and searching through thousands of family photos.

WARTIME SUFFERING

The movie “Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker” begins somberly with a little-known fact: For the first three years of Hollander’s life she and her parents lived in a Japanese concentration camp during World War Two in Indonesia.

From there the film continues through her humble beginnings as a secretary, her first foray into prostitution and her rise to fame after the release of “The Happy Hooker.” Throughout, Hollander provides detailed accounts of some of her more memorable sexual encounters.

The film, which has not yet found a distributor, also tackles rough spots, including her family’s backlash when they discovered her profession. Hollander’s mother was outraged; an aunt burned the book.

Her father — with whom she was very close– had died years earlier. She says had he lived, she probably would not have become a prostitute. “I wouldn’t have wanted to disappoint him,” she said.

That is quite a statement for a woman whose fame and fortune is rooted in her sexual exploits. She has written nearly a dozen books on the subject and speaks frequently at seminars and conventions for sex therapists and sex workers. For 30 years she has penned a column in Penthouse magazine title “Call Me Madam.”

“I had so much fun,” she said about her career. “I was pretty much a one-woman show.”

Does she get tired of being referred to as the Happy Hooker? “It will always be the moniker on my back. I don’t mind — as long as they remember me,” she said.

Since its release, “The Happy Hooker” has sold 15 million copies. Asked why the book has endured all these years, Hollander attributes it to honesty.

“It was a true book, not a phony book, based on reality,” she said, dressed in a cream-colored house coat with bright stitching and flip-flop sandals. “It showed that sex can be fun.”

Quick to laugh and pepper her conversation with salty language, her green eyes and pale lips show no signs of botox or plastic surgery. The once svelte body has given way to a heavier-set figure.

For Dunlap, his film is less about Hollander’s sexual past than about a woman who overcame enormous obstacles.

“It’s the story of an ultimate survivor,” he said. “This is a film about a real person. She lived it, she loved it and she will die having done what she really wanted to do.”

At her home base in Amsterdam, Hollander also runs a bed and breakfast. Two heart attacks nearly three years ago forced her to give up her other job producing cabaret theater. She was even celibate for two years, she said.

But health issues aside Hollander is not one to sit around. Her next project is another book, a collection of the best of her Penthouse column.

SALEM, Ore. – It may have been a borderline call, but it was still a third strike. The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a ruling that sent Nicholas Meyrovich to life in prison under a 2001 three-strikes law. Meyrovich got his third strike, a felony sex offense, for delivering an unwanted kiss.

Meyrovich, in his appeal, claimed that a life sentence for the kiss violated the Oregon Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Meyrovich, 60, an exterminator, was inspecting the home of a Salem woman in October 2003 when he suddenly grabbed her and kissed her. The woman pushed Meyrovich away, but he took hold of her again and sucked her on the neck, stopping when a neighbor walked in.

Meyrovich was later convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, which under Oregon law requires the forcible touching of the “sexual or other intimate parts” of another person.

Meyrovich argued that the neck is not an intimate part of the body; the court disagreed.

“In ordinary social intercourse, one adult does not touch the neck of another adult outside of intimate relationships, at least not without some unusual but reasonable justification,” Judge David Schuman wrote for the panel that decided the case.

The court also disagreed that the sentence was cruel and unusual, noting that the three-strikes law was not aimed at the gravity of a particular crime but at habitual offenders. Schuman wrote that Meyrovich had been convicted of nine prior sex offenses before the kiss.

Meyrovich is one of only four inmates serving life sentences under Oregon’s sex offender three-strikes law.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – William Donald Schaefer, a former governor who is now state comptroller, ogled a young woman at a Statehouse meeting. And he made no apologies about it.

“She’s a pretty little girl,” the 84-year-old Democrat told reporters. “The day I don’t look at pretty women is the day I die.”

Schaefer stared intently at the woman — an aide to Gov. Robert Ehrlich — as she walked away after bringing him a beverage Wednesday during a Board of Public Works meeting. Then he summoned her back, as people waiting to testify watched and waited.

