PARIS (Reuters) – France will not ban skinny models from Paris catwalks but will introduce a voluntary charter to make the fashion industry more aware of the health risks of being very thin, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Designers, model agencies and others in the fashion industry have been widely attacked for promoting an emaciated look which critics say contributes to eating disorders in young women.

Countries like Spain, Italy, Brazil and India have taken steps to keep underweight models off their catwalks due to such concerns, which drew wide media attention following the deaths of two anorexic Latin American models in 2006.

The French Health Ministry official said a commission reviewing the issue would not recommend a blanket ban.

“We are very close to an agreement on a voluntary charter of engagement for the fashion industry, the media and advertising,” he said.

“The idea of it is not regulation like the Spanish have done … but to promote a strong campaign of awareness and information in the fashion industry,” he added.

Fashion is big business in France. Luxury goods that are often advertised by young thin models who appear in posters and on catwalks, account for a large chunk of exports.

“It doesn’t achieve anything to point fingers, blame or stigmatize the designers or model agencies,” the official said.

The head of the French fashion federation had said in January that Paris would not take extra measures to ban ultra-thin models from catwalks because rules on their health were strict enough. However, concern remains.

“We must take a stand. When the girls weigh a kilo too much they are seen as failures,” Paris town councilor Violette Baranda told Le Parisien newspaper. “There are some twisted designers who are making women thinner and thinner.”

The Paris city council voted this week to pressure fashion show organizers to stop using skinny girls but the Health Ministry said it was symbolic and could not force fashion industry to change its habits.

Lebanese designer Elie Saab told Reuters in a recent interview he preferred women with curves.

But Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld defended his models last year. “They have skinny bones,” he said.

The issue was back on front pages this week after Donatella Versace, who owns part of one of Italy’s most famous fashion houses, said her daughter was suffering from the eating disorder anorexia.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two accused members of a notorious New York crime family turned a strip club into a training ground for mobsters, prosecutors told the jury on Thursday in closing arguments in a Mafia extortion trial.

Salvatore “Fat Sal” Scala, 64, an accused Gambino crime family captain, and Thomas “Monk” Sassano, 61, an alleged soldier in Scala’s crew, both face extortion charges in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors said the men used the VIP Club to host lavish parties for business associates and extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from the club.

“Scala and Sassano used that club as a junior varsity” to groom future mobsters, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig, referring to a training squad of a high school sports team.

Defence attorneys countered that the men were protecting legitimate business interests as investors in the VIP Club.

If convicted, Scala faces a maximum of 60 years in prison and Sassano faces 40 years.

Honig said the then-owner of the club, Frank Marcello, sought help from the Gambino crime family to protect it against other members of organized crime. Marcello died in 2002.

Scala installed several underlings in bogus jobs at the club, prosecutors said. They conducted mob business, including one they called “the bathroom extortioner” for using the lavatory to collect payments.

Sassano was brought in to do Scala’s bidding after Scala was sent to prison on an unrelated extortion charge in 2001, prosecutors said.

Biweekly payments of thousands of dollars were funnelled up to Scala to “keep the peace,” according to prosecution witness, Steve Aslind, a club co-manager.

Defence attorneys Ronald Rubenstein and Lindy Urso said the club’s financial woes were not due to ties to organised crime but because the club’s managers failed to pay taxes and one ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling debts.

The jury will continue deliberations Friday.

PULLMAN, Wash. – A man was charged with theft and burglary after police said they found 93 pounds of women’s panties, brassieres and other underwear at his home.

Investigators believe Garth M. Flaherty, 24, took as many as 1,500 undergarments from apartment complex laundry rooms before he was caught, police Cmdr. Chris Tennant said.

A man was seen taking underwear from two laundry rooms Saturday, a witness recorded his license number, and Flaherty was identified from photographs, Tennant said.

Police found enough underwear in his bedroom to fill five garbage bags, Tennant said.

“He said he had a problem,” Tennant said.

Flaherty has been jailed on 12 counts of second-degree burglary and one of first-degree theft.

Police had previously received 12 reports of underwear thefts in the northeast part of town, where Washington State University is located.

“We were kind of concerned about how to match up bras and panties with victims,” Tennant said. “Based on the unique descriptions from a couple of women, we can tie him to those thefts.”

The underwear will be held as evidence until the case is resolved, after which their disposition is uncertain, Tennant said.

“Would you really want them back?” he asked. “I would say not.”

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – A cameraman was caught with some creepy video footage. The man was surreptitiously videotaping female feet in the science library at University of California, Santa Cruz, campus police said. “Officers indicated he was embarrassed by his behavior,” university spokesman Jim Burns said Monday. “He offered no resistance to the request that he leave immediately and indicated he would not be back.”

