OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – Broward County authorities said a grandmother was arrested for hiding cocaine in her bra during a drug raid in Oakland Park. Eight others were also arrested Friday at or near the home of Henrietta Corvin Daise, 62. Many of them were her grandchildren.

Jail records show Daise posted $7,500 bail Saturday.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said deputies conducted a search warrant on her home and found Daise with powder cocaine stuffed in her bra. Deputies also found 20 crack cocaine rocks, four grams of powder cocaine, marijuana and $1,000 in cash.

The eight face various charges including possession and intent to sell cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church, probation violations and marijuana possession.

LONDON (Reuters) – Forty years after feminists threatened to burn their bras, British women have won another battle in the fight for equality.

Asda, Britain’s second-biggest food retailer and owned by U.S. giant Wal-Mart, says it will no longer charge women more for bigger bras in its George fashion range.

“We’re putting an end once and for all to one of the last prejudices — that of the bigger-busted woman,” said brand director Fiona Lambert in a statement.

“From now on, all bras at George will be exactly the same price from A cup through to F cup.”

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese women with environmental concerns close to their hearts may one day be able to wear a bra which can carry their own personal chopsticks to cut down on waste.

Women’s lingerie maker Triumph Japan on Wednesday unveiled new bra with cups fashioned to look like a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup complete with side pouches to hold compact chopsticks.

The “My Hashi” or “My Chopsticks” bra was designed reduce the waste generated by people throwing away their disposable chopsticks.

The company said the design was in response to a growing trend of Japanese who carry their own personal chopsticks around so they would not have to use disposal ones provided in restaurants or with lunch boxes.

And the bra has benefits beyond protecting simply the planet — the chopsticks tucked in both sides of the bra will give lift to the breasts and “gently accentuate cleavage”, Triumph Japan said.

For now, however, there are no plans to put the bra on sale.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Security guards refused to allow a woman into a federal courthouse until she removed a bra that triggered a metal detector.

Lori Plato said she and her husband, Owen Plato, were stunned when U.S. Marshals Service employees asked her to remove her bra after the underwire supports set off the alarm.

“I asked if I could go into the bathroom because they didn’t have a privacy screen and no women security officers were available,” Plato said Wednesday. “They said, ‘No.’

“I wasn’t carrying a shank in my bra. If it’s so dangerous, why did they give it back and let me put it on?”

Patrick McDonald, the U.S. Marshal in Boise, said appropriate security protocols were followed in the Sept. 20 matter, and guards suggested she simply remove the bra in her car outside, or find a restaurant bathroom.

“She’s inflating it,” McDonald said. “All of a sudden she just took it off. It wasn’t anything we wanted to happen and it wasn’t anything we asked for her to do. She did it so fast.”

Plato, of Bonners Ferry, said she was parked on a busy street and wasn’t familiar with downtown Coeur d’Alene businesses. So her husband held up his coat to shield her from the rest of the people in the courthouse lobby while she removed her bra underneath her shirt.

Generally, McDonald said, undergarments aren’t considered a danger to security.

“I don’t think they’re considered a weapon, really, the last time I looked,” he said.

He declined to discuss other ways the federal courthouse guards could have screened Plato for weapons.

Plato wants the Marshals Service to apologize and stop forcing women to disrobe.

“It was very humiliating,” her husband, Owen Plato, said. “They could have handled it with a much more professional attitude.”

BEIJING (Reuters) – Days after banning “sexually provocative sounds” on television, China has now stopped networks showing “saucy” adverts for push-up bras and figure-hugging underwear ahead of a major Communist Party meeting next month.

Other targets of the crackdown are “low-brow and base” commercials for sex toys and those featuring famous people or experts attesting to the efficacy of medicines, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said on its Web site (www.sarft.gov.cn) Friday.

“Every television advertisement management bureau and television station must strengthen their political consciousness and responsibility toward society,” Tian Jin, deputy head of the regulator, was quoted as saying.

The order is the latest in a raft of measures which have included axing reality shows featuring sex changes and plastic surgery and banning talent contests during prime-time.

The media watchdog’s edicts have reached fever pitch in recent weeks, ahead of a meeting of the 17th Party congress, a sensitive five-yearly meeting at which key national leaders are appointed and policy set for the next few years.

It earlier urged the country’s increasingly freewheeling broadcasters to forgo vulgarity and bad taste in the pursuit of ratings in favor of providing “inspiring” content for the masses imbued with “socialist” values.

“Create a positive atmosphere for public opinion,” the regulator cited state television head Zhao Huayong as telling his staff in preparation for the congress.

“Strictly adhere to propaganda requirements; do not rush to report, do not report impulsively, and make sure there are no mistakes from reports on any large events,” Zhao added.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A Singapore radio station was fined for organizing a contest in which women were asked to remove their bra as quickly as possible from under their clothes.