The aide, looking puzzled, returned to the table, and Schaefer told her, “Walk again,” and watched her as she made the second trip to the exit.

He then went into the governor’s office and returned to say the woman was embarrassed by the incident.

When reporters asked him about the incident, he called their interest “dumb.” He said “this little girl” ought to be “happy that I observed her going out the door.”

“The one who is offended is me,” he said.

Shareese DeLeaver, a spokeswoman for the Republican governor, declined to identify the aide, saying the woman did not want to talk to reporters.

Schaefer is seeking re-election as comptroller in November and has spent 51 years in public service, including eight years as governor and 16 years as Baltimore’s mayor.

Odd remarks and antics by Schaefer at meetings of the Board of Public Works are commonplace. He once complained about a Spanish-speaking fast-food worker and suggested creating a public registry of people with AIDS.

He also has referred to women as “little girls” — a term celebrated by some women who have worked for him, who say he treated them with respect. After a campaign ad in 2002 suggested he was unfair to women, some former employees held a rally and waved signs that read, “Little Girls for Schaefer.”

WEST FARGO, N.D. – A North Dakota State University student is facing charges after allegedly trying to buy marijuana at the police station.

Saturday’s incident was “about the craziest thing I’ve ever come across,” Officer Ken Zeeb said. “This is something that you couldn’t even make up.”

The 20-year-old woman called the police station about 3:15 a.m. Saturday, asking where she could buy marijuana, authorities said. The dispatcher, after repeatedly telling the woman it was illegal to sell and possess marijuana, then told her that police had some of the drug in the station’s evidence locker.

Zeeb had arrived for his 4 a.m. shift about 15 minutes early and was in the evidence locker room when the woman arrived.

“The dispatcher got on the intercom and said, ‘You know what? She’s here. She just handed me $3 for marijuana,’” Zeeb said.

The woman was arrested on charges of criminal attempt and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“She didn’t seem like she was really under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” Zeeb said. “She understood what was going on and articulated herself well.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The gym that brought New Yorkers “Cardio Striptease” has dreamed up “Stiletto Strength,” a workout to get women in shape to wear the highest of heels.

At a recent lunch-time session at Crunch gym near Times Square, dancer Amber Efe demonstrated how to strut like a cat-walk model, pivoting on six-inch heels that would challenge even the most ardent follower of shoe king Manolo Blahnik.

“Imagine you’re at the bar, raise one hand high like you’re holding your drink,” she told the class, music pounding as she acted the part of a club-goer working through a crowd.

“Don’t spill the drink,” she told the group, a mix of women who clearly had plenty of experience and others still tottering on shoes that didn’t show much wear.

Crunch’s class list includes “Circus Sports” and “Cycle Karaoke” and national fitness director Donna Cyrus said the most popular nontraditional class in recent years was “Cardio Striptease,” aerobics with a sexy twist.

“Stiletto Strength” was launched in January in response to client griping about getting back into high heels for winter.

“They’re businesswomen and they have to wear heels so they want to understand how to look better in them and feel confident,” Cyrus said.

Participants wear running shoes for the first part of the class, which focuses on strengthening lower body and abdominal muscles and improving balance and posture. The heels come out for the last 15 minutes.

“I came at the beginning just because I was curious,” said Andrea Kussack, 27, who isn’t required to dress up for her job but needs practice wearing “going-out” shoes.

“I recently bought for my boyfriend’s Christmas party these really high heels. I made it through the night but it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing and I haven’t worn them since,” she said.

So what is the secret to walking tall?

“Your abs and don’t look down. Look where you’re going,” said instructor Kafi Pierre. “And your ankle strength, if you have weak ankles you’ll tend to roll inward or outwards.”

Cyrus called in a podiatrist to assess the class, which has been launched in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. “He said ‘You know, the answer is women shouldn’t wear heels,’” Cyrus said.

But she said women will wear them anyway.

“Your feet will probably never recover because it’s not a position you’re meant to be in all day long,” she said. “This class will strengthen your legs and your core, it will make it less painful, but it will never be pain free.”

