LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Las Vegas bills itself as “the wedding capital of the world,” but late-night revellers who decide they want to tie the knot now must wait until morning.

The county’s marriage-licence office, as of Wednesday, will be closed between midnight and 8 a.m., when much of Las Vegas is still very much alive.

“It’s one of the things Vegas is known for — you can gamble, get drunk and get married all in the middle of the night,” said Jay DeLeon, manager of the Graceland Wedding Chapel — where Elvis impersonators make special nuptial appearances.

Probably the best known late-night marriage seeker was pop star Britney Spears, who shocked the world in 2004 when she married a childhood friend just before sunrise in Las Vegas. That union was quickly annulled.

People can still get married around the clock at one of the city’s few all-night wedding chapels; it will just take a bit more planning to obtain the $55 licence (29 pounds), said Cheryl Vernon, who supervises the marriage-services office in the county clerk’s department.

Vernon said the new office hours were not the result of a push to curb irresponsible life decisions, but simply because too few early-morning customers — about 15-30 people — came in to justify a late-night shift. About 300 to 500 people seek licenses on a normal shift, she said.

Last year the office issued 122,259 marriage licences.

Vernon said most late-night licence seekers have been jet-lagged travellers lugging suitcases and trying to avoid daytime lines, rather than spontaneous celebrants. Still, there were notable exceptions.

“Yes, we did have our few — like Britney (Spears). She came in at five in the morning,” Vernon said.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Hot and bothered by rising pump prices? Australian brothels are offering clients discounts based on their gas bills.

Brothel owners claim the system works much the same way as supermarkets which offer shoppers discounted gas prices by presenting their grocery bills when they fill up their tanks.

“If you come in and spend time with one of our lovely ladies, we’ll give you a discount of 20 cents a liter,” Kerry, manager of Sydney brothel The Site, told Reuters Wednesday.

There is no link between brothels, petrol providers or supermarkets but brothels like The Site and Madame Kerry’s say the system is simple.

Once you’ve filled up your car, bring your receipt to the brothel and they’ll discount the price of your visit.

The bill for a full 50-liter tank at 126.9 cents per liter comes to A$63.45 ($48.22). With the offered 20c a liter discount, the petrol bill would have instead come to A$53.45.

That A$10 difference is taken off the A$150 cost of a 30-minute session with one of the brothel’s “service providers.”

The Site has taken out cut-out newspaper ads offering the service.

“We’re getting more media exposure, if you want to put it that way, than basically bums on beds,” Kerry said.

Brothels are legal across most of Australia, but states have strict laws against soliciting and running brothels in residential areas, and near churches or schools.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is to create its first women-only traffic police unit because commanders believe they are less corrupt than men, a newspaper reported Monday.

The male-dominated traffic police routinely forgive traffic violations in exchange for bribes. Many believe this culture helps make Russia’s roads among the world’s most dangerous: about 35,000 people are killed in accidents each year.

“The first female platoon of 26 traffic officers will patrol the center of Volgograd (in southern Russia),” Izvestia daily quoted regional police chief Mikhail Tsukruk as saying.

“There is research which proves that women are not inclined to bribe-taking,” the paper quoted him as saying. A few women already serve in the traffic police.

CHICAGO – A Cook County judge has decided there is enough evidence to prosecute a man who says an airport security guard misheard him when she thought he said that a sexual device in his backpack was actually a bomb.

Mardin Amin claims he actually told the guard the small, black object was a “pump” — as in a penis pump.

Amin’s attorney said her client was embarrassed to explain the object in front of his mother, who was traveling with him, so he whispered. The guard misunderstood, and thought he said “bomb,” according to defense attorney Eileen O’Neill-Burke.

“His mother is standing there so, under his breath, he says, ‘It’s a pump. Put it away. Put it away,’” O’Neill-Burke told The Associated Press on Thursday. The guard asked him again and he repeated that the object was a pump, the attorney said.

O’Neill-Burke added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to her office and showed it to her. She said she recently learned that Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing the sounds “p” and “b.”

