BERLIN (Reuters) – A court decision clearing the way for harsher penalties against streakers who disrupt soccer matches by running on to the pitch was welcomed by Germany’s World Cup organising committee on Saturday.

Horst R. Schmidt, the committee’s vice president, said Friday’s court ruling upholding a 10,000 euro (6,874 pound) fine against a streaker would serve as a deterrent.

“We’re certain that this ruling will have an effect during the World Cup and are delighted to have the appropriate legal means at our disposal now,” he said in a statement. “It has been made quite clear that these are not simply misdemeanours.”

A state court in the northern city of Rostock upheld a 10,000 euro fine for damages against a streaker claimed by Hansa Rostock for an incident in 2003.

Rostock had been fined 20,000 euros by the German Football Association (DFB) for lax security in 2003 when three streakers ran on to the pitch in two separate incidents during a home match against Hertha Berlin.

The club, in turn, demanded the damages from the streakers, including a maximum of 10,000 euros from one man who ignored warnings after the first two had dashed on to the pitch.

There have been calls in Germany to clamp down on streaking after four spectators evaded stadium security and ran on to the pitch bearing messages on their bodies and clothing during last year’s Confederations Cup.

The World Cup organising committee has tightened security and urged tougher penalties against offenders that exceed the 600 Swiss francs (263 pounds) faced by last year’s violators.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new television reality show invites porn stars to test their serious acting abilities in London’s theater district, raising the question: Debbie can do Dallas, but can she take on Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard?”

“My Bare Lady” will cast four leading ladies from U.S. porn studios in a classic piece of drama to be performed in London’s West End. Their experiences undergoing a crash course in acting and appearing before a discerning British audience will air in three episodes on the Fox Reality cable and satellite channels this fall.

“It’s a wonderful tale of redemption,” said David Lyle, general manager of Fox Reality. “Do they want lines that are a little more challenging than ‘Oh, here’s the pool guy…’?”

“Debbie Does Dallas” was a 1978 porn film about the misadventures of a young woman who becomes a cheerleader for a Texas football team.

The show’s concept is rooted in the bankable plot conflict of many television “reality” shows, taking people out of their accustomed element to see how they fare.

Like Eliza Doolittle learning to speak proper English in “My Fair Lady,” these women must overcome a challenge formidable to any actor. “If they can move a London theater audience to applaud, they have done pretty well,” said Lyle.

The show will be co-produced with the UK’s Zig Zag Productions. Fox Reality is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

LONDON (Reuters) – British actress Keira Knightley was voted the world’s sexiest woman in a magazine poll on Thursday, beating model Keeley Hazel and Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson into second and third place respectively.

The poll, which British magazine FHM said was based on two million votes, saw homegrown model and TV presenter Kelly Brook slip to 5th from first last year, while Angelina Jolie, expecting a baby in mid-May, came fourth.

Beyonce Knowles was the sexiest pop star at number seven and Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova the top sportswoman at number 56.

FHM said the poll was the only one of its kind voted for entirely by the British public.

NEW DELHI (AFP) – An Indian court reportedly fined US softdrinks giant PepsiCo’s Indian subsidiary and ordered it to pay compensation to a man who discovered a condom in his bottle of Pepsi.

“This case is an eye-opener for others who are engaged in manufacturing softdrinks and are required to maintain the prescribed standards of purity in public interest during the course of their business activities,” K. K. Chopra, chief of the consumer court was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

Describing the case as “rare” with a serious bearing on public health, the court directed PepsiCo India Holdings Ltd to pay 100,000 rupees (2,220 dollars) in damages to the Consumer Legal Aid Fund, the report said.

The company was also ordered to pay the complainant, Sudesh Sharma, 20,000 rupees.

According to Sharma’s complaint, he had purchased two bottles of Pepsi Cola from a shop in the Indian capital New Delhi in 2003.

He said he started suffering from severe dyspepsia and headaches after consuming the cola from one of the bottles.

On inspecting its contents, Sharma said he found dirt and other contaminants inside.

In the second unopened bottle, Sharma said he was shocked to find a condom.

Pepsi on its part denied any wrongdoing and said it would challenge the ruling.