I am thinking they will have a nice crowd of guys “enjoying” their workout.

BELLA VISTA, Ark. – A woman in Benton County hung a sign on a neighbor’s door warning people that the man who lived there was a sex offender.

But there were two problems: she had the wrong house, and even if she had the right house, police say sex offender notifications can’t be used to harass released convicts.

“Don’t play here. Child molester lives here,” the sign said, according to a police report.

Carolyn Hansen of Bella Vista also posted warnings in a nearby park. Those signs said, “There is a child molester here. Keep children out of the park.”

Hansen told sheriff’s investigators she’d been told by her daughter that a sex offender who moved to the neighborhood lived in the house.

The signs were collected, but a deputy saw Hansen posting the fliers again and stopped her.

After Hansen learned the address she had was the wrong one, she apologized to the man she targeted, deputies said. The man didn’t want her prosecuted so she was not charged, Benton County sheriff’s investigator Barb Shrum said.

The names, addresses and photographs of all level 3 and 4 sex offenders are available on the Arkansas Crime Information Center Web site. A sex offender listed on the registry had moved near the park.

The center’s Web site notes that the information is provided to the public as a service, but “anyone who uses this information to commit a criminal act against another person is subject to criminal prosecution.”

“The whole point of this is to be able to keep your family and your neighborhood safe from these people, but you can’t harass them,” Shrum said.

NEW YORK – There is great embarrassment in your future. A box of X-rated fortune cookies was mistakenly delivered to a fundraiser hosted by a Brooklyn politician.

The 350 cookies stuffed with “the most graphically lurid” fortunes got mixed up with a batch of 1,750 cookies ordered for the Chinese New Year event, Borough President Marty Markowitz said Friday. Some guests “were stunned, to say the least.”

The annual event — to raise money to send poor children to summer camp — was attended by some 700 guests Tuesday evening, but only about 80 were still there when the dirty cookies were opened, Markowitz said.

The borough president was on the second floor of the two-level restaurant when a guest “yelled to me from the first floor: `Marty, did you order these cookies? Did you see what’s inside them? I think you better get your butt down here!’” Markowitz said.

Markowitz, who was not wearing his glasses, had the “fortunes” read to him by some of the guests.

“I’m sure they were meant for a raunchy bachelor party,” he said. “They were not cutesy. Triple X to say the least.”

He said his office had given the restaurant 10 slogans about Brooklyn to insert into the fortune cookies, and 1,400 were delivered correctly.

They contained such G-rated boosterisms as: “Brooklyn — The 10th Planet,” “Brooklyn — it’s more than a freak’in tree,” and “Brooklyn — it’s like an everything bagel.”

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – A man married his bride in a courtroom immediately after he was sentenced to at least a decade in prison on a murder conspiracy charge.

Cassandre LaFortune, dressed in a white gown, listened to Akram “Ish” Jones enter his Alford plea Tuesday. She then stepped forward to marry him.

When the judge asked her if she knew what she was getting into, Akram Jones politely interrupted and said, “your honor, I don’t mean to be rude, but she proposed to me.”

Jones was wearing a gray suit, tie and shackles on his wrists and ankles, which sheriff’s deputies removed before the wedding ceremony. After the ceremony, the newlyweds posed for photos with the 17 family members in attendance, including the couple’s mothers and Jones’ 4-year-old son.

Jones, 26, entered the Alford plea, in which he did not admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him, on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison for plotting to kill Terrance M. Maxie.

On Oct. 4, 2000, Jones and two other men allegedly planned to kill Maxie at a South Coatesville bar, but failed when Jones shot himself in the hand before they could try. Maxie, 27, was shot in the back as he left the same bar nine days later, allegedly by the other two men.

Jones also pleaded guilty in two other pending cases — one for assaulting another prisoner, the other a riot charge resulting from an inmate uprising at Chester County Prison. Sentences for those crimes will be served concurrently.

LaFortune said she and Jones had been dating for seven years. She plans to move close to whichever state prison he is assigned to.

