NEW YORK (AFP) – New York authorities unfurled a new official city condom Wednesday in time for Valentine’s day with a “Get Some” tagline, a new colorful wrapper and a campaign unfortunately described as cutting-edge.

“The NYC Condom’s new look includes a fresh package design and an elegant new dispenser, which will debut in 200 New York City venues in the coming weeks,” city health authorities said, unveiling the new design.

The condom drive was to be backed by television and radio commercials aimed at increasing the city’s use of the contraceptives.

The city gave out 36 million condoms last year — the equivalent of more than four for every man, woman and child in the city. The city’s first official condom, unveiled last year, featured a subway-themed wrapper.

BEIJING (AFP) – China’s first televised AIDS campaign featuring condoms was launched on Thursday with top music and film stars championing the values of safe sex, organisers said.

The campaign, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme and AIDS advocacy group the Chang Ai Media Project, will feature singer Peng Liyuan, the wife of a leading Chinese politician, and Hong Kong star Jackie Chan.

“This is basically the first public campaign that has been allowed to feature condoms and link the transmission of AIDS to active sexual contact in the visual media,” Chang Ai Media project spokeswoman Alison Spector said.

Previously, Chinese state television refused to air AIDS awareness announcements featuring condoms, she said, apparently due to fears that it could lead to greater promiscuity.

Besides airing on national broadcaster China Central Television and provincial stations, the ads will also run on video screens in airplanes, train and bus stations, office buildings and shopping centres and on the Internet, she said.

China is estimated to have about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases, with tens of thousands of new infections each year, according to government figures released last week.

An increasing number of infections are due to heterosexual contact and not drug use, which was formerly the main channel of the disease.

Peng is the wife of Xi Jinping, who was promoted in October to the elite nine-member Communist Party Standing Committee Politburo and is widely seen as the top candidate to replace President Hu Jintao in 2012.

Although Peng is a household name in China, her husband remains relatively unknown in the nation where politics is secretly guarded by the ruling Communist Party.

NEW YORK – To activists concerned about AIDS and prisoners’ rights, it’s an urgent, commonsense step that should already be nationwide policy — letting inmates have condoms to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases behind bars.

Yet their efforts have run headlong into a stronger political force: Authorities’ desire not to encourage inmates who flout prison rules against sex. Only one state, Vermont, and five cities regularly hand out condoms to inmates. Mississippi does so only for inmates receiving conjugal visits from their spouses.

Left out are the vast majority of America’s 2.2 million prisoners — many held in facilities where sex between men is common and the risk of STDs is far higher than in the general population.

“I realize this is not a comfortable topic for many people, but it’s one we simply cannot afford to ignore,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. “When more than 90 percent of incarcerated people return to our communities, taking a head-in-the-sand approach to the fact that our prisons have become a breeding ground for HIV/AIDS poses a serious public health risk.”

Despite such warnings, recent efforts to expand behind-bars condom access have gone almost nowhere. Prison officials contend that condoms can be used to conceal drugs, and law-and-order politicians scoff at what they depict as a step that would encourage both consensual and coercive sex.

“Removing the freedoms of criminals is in itself a deterrent,” said California Assemblyman Paul Cook. “Allowing condoms into prisons simply sends the wrong message and confirms what we all suspect: Our prison system has serious and severe behavioral and inmate-control issues.”

A measure introduced by Lee in Congress this year to allow condom access in federal prisons has made little headway. A bill in Illinois failed to clear a legislative committee in March. And a bill in California was vetoed last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said the proposal conflicted with prison regulations banning sexual activity.

Yet Ron Snyder, an HIV-positive Californian who served 19 months in the state’s prison systems for embezzlement, said sex was widespread despite the rules. Some inmates used rubber gloves as makeshift condoms, and some supervisors allowed romantically involved men to share cells, he said.

Schwarzenegger, in his veto message, offered a ray of hope to advocates of condom access. He described it as “not an unreasonable public policy” and instructed corrections officials to assess the feasibility of a pilot program at a yet-to-be-selected state prison.

Snyder predicted a “tough struggle” to extend any such program systemwide because of staff attitudes. Many of the correctional officers are from rural areas, “and they assume men don’t have sex with men,” he said. “They just don’t understand the picture.”

California already is home to two of the local condom programs, at jails in Los Angeles and San Francisco. New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., also have programs — New York’s dates back to 1987.