However, Judge Gerald Winiecki decided there was sufficient evidence for the case to move forward after the female security guard testified that she heard Amin “clearly” say the word bomb on Aug. 16 at O’Hare International Airport.

Amin, 29, of Skokie, is charged with felony disorderly conduct and faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He was released on $75,000 bond and is due back in court Sept. 13. O’Neill-Burke said he will plead not guilty then.

Amin told the Chicago Sun-Times after the hearing that security officials did not give him a chance to explain the misunderstanding, that he would never use the word “bomb” while going through a security checkpoint, and does not consider a penis pump an unusual object to own.

“It’s normal,” he said. “Half of America they use it.”

CHICAGO – A Cook County judge has decided there is enough evidence to prosecute a man who says an airport security guard misheard him when she thought he said that a sexual device in his backpack was actually a bomb.

Mardin Amin claims he actually told the guard the small, black object was a “pump” — as in a penis pump.

Amin’s attorney said her client was embarrassed to explain the object in front of his mother, who was traveling with him, so he whispered. The guard misunderstood, and thought he said “bomb,” according to defense attorney Eileen O’Neill-Burke.

“His mother is standing there so, under his breath, he says, ‘It’s a pump. Put it away. Put it away,’” O’Neill-Burke told The Associated Press on Thursday. The guard asked him again and he repeated that the object was a pump, the attorney said.

O’Neill-Burke added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to her office and showed it to her. She said she recently learned that Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing the sounds “p” and “b.”

However, Judge Gerald Winiecki decided there was sufficient evidence for the case to move forward after the female security guard testified that she heard Amin “clearly” say the word bomb on Aug. 16 at O’Hare International Airport.

Amin, 29, of Skokie, is charged with felony disorderly conduct and faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He was released on $75,000 bond and is due back in court Sept. 13. O’Neill-Burke said he will plead not guilty then.

Amin told the Chicago Sun-Times after the hearing that security officials did not give him a chance to explain the misunderstanding, that he would never use the word “bomb” while going through a security checkpoint, and does not consider a penis pump an unusual object to own.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Two dozen bare-breasted porn stars paraded on motorcycles and military vehicles down the main street of New Zealand’s biggest city on Wednesday after beating efforts by Auckland officials to prevent the promotional stunt.

Thousands of people, many of them clicking away with cell phone cameras, lined the street for the parade by male and female porn actors, most semi-clad in black leather, to publicize an erotica show which opens in Auckland later this week.

The crowd — four deep in some places — was reportedly bigger than that for the city’s annual Santa Parade at Christmas time.

Organizer Steve Crow, a local multimillionaire porn movie distributor and producer, earlier had won approval for the parade from the city council, infuriating it’s conservative mayor and several councilors.

Mayor Dick Hubbard said he would review local bylaws in a bid to prevent any more topless parades in Auckland.

“We do want a vibrant city (but) I think the parade does our image harm rather than good,” Hubbard said.

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) – Some have appeared naked in a downtown parking lot. Others rode their bicycles or simply strolled the streets in the nude.

Teenagers in the quaint Vermont town of Brattleboro are raising eyebrows this summer with brazen displays of nudity.

So far they haven’t been arrested or ticketed: public nudity isn’t illegal in the town of 13,000 people, unless it’s done to arouse sexual gratification.

Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.

When the weather grew hot this year, a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing only their birthday suits.

Nobody, including the police, seemed to take offense until one local, Theresa Toney, went before the town government in August to complain about a group of youngsters naked in a parking lot.

“The parking lot is not a strip club,” she said. “What about children seeing this?”

Town officials asked their attorney to draft an ordinance to ban such displays for the Select Board to vote on in September. When the teens heard about it, some staged a nude sit-in.

“I don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, browsing a thick volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Everyone’s naked in this book.”

His companion, Jeremiah Compton, a high school junior who plays in a local metal-and-punk band, agreed. “It’s just that we’re bored and expressing our right,” he said.

“We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed,” said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. “So why’s it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo’s subway has refused permission for an advertising poster featuring a nude and heavily pregnant Britney Spears, branding it “too stimulating” for young people.

The picture of the pop singer — nude but covering her breasts with her arms and crossing her legs at the knee — appeared in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar and will be on the cover of the magazine’s Japanese edition in October.