Defense attorney Brenda L. Jones said her client asked for the wedding to take place after he entered the pleas.

“He really loves her,” she said. “Despite the charges, he’s really not a bad person. He just got caught up in it.”

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – The Brazilian government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country’s Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said Monday.

The condoms, provided under the government’s acclaimed anti- AIDS program, will be given out at health clinics and in sites like public squares and dances.

“It’s that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand,” an official from the Health Ministry’s anti-AIDS program said.

Carnival kicks off across the nation on February 25, heralding several days of parades, parties, revelry and, for some people, sexual abandon. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is the best known worldwide but every big city has its own celebrations.

The Health Ministry said the purpose of the handout was to prevent the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Last year, it announced a plan to distribute more than 1 billion free condoms nationwide in 2006.

The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil — the world’s largest Catholic country — routinely denounces such programs as encouraging sex and contravening its stand against contraception.

BOSTON – A former strip club waitress mailed condoms filled with a potentially explosive mixture to a television station, strip clubs and other places, saying she was tired of being mistreated by men, according to court documents.

In FBI documents unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston, Kimberly Lynn Dasilva, 40, said she “couldn’t take it anymore.”

None of the condoms exploded. They each contained a mixture of drain-cleaning detergent and gasoline, which could explode when combined, authorities said. Dasilva told investigators she did not think they would explode.

On Sept. 21, a suspicious package arrived at the Bridgewater State College admissions office, according to two FBI affidavits. When it was discovered that fluid had leaked from the package, the building was evacuated and the State Police Bomb Squad was called in. A note inside the package said “Boom.”

Five more packages containing condoms filled with Drano and gasoline were found the next day at the Brockton postal annex, according to the FBI affidavits. They were addressed to Boston television station WFXT, Boston radio station WXKS-FM, the Outlaws motorcycle club in Taunton, and two strip clubs — Alex’s in Stoughton and The Foxy Lady in Brockton.

Dasilva, a single mother of two teenagers who used to work at Alex’s and The Foxy Lady, was arrested Friday night after FBI agents and state police troopers raided her home and found letters hidden in the ceiling tiles of her bedroom that allegedly linked her to the mailings.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings released her on a $10,000 unsecured bond and scheduled a hearing in the case for Feb. 23.

When contacted by The Boston Globe on Tuesday, Dasilva referred questions to her lawyer, who had no comment.

BERLIN (AFP) – Six gay penguins at a German zoo are still refusing to mate with females of the species flown in from Sweden in 2005, the zoo said.

The problem was that the female Humboldt penguins have proven too shy in their advances, the director of the zoo in the northern port city of Bremerhaven said.

“The Swedes will not make the first move,” Heike Kueck said.

The females were flown in last year in a bid to bring the males to mate and help save the Humboldt species from extinction.

Kueck said last year she was optimistic the initiative would be successful because zoo keepers had noticed that at one point a female penguin had managed to cause a couple of males to “separate”.

The zoo has 10 male penguins of which six have shown strong signs of preferring male company and formed couples among themselves.

The initiative to “turn” the penguins and make them mate had prompted a furious response from gay rights groups.

In a statement posted on its Internet website, the zoo on Wednesday sought to defend itself from fresh criticism.

“We will be delighted if the penguins form even one heterosexual couple and manage to produce first an egg, and then a little one,” it said.

“But of course we accept the male couples that have formed and we are not trying to enforce heterosexuality, as we were accused of doing last year.”

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Slender legs in sparkling stilettos stretch seductively across the billboard at the heart of Johannesburg’s business district, trying to lure South Africans to a smart strip club chain.

Down the road, an entire fake Tuscan village draws thousands of people every day to pour coins into slot machines and slap down wads of cash at its plush casinos.

Strip clubs and gambling — banned until a decade ago under apartheid — are now big business here thanks to a booming economy and the more liberal attitudes that came with the dawn of democracy and an end to international isolation.

And decadence is the name of the game as companies battle to entice a nouveau riche clientele swollen by the growing ranks of the black middle class.