In Los Angeles, the condoms are distributed by an activist group, the Center for Health Justice, only in a special unit reserved for gay men who ask to be assigned there. San Francisco, for nearly 20 years, has allowed prisoners to be issued condoms by the health staff; distribution was expanded in April in the form of a condom-dispensing machine placed in a jail recreation hall.

Mary Sylla, the Center for Health Justice’s policy director, said there have been no security problems in either city.

“If there was a case of somebody doing something horrible with a condom, we would have heard about it — it would be all over the corrections community,” she said. “But it doesn’t happen.”

Though disappointed by Schwarzenegger’s veto, Sylla is hopeful that a pilot program will indeed get started in the state prison system. She said corrections officials already had visited the Los Angeles unit to see that local program in action.

But Sylla acknowledged that the cause is tough to promote.

“It’s easy to make fun of,” she said. “People don’t like to think about prisoners having sex, even though everybody knows it goes on.”

Vermont’s Corrections Department, although it holds relatively few HIV-positive inmates, has been making condoms available in prisons since 1992 — even though sexual activity remains officially prohibited.

“It’s a courageous position that Vermont took then and continues to have now,” said the department’s health services director, Dr. Dolores Burroughs-Biron.

Under the program, inmates are granted a single condom at a time if they request one from a nurse. Burroughs-Biron said there had been no reports of any security problems.

But corrections officials insist there are dangers. Glenn Goord, New York State’s former corrections commissioner, told the Legislature that inmates use condoms to transport drugs within prison grounds. He also said condoms might embolden prison rapists, who could use them to avoid leaving DNA evidence after their assaults.

There is no authoritative U.S. data on the extent of HIV behind bars, but the federal Centers for Disease Control did conduct a detailed study in Georgia which found that 856 male inmates — about 2 percent of the state’s total — were HIV-positive, and that 76 of them apparently got the virus while in prison.

The CDC report, published last year, suggested that lawmakers consider the condom policy.

Patrick Sullivan, the CDC epidemiologist who led the study, said sex among inmates was common in Georgia despite being prohibited. He said many of the sexually active inmates used condoms — or some improvised substitute — even though they were considered contraband.

In several foreign countries — including Canada, Australia and much of Western Europe — condoms have been freely distributed to prisoners for years without security problems.

Though activists are convinced condom access would reduce STD transmission, they are cautious in making specific health claims.

“I don’t know how we’d ever be able to prove how much they reduce HIV,” said Ron Snyder, who now works for the Center for Health Justice. “But if we could affect one or two people who wouldn’t bring it back to their women when they get home, that’s dramatic impact right there.”

KATMANDU, Nepal – Women in a Nepal mountain village have been mailing condoms to their husbands working overseas to protect them from sexually transmitted diseases, a news report said Tuesday.

The women of Pang village have been writing their husbands letters urging them not to have sex with others — but they have been enclosing condoms just in case, the Kantipur newspaper reported.

Social workers have been counseling the women about sexually transmitted diseases.

“As I learned that unsafe relations make a person vulnerable to HIV, I sent a condom along with the letters to my husband,” one of the village wives, Laxmi Sunar, told the newspaper.

An estimated 3 million people from impoverished Nepal work overseas, most as manual laborers, and send money home to support their families.

SEOUL (AFP) – Fresh from summit diplomacy with North Korea, South Korea’s government now faces an entirely new challenge — trying to set international quality and size standards for condoms.

The five-day meeting, organised by the International Organisation for Standardisation and the Seoul government, will begin next Monday on the southern resort island of Jeju.

The commerce ministry’s standardisation agency expects 100 people from 50 nations to take part, agency spokesman Yoo Yong-Jae told AFP.

South Korean firms led by Unidus Corp account for some 30 percent of global condom sales.

“Demand has been growing for years for unified international standards on the size and quality of condoms to ensure users are protected from disease and women from pregnancy,” Unidus chief Kim Sung-Hoon told Yonhap news agency.

“The size of South Korean condoms now meets international standards, helped by an increase in the size of men’s penises here,” he was quoted as saying.

Globally, 80 major companies are capable of producing 12 billion condoms a year but annual demand is just eight billion, he said.

Citing the good quality of South Korean condoms, he said his company would lobby for the World Health Organisation and other participants to adopt Korean standards.