The publishers had hoped to display the cover photo for a week at a subway station in a trendy part of central Tokyo, but ran into resistance.

“We thought some of our customers would find it to be overly stimulating,” said a Tokyo Metro official.

Harper’s Bazaar could not be reached for comment.

Not all was lost. The Metro and the publishers agreed to display the poster after all but masked the picture below the former teen idol’s elbow with a statement reading: “We apologize for hiding part of a beautiful image of a mother-to-be.”

BERLIN (AFP) – A 25-year old psychology student ran away with the first foot race down Berlin’s swish Kurfuerstendamm boulevard in stiletto high heels.

It took Nadine Sonnabend just 12 seconds to run the 100 metres (328 feet) on her seven centimetre-high heels (almost three inch), said the organisers of the Stiletto Run, which is being held as part of the Global Fashion Festival.

“I much prefer tennis,” admitted Nadine, as she walked off with her 10,000-euro (12,800-dollar) voucher to spend at Berlin’s most prestigious department store KaDeWe, admitting that she rarely wears high heels.

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) – More than a dozen children of polygamist families spoke publicly at a Utah rally for the first time on Saturday about their lifestyle and called for more understanding.

“I’m the 14th child in a large family and I have several moms,” said Mary, 18. “All my mothers love me.”

Using only their first names to protect their families, 15 young men and women ranging in age from 10 to 20 addressed a pro-polygamy crowd of 200 to 300 in downtown Salt Lake City.

“I did not come here today to ask for permission to live my beliefs. I shouldn’t have to. I came here to defend a principle,” said 19-year-old Tyler.

Organizers of Saturday’s rally say plural families have historically avoided the spotlight, fearing criminal prosecution and ridicule. Polygamy is outlawed across the United States, but researchers estimate there are more than 30,000 practicing polygamists in Utah.

“There has been so much negative publicity about the polygamy lifestyle; we felt it was time to present the other side of the story,” said Anne Wilde, spokeswoman for the polygamy advocacy group Principal Voices.

“I just don’t think it’s for everybody but I also think it should be a free choice and what we would like to see is equal civil rights so people don’t lose their jobs or are ostracized for any reason.”

NOT BRAINWASHED

Ten-year-old Sarah told the boisterous crowd she gets her homework done faster because of the help from “lots of brothers and sisters.”

Seventeen-year-old Jessica called her several dozen siblings her best friends. “We’re not brainwashed, mistreated, neglected, malnourished, illiterate, defective or dysfunctional,” she said.

Most of the young men who spoke wore slacks, shirts and ties; the women wore long dresses and blouses.

Katherine, 16, told the crowd she hopes one day to become an attorney so she might “fight for the rights of others.”

Following the rally, Katherine’s mother Rachel said in an interview that when she grew up in polygamy there was much less openness.

“It is very historic … I was very proud that the younger generation is stepping up and saying what they believe,” said Rachel, who has three “sister-wives.”

“I think the next generation is saying I’m not going to hide anymore, I don’t want to live in fear like my parents did.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Utah, stopped the practice of polygamy in 1890 as a condition of statehood. They now excommunicate anyone practicing polygamy, although several splinter groups still practice it.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A parade of 30 topless porn stars riding motor bikes down the main street of New Zealand’s biggest city will go ahead, officials said Monday.

Auckland City Council Monday gave the “Boobs on Bikes” parade the green light, saying there was no legal reason to stop it despite concerns by some councilors that granting it a permit would add legitimacy to the event.

The parade, part of an “Erotica Expo” organized by local entrepreneur Steve Crow, will proceed down Auckland’s Queen Street from midday Wednesday.

Police earlier said they did not regard the parade of leather-clad porn stars as indecent.

“In the opinion of the police, given the standards of decency observed in this day and age, a female being topless in a parade on a weekday in Queen St will not in itself constitute an indecent act,” police inspector Rob Abbott wrote in a letter to The New Zealand Herald newspaper Monday.

However, the behavior of the participants during the parade might still attract the attention of police, he warned.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Condoms are very much in style as a fashion accessory at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, showing up on strait-laced men, shy teenagers and African grandmothers.