“The old Dutchmen in power had very narrow minds,” said Lolly Jackson, chief executive and founder of South Africa’s most famous chain of strip clubs, Teazers. “When we got democracy people realized this is what they want to do.”

Under stringent apartheid-era censorship laws, magazines were forced to cover breasts with stars, bare legs on a packet of stockings were branded pornographic and casinos were banned by a government dominated by conservative Afrikaners, descendents of Dutch and French settlers.

South Africans wanting a naughty weekend of sex and gambling had to travel to neighboring Swaziland or to one of the nominally independent “homelands” for blacks.

Censorship collapsed with South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994. Twelve years on, sex is a commodity like any other, and 80 percent of the population gamble regularly if you include playing the national lottery.

“We have the most liberal constitution in the world so people are simply doing what they like to do,” said Derek Auret, chief executive of the Casino Association of South Africa. “Obviously the economy has something to do with it.”

Hard figures are difficult to come by, but anecdotal evidence shows the number of strip clubs and amount of pornography is growing fast.

The biggest boom appears to be at the top end of the market as the once-illicit trade formerly confined to the seedy underground joins the mainstream economy and savvy businessmen seek to capitalize on surging consumer spending.

Under the slogan “the teaze without the sleaze,” Teazers prides itself on its upmarket clientele and inhabits prime real estate in affluent suburbs of the major cities. It has just launched an aggressive advertising campaign in key business hubs aimed at high earners.

The privately owned company has expanded its empire from just one club in 1997 to nine in 2006, with more on the way, and revenues have leapt to around 40 million rand ($6.65 million) a year from 1 million in 1997.

Teazers is not alone. Newspapers feature adverts from a plethora of establishments billed as “executive” or “private clubs for gentlemen,” and a recent magazine survey showed almost nine out of 10 executives had visited a strip club.

“Not that long ago…a wet T-shirt competition held in a neighboring kingdom attracted convoys from Johannesburg,” said the survey in business weekly FinWeek. “Today, visiting a strip club appears to have become mainstream.”

As strip clubs shed their seedy image and move upmarket, South African women are increasingly opting to accompany their boyfriends or husbands when they go out to ogle other women.

“Instead of saying ‘that vixen is going to steal my husband’, women will ask themselves — how do I get those boobs, how do I get that butt?’” said Jackson.

Jackson rebuffs as “nonsense” criticism that the rise of the strip club is fuelling rampant rape levels, and says HIV/ AIDS — which affects one in nine South Africans, the highest single caseload in the world — is not a problem in upmarket clubs since clients are not allowed to touch dancers.

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING?

The growth of South Africa’s heavily regulated gambling industry is easier to measure in numbers.

Excluding the national lottery, revenues from gambling leapt 21 percent to 9.9 billion rand ($1.66 billion) in 2005 — reflecting a long-term trend since it casinos and bingo were legalized in 1996, according to National Gambling Board figures.

Lottery players account for a substantial number of the 80 percent of South Africans who gamble, many hoping to trade a life of poverty in the sprawling townships for the comparative riches of the suburbs.

Worried about a gambling epidemic when half the population lives below the poverty line, the government insisted on some of the toughest regulations in the world, including obligatory “winners know when to stop” warnings with each advert.

Analysts say the emphasis on responsible gambling has helped smash apartheid-era taboos, and casino operators have chalked up massive growth. The biggest, Sun International, increased earnings by almost 90 percent in its last financial year.

Its Sun City resort — a symbol of apartheid-era repression made famous by the protest anthem “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City” — is now packed with middle-class black families with cash to spend, thanks to record low interest rates, subdued inflation and South Africa’s massive affirmative action program.

The Johannesburg index of casino and hotel operators has tripled in value in the past two years compared to a jump of around 90 percent by the all-share index.

And analysts predict more growth for Sun International and rivals Peermont Global and Gold Reef Casino Resorts.