It’s not illegal to videotape feet so no charges were filed. The name of the man, who was in his 40s and had no affiliation with the university, wasn’t disclosed. He was banned from the campus for two weeks.

Vince Nova, manager of the Science and Engineering Library, said the man was seen pointing a small video camera in the vicinity of three students’ feet. One of the students confronted the cameraman and he fled.

One of the female students spotted him again last Wednesday, and campus police were called. A campus officer searched the man’s bag and inspected the camera.

“From the taped contents of his camera, the subject of his filming seemed to be ‘feet,’” the officer wrote in his report.

Graduate student Nellie Chu said she wasn’t concerned.

“It’s odd, but I don’t think there’s any need to jump to conclusions,” Chu said. “Maybe he was doing research.”

MADISON, Wis. – Willow trees lining the Mazomanie nude beach on the Wisconsin River have been removed to reduce alleged sexual activity and provide more sun for nesting turtles, the state Department of Natural Resources says

“These willows just became a cruising area for people looking for sexual activity out there,” Steve Colden, the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway’s property manager, said Monday in an interview with The Capital Times of Madison.

The nude beach has been used by naturists for more than 50 years.

Bob Morton, executive director of the Naturist Action Committee, said his Oshkosh-based group approved of the DNR’s attempts to control sexual activity on the beach.

“If there is overt sexual activity in public, it jeopardizes the beach,” he said.

“Naturists do know the difference between nudity and sex and we wish everyone did.”

Colden said cutting the willow trees would also help soft-shell and hard-shell turtles which nest on the beach. A DNR biologist noticed a decrease in the number of nesting turtles because the beach had become too shaded by the willows, he said.

A wooded area next to the beach will also be closed to the public from April 1 to Sept. 15 to prevent sexual activity from moving there, Colden said.

Ralph Ovadal, pastor of Pilgrims Covenant Church in Monroe, and a small group of his followers started protesting at the beach in 1998. He was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $1,000 for harassing a sunbather in 2001.

He praised the DNR’s decision to cut down the trees.

“I do hope the day is not far off,” Ovadal said, “when Mazo beach is once again fully restored to its original use as a wildlife area and available for the enjoyment of all the citizens of Wisconsin, rather than being a mecca for individuals who have a desire to parade themselves stark naked on public property in front of children.”

TRENTON, N.J. – A man who touted himself as “Pimp of the Year” was sentenced Friday to more than 23 years in federal prison. Matthew “Knowledge” Thompkins pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to transport minors to engage in prostitution and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

Authorities said that the Bronx, N.Y., man had prostitutes working for him in New York; Atlantic City; Las Vegas; Philadelphia; Youngstown, Ohio, and other cities.

When he was arrested in December 2005, authorities found two huge trophies in his home proclaiming him “Pimp of the Year.”

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson asking for leniency, Thompkins, 37, wrote that at times he and the prostitutes who worked for him — some of them as young as 14 — “bonded as a family.”

Wolfson was unmoved. She gave him nearly the maximum sentence.

“You wouldn’t send your sister or your daughter out to do that,” she said. “That’s no family.”

One former prostitute, Melissa Smith, spoke at the sentencing, saying she was practically a slave.

“If he gets out, I know he’ll do it again,” she said. “That’s all he ever talks about — pimping and ho-ing.”

A Thompkins associate, Demetrius Lemus, 37, of Bronx, N.Y., also was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.

Five women have also pleaded guilty in the case and are awaiting sentencing.

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korean automakers will hire fewer sexy models for next month’s Seoul Motor Show because they want visitors to admire the cars rather than the girls, a report said Wednesday.

Hyundai Motor, the nation’s largest automaker, has hired 36 female models compared to 46 two years ago, the Korea Times reported. Its affiliate Kia Motors will reduce the number of models by eight this year to 36, with other automakers following suit.

Fewer models will wear miniskirts or sleeveless tops, the paper said.

“There has been criticism that the shows are not motor shows but model shows,” a Hyundai official was quoted as saying. “With the reduction of female models, our new cars will be the main focus.”

SYDNEY (Reuters) – New Zealand opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who refused to perform with an Australian singer because his female fans threw underwear at him, on Wednesday won a lawsuit against her for pulling out of the concert.

The New Zealand soprano pulled out of a series of concerts with Australian rock singer John Farnham in 2005 after watching a DVD in which female fans threw underwear at him on stage.

The promoter of the concert sued Dame Kiri in the New South Wales Supreme Court, claiming A$2 million (US$1.6 million) in damages for breaching her contract.