“It appears that this is an erroneous order and we would be taking steps to challenge this order,” the Press Trust of India quoted Pepsi as saying in a statement.

The company said it followed “stringent purification and packaging” processes.

“We are presently in the process of examining the matter,” it said.

“We are constantly combating jointly with the industry and the police, the menace of spurious products in the market,” the statement added.

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world’s largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college.

Playboy photographers came to Baylor’s hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member.

Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to students this week warning that any who “associate” with Playboy would be subject to the university’s disciplinary processes.

“Playboy is clearly antithetical to Baylor’s mission and associating with the magazine would be a violation of the code of conduct,” Oliver wrote in the e-mail. University officials said punishment could include suspension.

Baylor, known for its conservative outlook, did not allow dancing on campus until 10 years ago.

A spokesman for Playboy, known for its nude centerfolds, declined to comment on the e-mail.

The threatened punishment was met with a yawn by students on campus.

One woman, who professed no desire to pose for Playboy, said Baylor officials had “more important things to worry about” and wondered if male students would face similar punishment if they were seen reading an issue of Playboy featuring Baylor women.

OAKLAND, Calif. – A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.

Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.

He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client’s house to do electrical work because he didn’t want to soil his clothes, police said.

Honniball said Thursday that working in the nude gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.

“In certain situations such as demolitions where you are smashing rock you want to be clothed and protected because this rock can harm you,” he said.

Honniball was caught working naked in Berkeley three times in the last six years and put on probation for violating a city ordinance. Honniball said he doesn’t plan to do work in his birthday suit again.

Police said he apologized to the startled homeowner, but was fired. The homeowner paid Honniball for the finished work, but deducted $200.

“He kept out that amount to change his locks,” Oakland Police Officer Jesse Grant said.

NEW YORK – A restaurateur who admitted he exposed himself to a woman in a subway car, an act the woman captured with her cellular telephone camera, was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and ordered to undergo counseling.

Daniel Hoyt, 43, was sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on his guilty plea to public lewdness, a misdemeanor. He admitted he exposed himself while on the R train on Aug. 24, 2005.

Hoyt and Tolentin Chan founded the popular Quintessence raw-food restaurants on East 10th Street in the East Village and on Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side.

Judge Alexander Jeong rejected a request by Assistant District Attorney Andrew Zakrocki to follow a Probation Department recommendation and send Hoyt to jail.

“I will impose the sentence promised,” Jeong said. He added that Hoyt has to continue once-weekly psychiatric counseling for the entire two-year probation period. The judge warned that a probation violation could get Hoyt 90 days in jail.

As Hoyt left court, he said, I apologize for my actions and I’m sorry for anyone I may have offended.”

A court complaint says Hoyt committed four similar acts of public lewdness — one on a No. 1 or No. 9 train on Oct. 19, 2004, near West 72nd Street, and three others on R trains in the East Village on July 13, Aug. 19 and Aug. 24, 2005.

While Hoyt was in court, about a half-dozen women marched with signs outside the courthouse, denouncing the defendant. Their demonstration was in response to his alleged comments in a magazine interview, that some women liked what he had been doing and probably would want to date him.

One marcher was Thao Nguyen, 23, the woman who caught Hoyt “in flagrante” with her cell phone camera. She carried a sign that said, “Actually, if I met you in a bar I wouldn’t date you.”

HORATIO, Ark. – A man accused of repeatedly exposing himself to the same woman has been arrested after the woman took a picture of him naked standing on a highway and called police.

The man had exposed himself five times in the last six months to the woman as she traveled on Arkansas 41 for work. She did not know the man, police said.

“I think he had singled her out, and she was loaded and ready for bear the next time she saw him,” Arkansas State Police Cpl. Ray Gentry said. “She slowed down in her car to about 40 mph and got a picture of him.”

Robert Ernest Vallee, 37, of Lockesburg was arrested in Sevier County on two counts of indecent exposure stemming from incidents Thursday and Jan. 19 and one count of harassment. All are misdemeanors.

“He admitted he was the suspect in question and he had exposed himself to her. He admitted he was nude except for a shirt covering his face,” Gentry said.

The woman said she didn’t want to press charges.

Authorities also had gotten a complaint from a 17-year-old female of a man exposing himself. He reportedly would stand on the side of the highway next to his car.