“There’s a great need to de-stigmatize condoms around the world, especially in Africa,” said Franck DeRose, executive director of The Condom Project, which aims to get people comfortable about condoms, especially those living in countries where the little piece of latex is considered taboo.

To do that, the project has a program that gets people making their own condom art pin. It all starts with a craft table, packaged condoms, scraps of colored paper, candy and other double-sided tape.

Toronto resident Maria Parish, 58, was making hers with a blue condom and blue and yellow paper. “I want something to symbolize the flag of Ukraine,” she said. “I am of Ukrainian descent and AIDS is a global problem.”

DeRose said that creating wearable art out of condoms attracts people who normally wouldn’t wear the prophylactics, let alone touch them or even utter the word.

“It opens the door,” said DeRose. “We find that we’re very, very successful.”

Almost 400,000 condoms have been decorated and turned into brooches or pins around the world including India, Thailand, Senegal and Burkina Faso, he said.

Just this week alone, about 30,000 of the pins have been decorated at the conference, DeRose said.

People from different cultures and backgrounds wear them, trade them and even argue over safe-sex related topics while making them, including when to broach the subject with kids, DeRose said.

“We’re not pushing it on people. They come to us and the information is there,” said DeRose, adding his group teams up with the local information groups in the communities where his team visits.

“I don’t think it’s healthy or appropriate to change a culture. But we can change the risky behavior within a community.”

DeRose, an artist from Washington, D.C., came up with the idea three years ago while talking about ways to get more people to wear condoms to fight the HIV epidemic. The program has since spread around the world.

“I have grandparents making them in Togo and Ethiopia. I have groups of heterosexual men making them in Washington,” said DeRose, 42.

He said he was also motivated by concern for his daughter, now 12, and 15-year-old son.

Adriana Bertini of Sao Paulo, Brazil, also was making a condom fashion statement. She had plastic mannequins sporting a dress made of orange condoms, a rose-colored mini, a blue harem outfit made of blue condoms, complete with a tight bodice and full-legged trousers.

“The idea is you will see it and think of AIDS,” said Bertini, who says she has been making her condom fashions for 10 years.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The 24-year-old man from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh admitted himself to a New Delhi hospital this week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said.

“Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary,” the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.

The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added.

The newspaper did not disclose the identity of the man or the hospital to protect the patient’s privacy.

There are about 100 such reported cases of diphallus around the world and it is known to occur among one in 5.5 million men, the newspaper said.

It is caused by the failure of the mesodermal bands in the embryo to fuse properly. The mesodermal bands are one of three primary layers of the embryo from which several body parts are formed.

LONDON (Reuters) – Up to 200 strip poker players will compete Saturday to see who will lose their shirts — and more — and who will scoop 10,000 pounds by retaining their clothes and modesty.

Organized by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, the inaugural World Strip Poker Championship takes place at the prestigious Cafe Royal in central London with players battling it out in games of “No Limit Texas Hold ‘em.”

“We are holding the competition because we got so much interest from our spoof April Fool this year about a strip poker competition that we thought, ‘why not? let’s do it for real,” Paddy Power’s Darren Haines told Reuters Friday.

He said players of both sexes from over 12 countries would battle it out for the “Gold Fig Leaf” trophy and the right to revel in the title of World Strip Poker Champion.

Aside from strict rules governing the poker play, Paddy Power has laid down clear guidelines on the stripping element — most importantly that each player starts the match by wearing five items of clothing supplied by the organizers.

Each contestant will be given a towel to sit on and to cover themselves when naked, but only after they have stripped completely.

“Inappropriate behavior,” will not be tolerated, said Paddy Power.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A centuries-old brothel teetering on the verge of collapse has red-faced Chinese officials pondering heritage versus morality behind closed doors, state media reported on Thursday.

A local government in Jinggang, a town in central Hunan province, must decide whether to restore crumbling Hongtaifang, a brothel established in 1733, and face the ire of residents who see it as debauched, Xinhua news agency said.