During the case, Dame Kiri told the court that she was embarrassed by the underwear throwing and found it offensive that Farnham collected them as “some sort of trophy.”

She said it would be disrespectful to her if she performed.

Judge Patricia Bergin dismissed the case against Dame Kiri on Wednesday, ruling the promoter failed to establish its case, reported local media from the court in Sydney.

But the judge ruled that the company which employed the soprano should pay the concert promoter A$128,000 for costs.

LONDON (Reuters) – Lap-dancers at one of the country’s biggest strip clubs must pay their own VAT bills, a senior judge ruled on Friday.

In a High Court ruling that could affect dancers at other venues, Mr Justice Mann said it was the women and not their club, Spearmint Rhino, who should foot the bill.

He backed the chain’s argument that the self-employed dancers provide the entertainment on offer, rather than the club.

“The women are not employed by the club. They are all self-employed,” Mann said. “They pay a sum to the club which allows them to ply their trade for a session of eight hours.”

Mann said an earlier decision by the VAT and Duties Tribunal that Spearmint Rhino should pay the bill was wrong.

Describing the services provided, the judge said: “A member of the public pays 8 pounds for admission and on entering goes into an area in which he, or she, may drink, socialise, eat and watch partially clad women dancing on a podium.

“At any one time, depending on the day, time of day and availability, there are between 20 and 140 young women available to provide the entertainment services in issue.

“Some of them will be those dancing on the podium. These proceedings do not, at least directly, concern that activity.

“The activities which concern me are those provided as a result of more direct engagement between the women and the customer.

“For a sum of money, the women can be engaged to perform private dances for the customer. A fee of 10 pounds is charged for a semi-nude dance; 20 pounds is charged for a nude dance. Each dance lasts for a ‘track’, about three minutes.

“In addition to those services, the dancer and the customer can agree what is called a ‘sit-down’.

“For 250 pounds, a sum which is in fact negotiable, a woman can be engaged to sit and socialise with the customer for an hour.”

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs had argued that the entertainment services were supplied by the club to the customer, through the dancers they had engaged.

MESA, Ariz. – A Phoenix television station fired an employee suspected of inserting pornography into a broadcast of a news show featuring former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

The unnamed worker for ION Media Networks’ KPPX-TV “was immediately terminated and faces further legal action” after an investigation determined who was responsible for the March 12 incident, spokeswoman Leslie Monreal said in a statement.

Palm Beach, Fla.-based ION Media Networks, which offers family-friendly programs, called the incident “an intolerable act of human sabotage” and apologized to viewers. About 30 seconds of porn was inserted into the broadcast.

Monreal said in a statement released late last week that the images of sex acts only appeared in the Phoenix market.

The images prompted a flood of calls to local news media outlets and the cable television provider.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s answer to Viagra is a traditional herb the country has picked to spearhead its push into biotechnology, but now it faces the challenge of convincing the world the remedy is both potent and safe.

Surging interest in the herb, “tongkat ali,” has spawned dozens of products, from pills to beverages, that play up its reputed aphrodisiac properties, and could even threaten the sway overseas of ginseng, a more-widely established remedy in Asia.

Generations of aging Malaysian men have sworn by the rejuvenation effects of “tongkat ali,” scouring the countryside for it so eagerly that it has almost vanished from all but the deepest rainforest, and now has the status of a protected plant.

Scientific studies show that concoctions of “tongkat ali” can help hormone production, making rats and mice more frisky, but have yet to prove it can reliably produce the same effect in humans, researchers say.

“It can have different effects on different people,” said Abdul Razak, head of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, which is driving research and commercial production of the herb.

“For me, it gives the energy to play a game of golf without getting tired, but has no other effects,” said Razak, who takes two capsule supplements of the herb before each weekly game to increase his stamina.

“Tongkat ali,” which scientists call Eurycoma longifolia, is a slender evergreen shrub with bitter, brownish-red fruit that is native to Malaysia and Indonesia.

All parts of the plant which grows up to 10 meters (33 ft) tall can be chopped up fine and boiled in water to make the traditional medicine.

As Malaysia looks to biotechnology for economic growth, scientists are taking a harder look at the aphrodisiac qualities of tongkat ali, which means the “walking-stick of Ali,” in Malay, and they say it could spawn drugs to treat cancer and malaria.

PREPARING FOR COMMERCIAL USE

Five years of research studies in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States have helped to identify the key compounds in the herb, Razak said.

“All these compounds have been found, have been tested and have been patented, and we are now in the process of carrying out clinical studies, and hopefully after some time we might even commercialize this,” he added.

A Malaysian industry and government group says the rapidly growing global market for aphrodisiacs is worth about $4 billion and could reach nearly $7 billion by 2012, but plans for “tongkat ali” to grab a share of this pie hinge on proving it is safe.