BANGKOK (Reuters Life!) – A Thai bank is pitching into the battle against HIV/AIDS and handing out condoms to customers too shy to get them at the shop.

Despite Bangkok’s reputation as one of the world’s sex industry centers, Thailand is a generally conservative country.

Kasikorn Bank launched the “Condoms for Confidence” campaign at 600 branches nationwide and said it would start giving out the sheaths, branded K-Condom and K-Excellence, later this month.

“HIV/AIDS is returning to Thailand since the government awareness campaign started 20 years ago has fizzled out,” said a bank spokesman who declined to be identified.

“We want the teenagers to be aware of the problem.”

Despite a tenfold plunge of overall new HIV/AIDS cases from 15 years ago, the health ministry has said it was concerned about the numbers of teenagers and homosexuals still being infected.

Disease Control Department chief Thawat Suntrajarn said embarrassment about buying condoms and ignorance in using them were the main causes of the new cases.

“Research papers from all sorts of agencies have a consensus that many condom users are embarrassed to buy condoms from counters,” Thawat told Reuters.

“Women who buy condoms from convenience stores always get a strange look from people, so condom handouts are a good way to avoid such embarrassment.”

New HIV/AIDS cases in Thailand, once praised by international health agencies for its aggressive campaign to tackle the epidemic, had fallen to 13,000 in 2006 from more than 100,000 a year in early 1990s, Thawat said.

But the worrying sign was that many of the new patients were teenagers and homosexual men, not heterosexual men in their 30s and prostitutes as in the past, he added.

A Health Ministry-commissioned survey last year showed 48 percent of 5,712 male high school students used condoms.

About 43 percent of 7,712 female high school students said their sex partners used condoms, it said.

Spurred by the findings, Thawat’s department is running a television advertisement encouraging people to buy condoms despite criticism from conservatives who argue it encourages teenagers to be sexually active.

“Even those bank customers who don’t need to use the condoms, they can pass them on to their families or friends,” he said.

WASHINGTON – Who cares if they’re free? Residents in the nation’s capital say the condoms being handed out have a serious problem.

As many as 70,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign to reduce HIV and AIDS were returned this week by community groups. Another 100,000 condoms were returned in early September because of complaints their paper packaging can be easily damaged and could make the condoms ineffective.

City health officials agreed that complaints about the packaging were damaging to their citywide distribution campaign, but they have insisted the condoms were safe. They said this week they will distribute brand-name substitutes.

Since the problems were publicized, the city’s condom manufacturer offered to replace all remaining supplies with Trojan, Lifestyles and other products found on drugstore shelves.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian Fenty said the city has received 125,000 of the new condoms and 400,000 more are expected in the next two weeks.

MOSCOW (AFP) – A Russian who said he discovered a condom wrapper and a suspicious rubber fragment in his bottle of beer is seeking almost two million dollars in compensation, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Pavel Pavlov, an editor at a Russian military publication, says he came across the “torn condom wrapper as well as a piece of rubber resembling a used condom in a bottle of Baltika-3,” said his lawyer, Stalina Gurevich.

Pavlov said he had not been able to drink from bottles since coming across the surprise package in a bottle of Russia’s popular Baltika brand in August 2006.

A fortnight ago he filed a compensation claim for 50 million rubles, or almost two million dollars (1.5 million euros), and is now waiting for a Moscow court to hear his claim, Gurevich told AFP.

Gurevich said experts had certified that the bottle was not opened after leaving the Baltika brewery in Saint Petersburg.

But Alexei Kedrin, deputy director of Baltika breweries, told AFP: “This is excluded because the level of equipment at the Russian factories is even higher than in Europe.”

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s health department said Tuesday it has recalled 20 million potentially defective condoms approved by an official accused of taking bribes from a manufacturer.

Unsafe sex is especially risky in South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates with an estimated 12 percent of its 47 million people infected with the virus.

There are up to 1,000 AIDS-related deaths in South Africa every day and free condom distribution is a crucial part of the government’s efforts to combat the spread of the epidemic.

“An official of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), has put millions of people at risk by illegally passing millions of condoms, which had not met the quality assurance requirements,” said health department spokesman Sibani Mngadi.

Mngadi said even though only a batch of 7 million condoms was affected, the department decided to recall all 20 million condoms supplied by the manufacturer since last year, and will no longer be dealing with that company.