“The brothel was a place where women were humiliated in the old society,” Xinhua quoted Xiao Yisheng, a retired university professor, as saying.

“Its restoration could be seen as promoting prostitution.”

Tan Feng, a student from Xiao’s alma mater, begged to differ, saying the site was bound to prompt different reactions in different people.

“When I entered the brothel, it reminded me that it was a place where the ancients indulged in sensual pleasures,” Tan said.

The debate has spilt over on to the nation’s newspapers and internet chatrooms, with one commentator arguing that demolishing an ancient building would not stop prostitution.

Others, however, pointed out that China had protected other buildings linked to awkward aspects of history, including Xian’s World Heritage-listed terracotta warriors, housed in a mausoleum for Qinshihuang, one of China’s more ruthless dictators.

“The aim of protecting the historic relics is to make people aware of history,” Xinhua quoted Chai Xiaoming, a heritage official, as saying.

“Many relics with negative associations are well preserved in China,” he said.

PHOENIX – Police have arrested a man who they believe watched women shower, exposed himself and performed sex acts at nine mobile home and RV parks in Mesa.

Forty-five-year-old William Allen Holt Jr. of Gilbert was arrested on seven counts of public sexual indecency, one count of assault, one count of sexual abuse and four counts of making harassing telephone calls. Holt is married with two children.

“I worked sex crimes for 12 or 13 years and I thought I heard it all,” said Det. Jerry Gissel, a Mesa police spokesman. “This is how they get their sexual gratification.”

The incidents occurred at nine Mesa mobile home and RV parks, several of them clustered on East Main Street, between March and July 2006, police said.

Dan Martin, general manager of the Good Life RV Park, said a female resident reported that a man using an outdoor shower at about 7:30 a.m. last month exposed and fondled himself.

Jean Fogge, manager of the Mesa Spirit RV Park, said one resident in her park screamed when she saw a man peeking over the shower, and then the man left. She said she feels relieved by Wednesday’s arrest.

“I think it’s terrific,” Fogge said.

A resident at one of the parks took a photo of a car and license plate following one of the incidents. The photo led police to Holt. A police booking document said Holt worked for the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale for two months and has a history of misdemeanor convictions for indecent exposure, trespassing and theft.

When police confronted Holt Monday at his home, they say he admitted to most of the crimes but grabbed a gun hidden in a television cabinet and pointed it at himself.

Detectives retreated from the home and called in a SWAT team. After a three-hour standoff, police launched a chemical agent and Holt surrendered peacefully.

Holt was being held on a $180,000 bond at a Maricopa County Jail.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli woman’s breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hizbollah rocket attack during Israel’s war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old’s heart.

“She was saved from death,” said a spokesman for Nahariya Hospital in northern Israel. The woman has been released from hospital.

LONDON (AFP) – A British prostitute reportedly took a client to court after he admitted he could not afford to pay her after sex.

Tracy Harper complained to police after unemployed Matthew Bushell, 33, told her he could not afford the 720 pounds (1,000 euros, 1,400 dollars) he owed her for their six-hour liaison, the northwest England regional daily the Liverpool Echo reported.

Bushell from Southport, near Liverpool, was bankrupt and owed 15,000 pounds from using phone sex lines and escort girls, the evening newspaper added in its court report from the town.

He pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining sexual services and was made subject to a two-year supervision order. Magistrates also ordered him to pay 65 pounds in court costs at a hearing on Monday.

No compensation order was made for Harper, from Bradford, northern England.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) – A Brazilian man died Tuesday when he tried to open what police believe was a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer in a mechanical workshop on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Another man who was in the workshop at the time of the explosion was rushed to a hospital with severe burns, a police officer told Reuters. The workshop was destroyed and several cars parked outside caught fire.

Police found several unexploded army issue rocket-propelled grenades in the workshop. They believe the ammunition had been brought there by scavengers wanting to sell them as scrap metal, but they also are investigating a possible link to Rio’s heavily armed drug gangs who often raid military bases.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A Montana man who used his work computer to access child pornography does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy that would bar a search of the machine, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Ziegler had argued that his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures should prevent the government from using evidence that he had viewed many images of child pornography at work.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco cited similar past cases and found that even if some people lament the lack of privacy at work, the law was against Ziegler.