Singapore’s Media Development Authority said state-owned MediaCorp Radio would be fined S$15,000 ($9,800) for broadcasting “exploitative and inappropriate content” in its program “No Bra Days with the Muttons” in March.

“The two DJs had made sexually suggestive comments on how fast the bras were removed, as well as the color, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls’ breasts,” the regulator said in a statement late on Monday.

The Media Development Authority said the women were also asked to pose with their bras for videos that the radio station posted on its Web site and on the video-sharing YouTube Web site.

MediaCorp officials were not immediately available to comment.

SINGAPORE, Jan 25 (Reuters Life!) – Add a spark to your day — and nights — with lingerie that lights up.

A U.S. firm is selling bras and camisoles trimmed with colourful light-emitting diodes (LEDs), as well as sequins and feathers, that literally put your cleavage in the spotlight.

“Light-up bras make a popular addition to any outfit, and will definitely bring you attention,” the company, Enlighted, says on its Web site (www.enlighted.com).

The California-based company custom-makes lingerie, including hot pink bras trimmed in marabou and lights and “wearable art” bras that have LEDs and sequins arranged in geometric patterns. It also puts LEDs on clothes, shoes and hats.

Enlighted says the clothing is safe and comfortable, despite all the wiring and the battery needed to power the lights.

“Our electronics are lightweight, flexible and concealed within fabric linings. Seriously, you’d forget about the lights if you didn’t have so many people staring at you!” it said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A woman watching New Year’s Eve fireworks from a picnic table found out that her bra can do more than lift and support: It also slowed a falling bullet.

The .45-caliber bullet struck Debbie Bingham, 46, after someone fired a gun into the air about 20 minutes before midnight. She still needed stitches, but the wound might have been much worse except for the bra strap, police spokesman George Kajtsa said.

Bingham, who was in town from Atlanta, said she is thankful for the undergarment, which she said was “very cheap.”

“I’d love to have a couple more of those bras,” she said.

Bingham said she was listening to music and enjoying the fireworks with her daughter and son when she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

Then Solanda Bingham, 30, noticed blood seeping through her mother’s white shirt, and they found the bullet lodged halfway into the gold-colored bra. The other half was barely breaking the skin, Bingham told WTSP-TV.

Kajtsa described the wound as a “big scratch with bruising.”

St. Petersburg police were searching for the shooter to determine if the shooting was intentional, Kajtsa said.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Revealing tops are out and bras are now a must for women visiting prisoners at the Vanderburgh County Jail. Jail officials imposed a new dress code policy after several incidents in which women visiting the jail exposed themselves to male prisoners.

The new policy, posted at the jail’s front desk, states that women cannot wear halter tops, sleeveless dresses and shirts, see-through garments, revealing dresses, and shorts cut higher than 2 inches above the knee.

Spandex and “extremely tight fitting” jeans or pants also are frowned upon.

“Adult female visitors, as well as females who would have need of a bra, shall be required to wear a bra,” the draft policy also states.

Since the draft policy was posted last month, the jail has turned away a few women, said Katie Roy, a receptionist. Those include two women who tried to get in with low-cut shirts with spaghetti straps.

“When they came back, they had on hooded sweat shirts,” Roy said. Unfortunately for those two, the jail also forbids hooded sweat shirts because they can conceal contraband.

The jail’s commander, Maj. Dave Wedding, said some women have exposed themselves to male inmates in video visitation booths, located in plain view in the jail’s main lobby.

Inmates who encourage women into acts of indecency can lose their visitation privileges for weeks, Wedding said. Inmates are permitted up to three 30-minute visits per week.

Many female visitors bring children, and Wedding said he hopes the dress code will create a more family friendly environment.

He expects to complete a final version of the policy within a month.

Wedding said he modeled his dress code after a similar one used by the Branchville Correctional Facility outside Tell City. The prison has turned away visitors, mostly for inappropriate tops, said spokesman Richard Newton.

“We’ve actually had people leave and drive into Tell City and buy a shirt at Wal-Mart,” Newton said.

TOLEDO, Ohio – A teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before it flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said. Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.

James Campbell, who was driving behind the girls, said he swerved to avoid the bra and his car flipped several times. Campbell, 37, broke a vertebra in his neck during the Sept. 26 accident. His passenger, Jeff Long, 40, broke several ribs.

A State Highway Patrol crash report, obtained by The Blade, said that the girls told investigators that before the accident the men were motioning to them to lift up their shirts. Both men denied making the gestures.

Davis will be charged next week with misdemeanor littering, said Tim Atkins, a juvenile prosecutor in Wood County. Atkins said he’ll meet with troopers before filing the charge.

The girl’s friend, Tabitha Adams, 17, of Bowling Green, said she told Davis not to hang her bra outside because she knew it would fly away, according to the report.

Atkins said no other charges were expected.