Vallee was arrested Thursday after the woman called a dispatcher, saying a man in a silver Dodge Neon had exposed himself to her, according to a Sevier County Sheriff’s Department report. The woman said the vehicle turned onto Arkansas 24 East and she waited for an officer at a Horatio convenience store.

Gentry encountered the vehicle traveling east on Arkansas 24 near its intersection with Arkansas 329 and stopped it.

“He had put his pants back on by the time I made the arrest. He was worried I was going to charge him with reckless driving for putting his pants back on while driving,” Gentry said.

A Sevier County deputy took the woman from the store to the traffic stop and she identified the vehicle.

Vallee was taken to the Sevier County Jail in De Queen. He posted bond and was released from jail Friday.

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Women on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus hope to form the world’s longest chain of bras with the twin aims of heightening awareness of breast cancer and winning a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Cypriot, British and Dutch organisers hope to string together as many as 100,000 bras on April 30, beating the current record of 79,000 bras held by Singapore, and forming a 90 kilometre (56 mile) chain.

“It’s an odd thing to do, but it’s the perfect way to get the message across. Its important that people are aware of the risks, and the need for regular screening,” said Louise van Rooij, a Dutch resident of Cyprus.

Women as far afield as Alaska have contributed bras, including Betty Boothroyd, Britain’s first female speaker of the House of Commons and a regular visitor to the holiday island.

Breast cancer kills about 400,000 women worldwide each year, and doctors say regular screening, especially for women over 50, is vital for early detection which is crucial to a woman’s chances of survival.

I wonder how many people will be thinking breast cancer? I know what I’d be thinking.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – It seems that online dermatological images, intended as a references for doctors, are sometimes being used pruriently.

The idea that a searchable archive of clinical photographs was being misused first occurred to the site’s curators when they noticed a marked jump in queries for images of genital areas.

In light of this, Dr. Christoph U. Lehmann and colleagues, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, emphasize in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that “anonymous misuse of collaborative archives must be anticipated, addressed and prevented to preserve their integrity and the integrity of the learning communities they support.”

The researchers assessed request patterns received by the site over a 6-month period, in terms of diagnosis, age group and anatomic site.

Of the more than 7800 dermatological images available on the site, 5.5 percent involve genital regions. However, 12 percent of queries for a specific diagnosis involved a genital area. Also, 37 percent of the requests for an anatomic site involved a genital region, and 12 percent of the 10,000 free text queries were for images of genitalia.

In searches that specified both an age group and an anatomic site, images involving children were 48 percent more likely to be requested than those involving an adult.

An analysis of the top 43 referring sites to the dermatology service revealed that 9 (21 percent) were pornographic/fetish sites. However, these sites only accounted for 14.3 percent of all 141,285 referrals.

The authors conclude, “Developers of online clinical image libraries containing potentially sensitive health information on topics such as sexuality and anatomy must be aware of issues beyond technical and domain knowledge.”

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – An Indonesian maid posed in her underwear for pictures her female employer promised would appear in the Indonesian version of Playboy, but complained after receiving no payment, a Malaysian social group said Wednesday. Playboy magazine caused a stir at its launch in Indonesia last week, despite having less skin on display than U.S. issues of 50 years ago.

Although banned in Malaysia, it became big news because the center spread featured a top Malaysian model named Amber Chia.

In exchange for a promise of 1,000 ringgit ($272) and the use of her connections with the magazine to get the pictures printed, the woman took pictures of her 25-year-old maid in seductive postures while her family was away, the Star newspaper said.

“It was a joke by the employer, but the maid took it seriously,” said M. Ganesha, head of a complaints bureau run by the Malaysian Indian Youth Council, to which the maid turned for help in getting payment.

He told Reuters he would settle the dispute within two days and get the photographs returned, but declined to elaborate.

“In Malaysia posing for nude photographs or taking nude photographs is illegal, so if the maid complains to the police, both of them will face charges,” said L. Krishnan, an official in southwestern Negeri Sembilan state, where the incident occurred.

Indonesians account for 96 percent of the 320,000 licensed foreign housemaids in Malaysia.