In Taiwan this year, Taipei city officials banned six brands of coffee from supermarkets because they contained “tongkat ali,” saying the plant had not been evaluated for safe use, although there were no confirmed reports of side-effects, newspapers said.

The episode in January stirred indignation in Malaysia, where some officials publicly defended the herb, saying its safety and efficacy had been demonstrated by hundreds of years of use.

Others said the incident showed how far Malaysia still has to go to prove its claims for the herb.

“We’ve still got a lot of homework to do as a nation,” said M. Rajen, chief executive of Tropical Botanics Sdn Bhd, which counts among its products Malaysia’s most popular fish-oil brand.

Makers of ginseng, which has a global market of about $2 billion a year, according to some industry estimates, would be ruthless in battling competition from “tongkat ali,” he said.

“What we see in Taiwan and elsewhere is an example of this ruthlessness,” Rajen added. “Because we have not done our homework, we cannot fight it.”

But Malaysia is confident it will convince the world. Officials of Power Root Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which exports tea and coffee drinks containing the herb to Japan and South Korea, have said they are looking to the United States and the Middle East.

“One day ‘tongkat ali’ will be marketed internationally, even in Harrods of London,” Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said in January, at the launch of a $7 million biotech research center that will study ways to clone the herb.

At the Forest Research Institute, workers in white protective gear poured sacks of the herb into gleaming stainless steel dryers and grinders to turn out powder for capsules.

“It’s high time for ‘tongkat ali’ now,” said researcher Mohamad Shahidan, grinning through his face mask. “Everybody wants to try it.”

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A photograph of a young Australian policewoman’s breasts, sent to her boyfriend as a get well message on her mobile phone, has sparked an investigation after it was circulated on internal police e-mail.

The Victoria state police constable was in her police uniform with her name badge visible, her shirt undone and her breasts exposed when she was photographed, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported on Monday.

The image was circulated widely through the force’s internal e-mail, landing in the inboxes of top-ranking officers and ethical standards department detectives.

“She has sent an image to her boyfriend and obviously he has done the wrong thing and forwarded it on,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP.

“The ethical standards department has been notified. They are aware of the incident, which involved the circulation of a photograph, and they are examining it to see if an offence has been committed.”

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – An online gambling site is inviting macabre bets on whether Heather Mills’ prosthetic leg will fall off during her participation in US television show “Dancing with the Stars.”

The Antigua-based Bodog.com is inviting punters to lay money on whether Mills, the estranged wife of Beatle Sir Paul McCartney who lost her leg in a 1993 traffic accident, would suffer a mishap in the show.

The site made a “No” outcome the heavy favorite, and said Mills’s leg “must fall off, not be purposely taken off, during a dance routine for all ‘Yes’ wagers to be graded a win.”

Other bets on the site included: “Will a contestant throw up on stage during American Idol 6?”

The fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars,” in which couples — a star and a professional dancer — compete, is scheduled to begin on March 19 with a line-up of 11 celebrities.

Former model Mills told syndicated US celebrity TV show Extra last week that she wanted to show people that “even with a prosthetic leg you can dance.”

“It’s very unlikely my leg’s going to fly off even though it would be quite funny to knock one of the judges out,” Mills told an interviewer.

Mills and McCartney announced their separation in May 2006 after four years of marriage and the birth of a daughter. The couple’s impending divorce has generated a slew of mutual accusations and bitter fighting.

THE HAGUE (AFP) – Celebrity ex-wives will urge anguished divorcees to burn their wedding gowns in an act of liberation as part of a new series planned for Dutch and French television.

“Ex-Wives Club” will see three famous divorcees, including Rosalie van Breemen, the former spouse of actor Alain Delon, advise other women on how to get over their break-up, Dutch programme makers RTL said on Tuesday.

The show begins on channel RTL 5 on Monday and a version starring the ex-wives of American actor George Clooney, English singer Brian Ferry and a former minister is also being considered for French channel TF1.

“A pilot show has been taped and TF1 will probably make a series,” Van Breemen told Dutch news agency ANP.

In the show, she helps the divorced contestants express their anger in several ways, including by burning their wedding dresses, RTL said.

The former model told the Dutch news agency ANP that the French version would be more restrained than the original, something she regretted, saying the Dutch show was “more harsh and dramatic”.

SALINAS, Calif. – A 69-year-old woman filed a wrongful termination and sexual harassment lawsuit against a Monterey auto dealer and one of its employees. Velma Evans says she was fired by Stahl Motor Inc. after she repeatedly complained about a male employee who allegedly wore a penis pendant necklace and used a sausage to flash her in a sexual manner.