“Social norms suggest that employees are not entitled to privacy in the use of workplace computers, which belong to their employers and pose significant dangers in terms of diminished productivity and even employer liability,” Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote for a three-judge panel.

“Employer monitoring is largely an assumed practice, and thus we think a disseminated computer-use policy is entirely sufficient to defeat any expectation that an employee might nonetheless harbor.”

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s strippers.

An Australian church is trying to stop the proprietors of a nightclub from going ahead with plans to feature nude shows when it opens in a building owned by the church Friday.

The dean of St David’s Anglican Cathedral in Hobart, capital of the southern island state of Tasmania, is upset that the nightclub next door has been handing out flyers promising full frontal nudity when it opens.

The church has served the bar with a notice demanding an undertaking that no such activity takes place, and has threatened legal action if the opening night show goes ahead.

Church dean Reverend Lindsay Stoddart said the nightclub appeared to be in breach of “moral covenants” in the lease which prevent the building from being used for “immoral purposes.”

But Players Sports Bar proprietor Colin Latham has vowed it will be full steam ahead with the show, which he said features eight “showgirls.”

One of the dancers rejected suggestions they were being exploited, saying she and two others were university students and another was a real estate investor.

“We are making the most of what we have got,” biotechnology student and dancer Savannah told the Mercury newspaper.

“We make sure we are always in control of the situation.”

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai cultural watchdogs have banned a line of condoms whose name translates as “Good Penetration,” saying the suggestive label could draw youngsters into having sex earlier, newspapers reported Tuesday.

The condoms are actually named “Tom Dundee” after the stage name of a popular country singer, but Culture Ministry officials said this was inappropriate and offended good norms and culture, the Thai Rath tabloid said.

“Dundee” in Thai means “Good Penetration.”

“Although the name is not vulgar or rude, it is ambiguous, boastful and provocative,” said Ladda Tangsupachai of the Cultural Watch Center.

“It could entice excessive consumption and lure children and youths with little maturity to start having sexual activities before their appropriate age,” she added.

Dundee, whose real name is Puntiva Poomiprates, defended lending his stage name to the condom brand.

He said he was merely following a government policy to promote safe sex in a country where over 500,000 people have HIV or AIDS, and indicators point to climbing infection rates among the young.

“You can’t stop human desire, no matter how old they are, so it is better to protect them,” Puntiva told Reuters, adding that he had been telling his audiences about the risks of AIDS and unwanted pregnancy for years.

In Thailand, condom producers have to seek approval from both the Health and Culture ministries.

FORT PAYNE, Alabama – Gerald Lynn Kelley decided to protest the war in Iraq by walking along a highway in a cowboy hat and boots. Just a cowboy hat and boots.

He said he realizes he broke the law and does not encourage streaking, but he hopes the incident encourages people to speak out against the war. Kelley, 52, was charged with public lewdness in the July 30 incident.

“My dad told me years ago if you’ve got a stubborn mule, you’ve got to hit him across the head with a 2-by-4 in order to get his attention,” he said.

Kelley said he regrets a church event was occurring in a nearby park at the time of his protest. He said he marched in the opposite direction.

Deputy Mike James said deputies were sent to Hammondville after receiving calls about two men walking nude along U.S. 11. The other man could not be found.

Kelley, out of jail on a $1,500 bond, would not comment on anyone else’s involvement.

How human the up-and-coming business of space tourism will be! Early space tourists will marvel at the view, but as orbital vacations become more affordable, space tourists will include couples who want to experience space and weightlessness together. Sex in Space is the “killer app” that will transform space tourism into a mega business. Making love with a view of the Earth below may be the ultimate aphrodisiac for space buffs. But, let’s think about the implications of space-based sex for a moment. The sex-in-space revolution is about to begin!

Many have wondered what it might be like to make love in space. The passionate couples who book flights to the very first space hotel will be more than excited to try zero-g sex. From what I’ve learned while working on my soon-to-be-released book, Sex in Space, I’ve come to the conclusion that honeymoons in space and out-of-this-world sex will be a reality within a decade.