“There is still huge potential in this market and casino operators have hardly touched the townships yet,” said a leisure industry analyst at a major investment bank.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Amsterdam’s new street signs banning cannabis smoking in parts of the city have sparked global interest.

The sign shows a red circle around a fat cannabis joint in a cloud of smoke sparked by white marijuana leaves. It has been installed at one square and surrounding streets in Amsterdam where young cannabis smokers are a nuisance (www.baarsjes.amsterdam.nl).

Soon after the installation on February 1, the first signs were stolen after which the Amsterdam council of De Baarsjes decided it would start selling what it believes is the world’s first anti-cannabis road sign.

Over 400 consumers have approached the council to buy one of the “no joints” signs for 90 euros ($108), excluding shipping, a spokesman said.

“About 75 percent of the requests come from the United States,” he said, adding interest is also coming from Singapore, Australia, Scandinavian countries and Germany.

The profits will be donated to a charitable cause that has yet to be chosen.

It is legal to own and use small quantities of soft drugs in the Netherlands whose relaxed position on the issue has brought it into conflict with other European countries like France which claims the Dutch undermine the global fight against drugs.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Hundreds of fans of German club Borussia Dortmund waved huge inflatable penises at local rivals Schalke 04 on Saturday above an abusive message for their hosts.

The pink blow-ups and a huge banner in Dortmund’s yellow and black suggesting Schalke fans should procreate with themselves added a splash of colour to the dour 0-0 draw between the two Bundesliga sides.

Schalke’s stadium in the Ruhr Valley city of Gelsenkirchen will host four group matches and a quarter-final at the World Cup in Germany in June and July.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Deputy Ed Johnson was in uniform. He was also sitting in his marked patrol car. So he was a bit surprised when a man approached Friday and allegedly offered to sell him some cocaine.

Michael Garibay walked up to Johnson’s car at a Mobil gas station and asked the Orange County deputy if he was “straight,” according to arrest records.

When Johnson replied he was, Garibay responded “Do you know what that means? …. It means do you want to buy some cocaine.”

When Johnson said “yes,” Garibay pulled out a plastic bag containing “several pieces of flat white rocks substances” and asked for cash, records show.

The deputy took the bag and arrested Garibay after the contents tested positive for cocaine, the Orlando Sentinel reported on its Web site.

Garibay was being held Friday in the Orange County Jail on $7,500 bail for alleged possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch city of Groningen looks set to open the Netherlands’ first pharmacy totally dedicated to providing high quality cannabis for pain relief at affordable prices, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Although cannabis is readily available in Dutch coffee shops, the foundation for Medicinal Cannabis Netherlands, a support group for patients, intends launching a pharmacy in the northern Dutch city so people can have access to high-grade cannabis for medical use, the daily NRC Handelsblad said.

Groningen city council member Fleur Woudstra, who supports the cannabis pharmacy, told the paper that while pot may be cheaper in coffee shops — usually around 10 euros ($12) for the equivalent of 3 or 4 joints — quality often suffers.

The Office of Medicinal Cannabis, a Dutch government agency, and the community of Groningen as well as the local police back the idea and a site has been chosen. It was not immediately clear just when the pharmacy would open for business.

Two more cannabis pharmacies are planned in the towns of Hoogezand and Assen, the paper said.

WITTENBERG, Wis. – Authorities had no trouble locating the suspect after getting a call about a pedestrian attacking two moving cars. He was the one with no clothes.

Police said the first complaint came in at 9:36 a.m. Thursday after a woman encountered a naked man on a road. As she drove around him, he charged the vehicle, hit the right fender and jumped on the hood, smashing the windshield and breaking off the passenger side mirror, authorities said.

He slid off and was lying on the road but got up into a football-type stance and charged a second vehicle as it approached, damaging a fender.

He then opened the door, climbed in the vehicle and sat down, authorities said.

An ambulance got to the scene ahead of sheriff’s deputies and had no trouble with the man, sheriff’s Sgt. Staber Cook said.

The 42-year-old man was taken in for medical treatment and psychological assessment, Cook said. His name was not released.

The motorists were not injured.