Auto dealer Bob Stahl declined comment. Employee Kurt Aiken said Monday the allegations are baseless, noting he was merely eating the sausage and wearing a necklace with a religious icon.

Evans was a part-time customer service manager at the dealership for 18 years, according to the lawsuit.

Her troubles began on Dec. 13, 2001, when Aiken called out to her, as he was exposing a sausage through his unbuttoned shirt or unzipped pants, the suit said. She complained to Stahl and Stahl and the employee wrote letters acknowledging the “untoward incident,” the suit said.

Aiken wrote that “we fool around in the shop sometimes between the guys and as guys do.”

Evans continued to work at the company for more than four years until Aug. 17, 2006, when a customer told her Aiken had joked about the sausage incident and was regularly wearing a necklace with likenesses of a monkey and a penis hanging from it, the suit said.

Evans went to Stahl to say she was embarrassed and humiliated that Aiken would joke about the harassment to a customer. Stahl then allegedly told her to leave.

SACRAMENTO – The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has reopened an internal investigation to determine whether two female deputies broke the law when they engaged in telephone sex with jail inmates.

The announcement by Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness comes after the two deputies involved resigned. At the time, McGinness said the resignations would end further investigation.

The conversations were discovered by another jail employee who was listening to recorded inmate phone calls as part of a separate investigation, said Capt. Scott Jones, the jail commander.

Each deputy took part in more than 10 phone calls with the inmates over several weeks earlier this year, he said.

State law prohibits law enforcement officers from engaging in sexual activity with inmates. Investigators have said there was no evidence either of the deputies engaged in any physical sexual contact with inmates.

“On an individual level, I think it’s a black eye for those two deputies,” Jones said. “I’m certain that right now they are very remorseful about their actions, but it was their actions.

Sheriff’s officials would not release the deputies’ names. Both are married to other deputies in the department.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A brothel in Germany hopes to capitalise on the growing number of pensioners by offering them a 50 percent discount for sex in the afternoon.

The “Pascha” in the western city of Cologne has introduced reduced rates for sex sessions for clients aged 66 and above — provided they can prove they are old enough.

“All clients need to do is show us some proof of age,” said a spokesman for the brothel’s managing director Armin Lobscheid. “A ‘normal session’ costs 50 euros (34.20 pounds) with us — and we’re now paying 50 percent of that for these older guests.”

“We don’t earn as much money, but we’re establishing ourselves across a broader range of age groups,” he added.

After testing the water with reductions for senior citizens once a week, the Pascha decided earlier this month to offer 50 percent off sex services between midday and 5 p.m. every day.

“There’s been plenty of demand and people have certainly been taking advantage of the offer,” the spokesman said. “Older folks are more active than you think.”

The brothel’s Web site is keen to stress this point.

“Life begins at 66!” it says in an advert for its “senior citizens afternoon” next to a picture of a motorcycle rider.

CONCORD, N.H. – A former court security officer has been convicted of offering to pay a couple behind on a fine $20 an hour to have sex while he watched. The couple testified that they were skeptical when Robert Theriault told them they would be testing sheets and condoms as part of an insurance company survey to see if they increased sperm count.

But they said they ultimately trusted Theriault, who resigned as a Franklin District Court security officer in December 2005 after being accused of the crime, because he worked for the court.

The couple said they agreed to Theriault’s offer because they needed money to pay a $500 speeding fine.

“At first I thought it was a joke,” the man testified. “But every time I asked a question about it, he was right there with a response. So I began to think he was telling the truth.”

The couple reported Theriault in 2006 after they read news accounts about another man who had accused the former court officer of a similar offer.

Theriault, 49, who was convicted Tuesday, took the stand in his own defense and said he only offered the couple, whom he met in court, jobs in a restaurant. Theriault faces a maximum of two years in jail and a $4,000 fine when he is sentenced.

New Hampshire’s prostitution laws prohibit people from offering to pay for sex whether it involves themselves or other people.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Police found more than 4,000 pieces of lingerie in the home of a Japanese construction worker who used climbing skills developed on his job to steal women’s underwear.

Police believe that Shigeo Kodama, 54, amassed the 3,977 panties, 355 bras and 10 pairs of stockings over a six-year period. He was arrested in February after he stole underwear from two houses, and police later raided his home.

“Since he was a construction worker, as long as he had a place to put his feet he was able to climb, so he had no trouble getting up to the second floor of apartment buildings,” a police spokesman in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima said.

“He didn’t steal any other kinds of clothing. But as long as it was underwear, apparently anything would do,” the spokesman added.

LONDON (Reuters) – They are flirtatious, love to target older men, are weighed down with designer accessories and within minutes of meeting a man want to know his bank balance.