($1=3.6736 ringgit)

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Jakarta’s police chief said Thursday that the Indonesia publishers of Playboy magazine should put off their next issue after attacks on their offices.

About 300 hardline Islamists vandalized the building housing Playboy’s offices Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world’s most-populous Muslim nation.

The protesters threw rocks at the front lobby, breaking windows of the building in the south of Jakarta several days after the magazine hit Indonesian news-stands for the first time.

Police made some efforts to stop the attackers but did not arrest anyone.

“It would be better if there were a deal to postpone the second edition,” Jakarta police chief Firman Gani told reporters.

He said he planned to ask the publishers to meet with police to discuss the matter, but would appeal to higher authorities for support of a postponement if Playboy did not voluntarily comply.

The postponement would allow police time to investigate whether Playboy’s first issue had violated any laws, Gani said.

Protesters showed up at the building Thursday as well, but in smaller numbers and without any incidents of violence. They included women and children, while Wednesday’s violent demonstrators were exclusively male.

A building manager told reporters that Playboy had actually already vacated its offices on the premises, moving out overnight, and showed journalists the emptied space.

Despite widespread controversy, most observers say Indonesia Playboy’s first issue, which bared little more flesh than newspaper lingerie ads, went no further — or if anything was tamer — than foreign and domestic competitors already commonly on sale in Indonesia.

Asked why those magazines were not being asked to pull their issues, Gani said that steps would be taken if they also “caused public restlessness.”

However, a speaker at Thursday’s anti-Playboy demonstration said protesters would act themselves to “sweep” other magazines they consider pornographic off the shelves.

Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the hardline group that organized the earlier demonstration that turned violent, are known for taking the law into their own hands, for example by attacking massage parlors, and bars selling alcohol during the Muslim fasting period.

In February, they beat on the U.S. embassy gate in Jakarta with sticks and pelted the embassy complex with tomatoes, eggs and stones, breaking windows as outnumbered police looked on.

Some groups have criticized police in the past for selective law enforcement that effectively encourages militant violence, but Gani said police have arrested FPI members on various occasions and were protecting Playboy staff members.

About 85 percent of Indonesia’s 220 million people are Muslims. Most are moderates, but militant groups have been increasingly vocal in recent years.

Several deadly bombing attacks in Indonesia have been blamed on the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asia militant network Jemaah Islamiah, including blasts in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people.

Founded in 1953, U.S.-based Playboy has about 20 editions around the world that cater to local tastes.

SYDNEY, Australia – Australian cheerleaders have been banned from baring midriffs by officials of the sport who fear displays of skin may encourage eating disorders.

Gymnastics Australia has ordered cheerleading troupes to find new uniforms by the end of the year.

Nerine Cooper, national cheerleading manager for Gymnastics Australia, said the decision, which followed similar moves in the United States and elsewhere, was needed because cheerleaders often performed in front of family groups.

“We don’t want girls to feel under pressure to lose weight because of uniforms,” she told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph.

But Lisa Ince, head of Sydney Promotional Dancers, said the order was unfair.

“It’s ridiculous really, if the thinking is that a midriff is offensive, then every dance school and athletics club would face the same restrictions,” Ince said.

The ban will affect about 105 teams registered with Gymnastics Australia.

In the United States, the National Federation of State High School Associations issued a new rule for the 2006-07 school year requiring that cheerleading uniforms cover the midriff

MIAMI (Reuters) – Eight U.S. sailors at a Florida naval station fraudulently married Polish and Romanian women in order to collect extra housing allowances, according to federal charges filed on Tuesday.

The women did not live with their Navy husbands, but used the sham marriages to apply for U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney Paul Perez said in a news release.

The sailors, seven of whom are still in the Navy, were all stationed at the Mayport naval station in northeast Florida.

They were charged with conspiracy, marriage fraud and making false claims to the government to collect $35,000 worth of extra housing allowances.

The tax-free allowances for off-base housing are based partly on marital status and number of dependents.

“They only married them so they could collect that money,” said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The women were also charged with marriage fraud and authorities were investigating whether they violated immigration laws, he said.

A federal probe began in September when a sailor told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that another sailor offered him the extra housing allowance in exchange for marrying a Polish woman. He said the sailor who acted as matchmaker collected $6,000 from the bride.