Some people believe that space sex will be a frustrating experience and that lovers will give up. No way! Weightless couples will find a way to get together. I’ve written an entire chapter in my Sex in Space book where I suggest ways to, shall we say, accomplish things, but it’s too much to cover here. I’m not advocating that people go into space and have casual sex. I’m advocating that people take romantic vacations in space with their significant other, preferably their soul mate. The bottom line is that sex in space will probably take some practice and hard work at first. Since people are very creative, I have no doubt that it will make for a wonderful otherworldly experience.

On a cautionary note, men and women in their childbearing years will need to be careful not to conceive a child while in space since it may be dangerous to the mother and baby. Based on animal experiments, we know that fetal development is affected in space. Bones, muscles (including the heart), and neurology, will simply not develop properly without Earth gravity. We also know that human hormones and even sperm motility are affected by the lack of gravity. Radiation is a serous problem too, even in Earth orbit where our magnetic field protects us somewhat.

What we don’t know is how conception may be affected in humans. There are so many questions that need to be answered. For example, is human conception in space even possible? Will a fertilized embryo attach properly to the uterus wall? Are life-threatening ectopic pregnancies more likely in weightlessness? How will reentry acceleration affect a mother and fetus? Are the higher radiation levels of Earth orbit likely to cause problems with the first cell divisions? It may be perfectly safe to conceive in orbit, but we just don’t know enough to take that chance with the health and happiness of a child.

To prevent pregnancy, couples may rely on oral contraceptives, but there is no proof that this method of birth control will be effective in space. Many drugs that are effective on Earth don’t work as well, or at all, in space. Tests on astronauts in orbit suggest that some drugs aren’t absorbed as well in zero gravity.

We simply need to know more. We need more research into conception and fetal development in animals, especially primates, before we can feel comfortable enough to conceive human space babies. NASA is drastically cutting back its biology programs to make more money available for Moon missions, so the money just isn’t available. I’m afraid that the first experiment will be done unintentionally by space honeymooners, and with tragic results.

Sex in space will happen, and therefore it’s a legitimate topic to explore. The sex drive is a basic part of our nature. It drives sex and love, the expansion of our families, and even our exploration of the unknown. We can’t afford to be ashamed of sex. That will only prevent us from looking into the risks and possibilities. If we are to follow our hearts and create a civilization in space, we will need to address the possibilities of sex and reproduction in Earth orbit and beyond. Think about it, the first space babies will be space aliens in some ways.

The sex in space revolution is about to begin, and that’s wonderful. But before it does, we need to be sure that we know what we’re doing. I call on all the space agencies, especially NASA, to do more testing. It would be easy, for example, to test the blood of women astronauts who are on oral contraceptives while in space to measure the drug’s effectiveness in orbit. If the space agencies are unwilling, then it’s up to the personal spaceflight companies to take responsibility before sending couples on orbital honeymoons.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German scientist has been testing an “anti-stupidity” pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

It said Hans-Hilger Ropers, director at Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, has tested a pill thwarting hyperactivity in certain brain nerve cells, helping stabilise short-term memory and improve attentiveness.

“With mice and fruit flies we were able to eliminate the loss of short-term memory,” Ropers, 62, is quoted saying in the German newspaper, which has dubbed it the “world’s first anti-stupidity pill.”

LONDON (Reuters) – Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe’s first “Masturbate-a-thon”, a leading reproductive healthcare charity said on Friday.

Marie Stopes International, which is hosting the event with HIV/ AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday.

“It is a bit of a publicity stunt but we hope it will raise awareness,” a Marie Stopes spokeswoman told Reuters.

“We want to get people talking about safer sex, masturbation and to lift taboos.”

Participants, who have to be over 18, can bring any aids they need and can take part in four different rooms — a comfort area, a mixed area, along with men and women only areas.

However, the rules on the event’s Web site states there can be no touching of other participants nor are people allowed to fake orgasms.

“The amount you raise will be determined by how many minutes you masturbate and/or how many orgasms you achieve,” the Web site said.