Watch out! Toxic Wife Syndrome is rampant and droves of gold diggers are prowling in search of rich prey to join the tribe.

So says journalist Tara Winter Wilson whose guide to spotting a potential toxic wife touched a raw nerve with hordes of victims contacting her about the so-called syndrome.

Her warning is stark: “Unless you marry an equal who is going to pay her own way, you will end up with a lazy, indulgent, over-pampered slug.”

“Marriage is being clouded by Toxic Wife Syndrome. Ridiculous amounts of money keep being awarded to these women in divorce settlements.”

Winter Wilson, staggered by the flood of heartfelt feedback she got after first naming the syndrome in a lifestyle article for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, said: “Many women see it as a career choice.”

“After leaving university, they stay on the party circuit until they trap someone. They try to get the most by doing the least. They develop an extraordinary sense of entitlement, becoming very judgmental and shrewish,” she told Reuters.

She said she had hate mail from women who accused her of being a misogynist who also betrayed feminism.

Stoutly defending her stand, Winter Wilson argued: “The toxic wife is a complete disservice to women. It does us no favours. Stay-at-home mothers should be applauded, not reviled.”

“I think the stigma of being at home and looking after children should be taken away. The toxic wife thinks she is above it all. It makes me burn with anger.”

She was prompted into print after a young male banker approached her at a party and “whispered that I would be doing a good service if I could write about the high maintenance wife scenario.”

The danger signals of a wife going toxic are all too plain:

– She gives up work to care for the children and then sends them to boarding schools as soon as they outgrow their nannies.

– She demands wall-to-wall help with a maid hired to work up to 14 hours a day six days a week.

– Cooking and housework are strictly out of bounds.

– They have to live in a country mansion, forcing the husband to commute daily to London.

“I have had feedback from readers around the world recognising the syndrome. In America, many people wrote in about their toxic wives,” she said.

So, does she practice what she preaches?

“I married for love but sadly am divorced. I pay my ex-husband one pound a year in alimony and he pays me one pound. We have two children. I have them one week and he then has them one week. They are unbelievably sane, happy and confident.”

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A middle-aged New Zealand woman rang police to report a theft of cannabis plants she had been growing at her North Island home, local media reported.

The crying woman told a constable at the police station in the city of Napier the plant theft was the fourth from her property in as many years. The 45-year-old woman, who was not named, lamented someone had again sneaked on to her property at night to steal her three carefully nurtured marijuana plants.

“I am a good person. I am sick of these low-lifes stealing my things,” the woman told a police communications officer.

Senior Sergeant Mal Lochrie told local media Friday that the officer found it hard to stop smiling as the women gave details of the theft over the phone.

A community constable who visited her to take details of the theft had also warned her that her horticultural pursuits could have legal consequences, Lochrie said.

Police decided no action would be taken against the gardener, he said.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A Malaysian court has ordered a woman to pay compensation to her lover’s ex-wife, ruling that she had caused the breakdown of their marriage.

In a ruling that drew immediate fire from women’s groups, the Court of Appeal ordered the 44-year-old mistress to pay 10,000 ringgit (1,500 pounds) in damages to the former wife of her lover, a dentist, the New Straits Times said on Friday.

The court also ordered the dentist, 61, to pay damages and maintenance to his ex-wife, a 59-year-old retired teacher. Women’s groups questioned whether the mistress should be held responsible at all for the breakdown of the marriage.

“It is obvious there is distress and a great sense of betrayal when a wife discovers her husband is unfaithful, but also of concern is what role the ex-husband played as he is primarily responsible for breach of contract,” Women’s Aid Organisation head Ivy Josiah told the New Straits Times.

Under a 30-year-old law, a court can order a third-party to pay compensation if it finds a marriage has broken down due to an adulterous affair, but such rulings have been rare.

NEW YORK (AFP) – Three US students are in hot water for disobeying teachers and uttering the word “vagina” during a reading from the well-known feminist play “The Vagina Monologues” at a high school forum.

The three teen girls received a one-day suspension from John Jay High School, in New York, after refusing to agree to drop the word from their presentation last Friday.

The school, however, announced this week that it was postponing the suspension following outrage by some of the girl’s peers as well as parents.

Eve Ensler, the author of “The Vagina Monologues” has meanwhile called the girls to express support and has offered to come to the school to speak on the issue, a spokeswoman told AFP.

School principal Rich Leprine said in a statement that the punishment meted out to the students was not for using the word vagina but rather for insubordination.

“When a student is told by faculty members not to present specified material because of the composition of the audience and they agree to do so, it is expected that the commitment will be honored and the directive will be followed,” Leprine said. “When a student chooses not to follow the directive, consequences follow.”