The sailors were assigned to the USS John F. Kennedy, an aircraft carrier, and the USS Simpson, a frigate. Five assigned to the Kennedy were in custody on Tuesday and arrest warrants were issued for the others. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison on each count.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – The Tanzanian government should add spanking to its list of possible punishments for errant investors, local media on Thursday quoted a member of parliament saying.

“Spanking should be added in the list of punishments to deal with investors who are not abiding by the laid down laws,” The Citizen newspaper quoted legislator Masolwa Cosmas Masolwa as saying during a parliamentary debate on a bill to strengthen laws that regulate banks and other financial institutions.

“A stroke or two on offenders would humiliate them and whip them back in line,” the state-owned Daily News also quoted Masolwa, who belongs to the ruling party, as saying.

The east African nation’s political stability since independence in 1961 and healthy recent economic growth has made it popular with foreign investors who have poured more money into Tanzania recently than into neighbouring Kenya or Uganda.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – New statistics suggest San Francisco has the highest percentage of gay men among major cities in the world, with a quarter of them HIV-positive, a top city health official said on Friday.

“Despite an overall loss in the population in San Francisco in the last five years, we think there has been an absolute gain in gay men,” William McFarland, head of HIV/ AIDS statistics at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, said in an interview. “From all the data I have seen … it’s the gayest city in the world.”

McFarland has compiled the city’s first survey in five years on gay men and HIV to be presented at a meeting next week to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention.

He said it found an estimated 63,577 gay males aged 15 and above in San Francisco, a city with a total population of 764,000. That figure represents nearly one in five of the city’s males above the age of 15.

0ne out of every four gay males — 25.8 percent — is infected with the HIV virus, giving San Francisco an estimated total of 16,401 HIV-positive men, said McFarland, an epidemiologist who has also worked on studies in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Egypt.

The survey indicates that the overall percentage of those living with HIV has dropped since the last study five years ago.

“The major changes since 2001 are that, first of all, the gay community has grown. It’s largely been an influx of more HIV-negative gay men that are here,” he said. “It used to be near 30 percent.

“The absolute number of gay men living with HIV has crept up partly because of ongoing transmission and partly because of improved survival with treatment,” he added.

At 40 percent, Baltimore has the highest percentage of HIV-positive men among its population in a study of five cities, with San Francisco second, according to a 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

In coming up with his estimate of the number of gay men, McFarland said he took the middle point of nine previous studies.

McFarland acknowledged that it was difficult to get a precise number because of sensitivities over the issue. But he said San Francisco residents were likely to be more open about their sexuality than people in many other areas.

GENEVA (Reuters) – For women bored at the thought of this summer’s World Cup soccer finals in Germany, neighbor Switzerland is offering an alternative packed with beefcake.

A cow-milking ‘Mr. Switzerland’ and other handsome men are featured in a new advertising campaign seeking to entice soccer widows to leave their sports-obsessed men behind.

“Dear girls,” starts the television spot, to run in France, Germany and Switzerland beginning in May.

“Why not escape this summer’s World Cup to a country where men spend less time on football, and more time on you?,” the advertisement, says over images of a strapping farmhand, a sexy train conductor, a fit mountain climber, a dapper ferryman and a brawny lumberjack.

It ends with Renzo Blumenthal, Mr. Switzerland 2005, milking and then leaning up against a cow.

The clip — also on www.myswitzerland.com — is meant to lure women to Switzerland during the tournament that starts on June 9, Swiss Tourism spokeswoman Veronique Kanel said.

“It was kind of a funny way to attract people, and of course mostly women, who are not interested in football to come to Switzerland while the men are watching the World Cup on television,” she said in a telephone interview.

BRISTOL, England – An employment tribunal has ruled against a British teacher who claimed a noisy chair made classroom life a misery.

Bristol City Council confirmed Monday that the tribunal last week dismissed the complaint by Sue Storer, 48, former deputy head teacher at Bedminster Down Secondary School.

Storer said the school failed to replace a chair which made an embarrassing “farting” noise whenever anyone sat on it, although other staff received new chairs. She said the chair was a source of embarrassment, especially at parent-teacher evenings.

She also claimed that male colleagues were favored over her.