The Marie Stopes spokeswoman said local religious groups had been initially outraged, but after people had heard what the event was about, most had approved it.

Police had also given it their approval.

Similar events have been staged in San Francisco for the last six years raising $25,000 (13,000 pounds) for women’s health initiatives and HIV prevention. If successful, Marie Stopes said it could take place elsewhere in mainland Europe next year.

MELBOURNE, Australia – A cross-dressing bandit on skates who robbed a bank across the street from his home was sentenced to prison Friday.

Nino Leo Lanu, 32, was wearing a skirt, wig, makeup and fake breasts as he brandished a replica gun while robbing a National Australia Bank branch in the southern city of Melbourne in February, a prosecutor told the County Court of Victoria state.

Lanu, a regular branch customer, rolled away on inline skates with 24,000 Australian dollars ($18,260) in cash.

Lanu pleaded guilty to armed robbery, a firearm offense and growing cannabis. He was sentenced to six years in prison with a non-parole period of 42 months.

Judge John Smallwood described the crime as premeditated and serious, although he accepted Lanu was an “emotionally and socially disconnected young man.”

PORTLAND, Ore. – Panty thief Sung Koo Kim may face about nine years in prison for stealing thousands of pairs of underwear from college dorm rooms, laundry rooms and campus-area apartments.

He was sentenced in Multnomah County on Wednesday to an extra 18 months in prison, for a total of more than 11 years. Under the plea agreement he signed, he could get out after about nine years, given time off for good behavior and credit for the time he’s spent in local jails since he was arrested in 2004.

Kim, 32, pleaded guilty to college-area burglaries and underwear thefts in Yamhill and Washington counties in 2003 and 2004.

He also has been sentenced to serve time in Yamhill County while undergoing mental health treatment, and he is expected to plead guilty to similar charges in Benton County, where prosecutors have agreed to ask that the sentence run at the same time as the Multnomah County sentence.

“I would just like to apologize to the victims for any inconvenience it may have caused them . . . or any anguish or suffering,” Kim said in the courtroom.

When investigators searched Kim’s Tigard bedroom, they found more than 3,400 pairs of underwear and other pieces of women’s clothing, along with dryer lint and human hair, marked with information as to where the clothing was taken, and stuffed into boxes, duffel bags and backpacks. His home computer contained more than 40,000 pornographic images, mostly depicting rape, torture and killings.

Prosecutors called Kim a danger to the public. His attorneys said psychiatrists who interviewed him indicated he was not violent but suffered from depression and an underwear fetish.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Police in the German city of Aachen received an unusual call for help late Wednesday when a woman telephoned to complain her husband was not fulfilling his sexual obligations.

After the couple had been sleeping in separate beds for several months without intimate contact, the 44-year-old woman woke the husband, 45, in the middle of the night and demanded he satisfy her needs, police spokesman Paul Kemen said Thursday.

When her advances were refused, a row broke out and she called the police and asked them to intervene, he added.

“The police officials did not feel able to resolve the dispute, let alone issue any kind of official order,” Kemen said.

“And because no crime or infringement could be identified, all they could do was file a report in case intervention might be required at a later date,” he added.

PARIS – Worried about an excess of flesh visible on the banks of the River Seine, Paris City Hall has banned thong bikinis, topless sunbathing and nudity at the summer sand-in-the-city event known as Paris Beaches, Le Parisien newspaper reported Saturday.

Violators will be fined $48, the report said.

Thongs and “monokinis” — or bottom-only bikinis — are common sights on France’s Mediterrannean and Atlantic shores.

Paris was pushed to forbid “indecent attire” because it could “provoke temptation and dangerous behavior along the bank of a river,” Pascal Cherki, mayoral aide in charge of sports, was quoted as saying.

City officials responsible for Paris Beaches could not be reached for comment Saturday. It was unclear why the ban was only imposed this year, the fifth year of the popular event.

Mayor Bertand Delanoe inaugurated Paris Plages in 2002, filling sections of the left and right banks of the Seine with sand and installing spray misters, hammocks, parasols and other beach-style accoutrements.

The monthlong event attracted 3.8 million people last year, and this year has pulled in many seeking relief from record heat.