Elan Stahl, one of the three students, said the girls were not looking to challenge the school during their performance but felt frustrated that officials would ask them to censor the play.

“Our aim was not to get in trouble,” Stahl told AFP. “We want to put the word (vagina) out there and make people comfortable with using it.

“If they can just admit that the word vagina shouldn’t have been censored because it’s not lewd or obscene … than that apology would be gladly accepted,” she said.

“The Vagina Monologues” is based on several hundred interviews with women around the world and celebrates female sexuality and focuses on the abuses women suffer.

The passage that landed Stahl and her schoolmates in trouble reads: “My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women’s army. I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina’s country.”

LONDON (Reuters) – An eccentric aristocrat is offering his rich and famous dog Jasper — who “is a bit gay” — to act as “best man” at same-sex weddings at his country estate.

“He is the perfect best man,” Sir Benjamin Slade said of his cross-bred canine. “He will not be making any embarrassing speeches, he hoovers up all the leftover food and he is castrated.”

Jasper, a black cross between a Labrador and a Doberman, has already been in the news for inheriting a hefty bequest from Slade’s ex-mother-in-law, which has swelled to a trust fund of 150,000 pounds.

He has been dubbed the country’s richest hound with tabloids lapping up his tale of “wags to riches.”

Slade, who has been trying to drum up business for weddings at his 13th century country estate, Maunsel House, decided that Jasper could be a particular attraction to the gay community since the government legalised same-sex civil unions last year.

“He is a bit gay,” Sir Benjamin said. “He would act as the perfect best man in what is a gay-friendly house.”

So Sir Benjamin is promoting Jasper’s services on wedding Web sites aimed at same-sex couples.

The pair are even planning to travel up to London for a gay wedding fair to drum up business, although Slade says Jasper would be available for straight couples too.

“Whatever they want, he is there for them. Maybe he will be better as a bridesmaid.”

LONDON (Reuters) – A grandmother found guilty of growing and possessing cannabis on Wednesday vowed to keep using it in her cooking as a painkiller.

Patricia Tabram, 68, who lives near Hexham, was sentenced to 250 hours community service and ordered to pay 1,000 pounds of costs at Carlisle Crown Court.

“I’m still going to medicate with cannabis”, she said outside the court after sentencing. “This court is not fit for purpose.”

“I need it to keep me out of pain. I get five hours pain relief from one cup of hot chocolate with cannabis in,” she said.

Tabram, a campaigner for the medicinal use of cannabis, said she would appeal against the sentence.

She narrowly avoided a jail sentence two years ago after admitting possession of the drug in 2005.

Later that year she was arrested after police seized cannabis plants and cultivating equipment at her house.

RALEIGH, N.C. – When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.

“I conceived it right after I got out,” said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. “I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn’t want to let go of.”

It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.

With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car’s keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge’s catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet — “far enough to get to the couch,” he said.

Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses “soft hands” to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.

In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He’s since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called “a right-angle couch system.”

For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases.

“I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl,” he said. “My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it.”

A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the Web site.

Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: “I’m keeping that option open, depending on interest.”

When Cornwell was a student at Duke — an elite, private university in Durham — he participated in the engineering school’s robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop.

“He always did well in it,” Kielb said. “He came up with completely unique ideas.”

BERLIN (Reuters) – Berlin plans to levy a flat rate daily tax on prostitutes from April to raise some extra revenues for its strained finances.

Following a model used by Cologne, which collected over $1 million (514,000 pounds) last year with its own flat tax, the German capital plans to tax prostitutes 30 euros (20 pounds) per working day. Berlin has rising debts of more than 60 billion euros.

Prostitution is legal in most places in Germany and sex workers are required to pay income tax as well as value-added tax (VAT). However, tax collectors have long suspected their income and VAT was not being fully reported on tax returns.

Local leaders in the Verdi service sector union have warned that the 30-euro tax will push up prices in Berlin, Germany’s biggest metropolis with some 3.4 million inhabitants.

“The prostitutes will have no choice other than to pass the cost on to the customers,”, Verdi spokesman Andreas Sander was quoted as saying in German daily newspaper Bild.

Katharina Cetin, of the prostitute support organisation Hydra, said sex workers earn less than city leaders estimate.

“The income level here in Berlin is rather low,” she said. “A daily tax rate of 10 to 15 euros would be more appropriate.”

Cologne, home to roughly 1 million, has been a worldwide pioneer in taxing prostitution at a flat rate of 150 euros per month. It earned 828,000 euros in 2006 after 790,000 euros when the “pleasure tax” on sex services was first levied in 2005.