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Bare buttocks plastered on billboards in Nicosia are the talk of the town in the Cypriot capital, but officials see no need to cover them up.

Complaints have poured in to local councils over the advert for a clothes chain showing a close-up of a woman’s bottom, bare except for a tan-colored thong.

One member of parliament, Maria Kyriakou, from the opposition Democratic Rally party, told Reuters it could even be a “potential distraction for drivers.”

But local authorities say they have no say on the content of adverts, police say they’ve seen worse, and the media watchdog says billboards are beyond its standard remit.

“Regardless of that, we have to look at the matter because a complaint was filed. If it was clearly pornographic we could possibly intervene, but sometimes you see even more explicit pictures in family magazines,” said Petros Petrides, secretary of the Media Complaints Commission.

That view was echoed by a police spokesman, who said: “It’s not considered obscene. Magazines show worse things.”

The poster takes its place among a sea of posters advertising candidates for parliamentary elections on May 21.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young men who feel good about their looks are more likely than their peers with a less positive body image to engage in risky sexual behavior, a new study of college students shows.

The men who were most satisfied with their appearance, and the most appearance-oriented — meaning they were highly invested in their looks and considered appearance to be important — were also the most likely to have sex without condoms and to have sex with multiple partners, Dr. Eva S. Lefkowitz of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and colleagues report.

“There’s kind of a general belief that a positive view of your body is a good thing,” Lefkowitz said in an interview with Reuters Health. “We’re not saying that’s not true, but we do think in the case of young men there could be potential negative ramifications of a positive view of one’s body.”

Among young women, in contrast, those with a more positive body image were less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, Lefkowitz and her team found.

The researchers interviewed 434 students, ranging in age from 17 to 19, during their first year of college. Fifty-nine percent reported being sexually active. Just over two-thirds of sexually active students said they didn’t use condoms every time they had sex, while a little over half said they used alcohol while having sex at least some of the time.

While sexually active students reported less dissatisfaction with their looks and a more positive body image on average, “it’s important to point out that we don’t know which comes first,” Lefkowitz said. People who feel better about their looks may be more likely to have sex, or being sexually active may confer a better body image, she explained.

As the researchers hypothesized, men with better body images had more lifetime sex partners and were less likely to use condoms during sex, while women who felt more positively about their looks had fewer partners and used condoms more frequently.

The findings show, Lefkowitz and her team conclude, that high self-esteem in terms of appearance may not be protective for young men, but instead may put them in danger of taking risks sexually.

Parents sending sons off to college may want to consider “really emphasizing not just go forth and feel good about yourself, but also within those messages emphasizing the importance of protecting yourself and respect for women,” Lefkowitz advised.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Stressed out during a long drive? Road hogs driving you up the wall? The Malaysian government is only too happy to help. The country’s first highway drive-in massage parlor opened Monday, with the aim of reducing accidents by easing tense muscles of stressed-out drivers. The parlors will be equipped with automatic massage chairs.

“I hope highway users will use this facility,” Works Minister S. Samy Vellu said.

Samy opened the first massage center along the North-South Highway, and said the government was planning to open another center this year.

The North-South Highway is the country’s main highway, and stretches the length of Peninsular Malaysia.

Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians commute along a web of highways daily, but accidents — and deaths — typically rise during festive occasions when millions leave Kuala Lumpur and major cities during extended holidays.

SAN FRANCISCO – In Atlanta, an online ad offers a room in exchange for “sex and light office duty.” In Los Angeles, a one-bedroom pool house is free “to a girl that is skilled and willing.” And in New York City, a $700-a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex.

On the widely used Web site Craigslist.org, some landlords and apartment dwellers looking for roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu of rent.

“They have to be attractive. I don’t let just anybody come into my house,” said Mike, a man who answered the phone at the New York City listing but declined to give his last name — and refused to say whether he has, in fact, collected the rent under the sheets.

The offering of shelter for sex is older than, well, real estate itself.

But the online come-ons are franker than anything you might see in the newspaper classifieds, because they are not edited by Craigslist, and perhaps also because the anonymity of the Internet often causes people to shed their inhibitions.

Trading housing for sex is a form of prostitution. But the police aren’t kicking down doors.

Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner in New York, said investigators have found that the Craigslist ads are frequently “little more than a form of voyeurism that didn’t result in an actual exchange of sex for rent.”

Craigslist provides mostly free classifieds for apartments, used cars and just about everything else in more than 200 cities in 35 countries.

“I usually rent the room for 600, but if you are really ticklish and willing to trade being tickled for the extra rent then we have a deal,” writes a gay man offering a $350-a-month room in the San Francisco Bay area.

An ad for a townhouse near Bradenton, Fla., seeks a “female that likes to be nude. Nothing more expected.”

It is unclear how much success people have had with their rent-for-sex ads.

One man said he became friends with a bisexual man who answered his ad but did not end up taking the room. The same user said a man visiting from Russia answered his ad and they shared dinner and a bottle of wine, but that was it.

“This is only a silly sideline adventure of mine,” the man, who would not give his name, wrote in an e-mail. “I feel a little embarrassed about it.”

The Associated Press e-mailed more than two-dozen other people who placed ads, but most declined to be interviewed.

Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of San Francisco-based Craigslist, said the company forbids ads that break the law, but his staff of 19 could not possibly police all postings. Craigslist instead relies on users to flag ads they find offensive. If enough people agree, the ad is removed.

“Tens of millions of users are a much more powerful force in examining the more than 8 million classified ads per month than any staff could be,” Buckmaster said.

Mike, who offered the room in New York, said his ads are frequently flagged and removed, resulting in a cat-and-mouse game in which he puts them back up.

Tenants rights groups have accused Craigslist of skirting fair housing requirements. In February, a group called the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sued the Web site for publishing housing ads that excluded people based on their race, religion and sex.

But legal experts say Craigslist is shielded by a 1996 federal law that protects online service providers that merely pass along unedited information provided by someone else.

And in most states, prostitution laws apply only if the ads are followed by e-mails, phone conversations or other acts that advance the proposition.

“The mere posting itself is absolutely not illegal,” said Anthony Lowenstein, a defense lawyer in San Francisco, “unless the guy who posts it or the person who answers it does something that makes it a little closer to happening.”

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their “masters,” The Times of India reported Tuesday.

“A donkey is like a housewife … In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents’ home, you’ll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master,” the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.

The book was approved by the state’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government but has sparked protests from the party’s women’s wing.

State education officials in Rajasthan, a western state known for its conservative attitude toward women, said people should not be upset by the comparison, the paper said.

“The comparison was made in good humor,” state education official A.R. Khan was quoted as saying. “However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing it (the reference).”

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A red-faced Australian nudist who tried to set fire to what he thought was a deadly funnel web spider’s nest ended up with badly burned buttocks, emergency officials said Monday.

The 56-year-old man was at a nudist colony near Bowral, about 60 miles southwest of Sydney, Sunday when he spotted what he believed to be a funnel web spider hole.

Ambulance workers, including a helicopter crew, were called to the scene after the man poured petrol down the hole and then lit a match in an attempt to kill the offending arachnid.

“The exploding gasoline fumes left the man with burns to 18 percent of his body, on the upper leg and buttocks,” the NRMA Careflight helicopter rescue service said in a statement.

It said the man’s lack of clothing probably contributed to the extent of his burns.

“The fate of the bunkered spider was unknown, although other guests at the resort thought it was probably a harmless trapdoor spider and not a deadly funnel web,” the statement said.

NRMA Careflight said it was called to a property in the same area in January when another man kicked a spider that was crawling up the wall of a friend’s cabin. The man broke his leg in two places, it said.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Tired of playing second fiddle to men in conservative Saudi Arabia, five women decided if you can’t beat them, join them.

Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a “psychological complex” due to male domination.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.

The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.

An interior ministry official told al Watan such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but those who undergo sex change are never arrested.

MISSOULA, Mont. – A Sentinel High School teacher, charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly giving a student a hickey, has resigned.

Missoula County Public Schools said Dan Kucera, a business teacher, resigned several weeks ago.

Kucera was suspended in January. Police said Kucera put a 17-year-old male student in a head lock and sucked on his neck, causing it to bruise.

Kucera told KPAX television on Wednesday that he made a stupid mistake.