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – An alternative beauty pageant to be held in a remote Icelandic town will reward contestants’ wrinkles, saggy breasts and other bodily imperfections and hopes to challenge Western ideas of beauty, organisers said Wednesday.

“Anyone can make the rules about what beauty is, we want to change the rules,” one of the contest’s organisers, Matthhildur Helgadottir, told AFP.

“We think it’s just coincidence if you have big breasts. How come this is beautiful? We are trying to show how ridiculous this is,” Helgadottir said.

The contest, scheduled for April 18, will be held in the town of Isafjoerdur, population 3,000, in the northwest of Iceland.

Men and women were welcome to register as contestants and while there was a minimum age of 20, there was no upper age limit.

The only other stipulation was that contestants had not gone under the plastic surgeon’s knife for cosmetic reasons.

Prizes were as yet undecided but the “fun and honour” of taking part would be sufficient reward for contestants, according to Helgadottir.

Organisers remained undecided on how to rate participants.

“Maybe this (the alternative contest) is research, a way of understanding them (beauty pageants).”

The idea for the contest emerged while Helgadottir — a self-confessed feminist — was talking with friends in an Isafjoerdur pub.

As of Wednesday five people, three women and two men, had registered to take part.

Helgadottir remained optimistic that many more would sign up once news of the competition spread.

ONEIDA, N.Y. – A central New York man was sentenced Thursday for installing hidden cameras in his tenants’ apartments so he could spy on them while they had sex.

ONEIDA, N.Y. – A central New York man was sentenced Thursday for installing hidden cameras in his tenants’ apartments so he could spy on them while they had sex.
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Patrick Kaiser, 49, of Oneida, was sentenced to two to six years in state prison. He was convicted in December of four felony counts of unlawful surveillance.

He was sentenced in Madison County Court, Kaiser told the judge he was sorry for installing cameras in an apartment so he could spy on his tenants while they had sex.

When Kaiser was arrested in July, he told investigators he had installed small cameras in a bedroom alarm clock, the bathroom, and living room of the upstairs apartment of his Oneida building. The cameras provided a live video feed to two televisions in Kaiser’s apartment.

Kaiser retired in 2005 from his position as a lieutenant with the Oneida City Fire Department.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s porn industry began a court challenge to the country’s film ratings on Thursday in a test case which family groups said could lead to explicit sex movies being sold openly in shops and petrol stations.

Pornographic movies can only be sold legally in two Australian territories, including the capital Canberra, and generated an estimated A$500 million ($393 million) last year, mainly through mail orders.

While it is legal to own or watch sexually-explicit movies at home anywhere in Australia, sales are banned in the country’s six states.

Australia’s censors rate films from G, which are open to anyone, to R for violent or disturbing films suitable only for adults, and X for sexually-explicit films with heavily restricted distribution.

Now pornography company AdultShop.com Limited has asked the Federal Court to overturn the X category used by censors, arguing community tastes had changed since standards were drafted in 1984.

“The Office of Film and Literature Classification is required to take into account current community standards in relation to explicit erotic films,” AdultShop Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Day told Reuters.

AdultShop operates 28 retail stores throughout Australia and New Zealand and is valued at around A$9 million. The company sold A$42 million worth of adult products last year.

Day denied the court action was aimed at boosting business, although he described the company’s current worth as “dismal,” blaming state restrictions.

A survey for the company last September by ACNielsen found 70 percent of Australian adults were not offended by explicit erotic films and 76 percent thought they should be available on a restricted basis.

SOFT PORN, HARD SELL

“At the end of the day we’re in business, but we’re not the only company selling adult films. As a result of the restrictions 95 per cent of films are sold uncontrolled on the black market,” Day said.

The company decided on court action after censors gave an X rating to the comedy “Viva Erotica” about a failed Hong Kong director who decides to make a softcore film starring his girlfriend Miss Mango to pay his bills.

“The OFLC’s decision to classify ‘Viva Erotica’ X18+ was based upon the film containing depictions of actual sexual activity between consenting adults and did not address whether or not the content within the film was likely to cause offence,” Day said.

As the case opened, the classification board said it would begin public forums over the next six months to gauge whether people agreed with current ratings.

Anti-porn activists said any move to weaken standards could see porn become more easily available in video stores and shops.

“There is a demand for pornography. We would be of the view that that’s regrettable, but that’s a different debate. People can access X-rated material in Australia very easily at the moment,” the Australian Family Association’s Angela Conway told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

But Day won support from respected prime-time film reviewer Margaret Pomerantz, who said non-violent pornography should not be solely singled out for draconian restrictions.

“It can make people happy. It can improve people’s sex lives,” she told a community forum in Sydney.