The SABS official accused of taking bribes and two directors of the manufacturing company have been arrested and are out on bail, said the spokesman. They will be appearing in a Pretoria court on September 10 to face charges of corruption and fraud.

LEGAL ACTION

The condoms did not meet several standard tests for strength, pressure and lubrication, said Mngadi.

The SABS Web site alerted the public, saying the faulty condoms were distributed by brand names including Ultramour, Randy Rat and Positions.

SABS said it had instructed Latex Surgical Products (LSP) to recall the condoms and that it would take legal action against the manufacturer.

The Health Department is also recalling condoms produced by LSP from its national HIV/AIDS supply chain.

LSP was not immediately available to comment.

Besides a struggling health-care system characterized by a lack of doctors and nurses, many of whom have left the country for better pay abroad, the fight against AIDS has been hampered by conflicting messages from senior government officials.

Researchers, scientists and health-care workers said in a conference in South Africa in June that they were encouraged by the government’s fresh approach to the crisis and improved weapons to protect those most at risk of infection.

But fresh controversy over the government’s AIDS policies has erupted.

President Thabo Mbeki sacked Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge this month for insubordination, sparking an outcry from AIDS activists who strongly backed her policies and critics who say she was fired for political reasons.

Madlala-Routledge had clashed with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, dubbed “Dr Beetroot,” who had horrified

AIDS activists with her advocacy of garlic, lemon and African potatoes over conventional anti-retroviral drugs.

The health department said it does not know how many of the defective condoms have been used, and it is urging the public to return them.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Concertgoers at a festival in the Dutch city of Lichtenvoorde were treated to an unusual sight Friday: A pink hot air balloon 127 feet high, shaped exactly like a condom, drifting lazily across the sky.

The balloon, with the words “Vrij Veilig” — Dutch for “Safe Sex” — was launched by the public health service in the eastern district of Gelre-Ijssel, near the German border.

The director of the health service, known by its Dutch acronym GGD, said the festival was an ideal opportunity to reach young people. More than 80,000 are expected to attend the three-day Zwarte Cross event — a combination motor-cross race and hard rock concert, with Dutch gothic metal band “Within Temptation” headlining.

“This is a playful way of asking for attention to the problem of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS,” said Laurent de Vries.

Nurses on the concert grounds also handed out educational material and free condoms as part of the campaign, he said.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has ordered all hotels, holiday resorts and public showers to provide condoms, part of nationwide efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday.

The regulation, issued by the commerce and health ministries, also required pamphlets about AIDS prevention to be displayed, the Beijing News said.

The move follows an unusual step by the booming eastern province of Zhejiang in March to fine hotels and bars if they did not provide condoms.

China originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capital West — a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly woken up to the problem and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.

But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian firm has launched a paan-flavoured condom designed to evoke the pungent taste of the betel nut and tobacco concoction chewed and then spat out by millions of South Asians, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Hindustan Latex is targeting the new condom range at prostitutes, who are among the most vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, the Hindustan Times reported.

The company ran taste tests with sex workers, including prototypes with chocolate, banana and strawberry flavours, but the paan flavour came out tops.

“The community loved it as most of the sex workers chew paan,” Sanjeev Gaikwad was quoted as saying at the launch in Mumbai. Gaikwad is a director at Family Health International, a public health organisation that helped develop the condom.

Paan is a mildly intoxicating preparation wrapped in a leaf, usually containing tobacco, betel nut and flavourings, and is hugely popular across South Asia. It is chewed to a mouth-staining red pulp before being spat out.

The condoms will at first be made available only to prostitutes, but will we launched to the general public in a few months, the newspaper said.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Condoms of all shapes and sizes were on display at a Beijing fashion show on Wednesday featuring dresses, hats and even lollipops made of the said item.

Models fought through extravagant soap bubble special effects to show off tight-fitting wedding gowns, scaly-looking evening dresses, outrageous bikinis and other garments made entirely of condoms, inflated or otherwise.

The show was held at the Fourth China Reproductive Health New Technologies and Products Expo and organized by China’s largest condom manufacturer, Guilin Latex Factory, to promote the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

It also marked World Population Day, organized annually by the U.N. Population Fund.

China, with a population now of 1.3 billion, introduced a strict one-child policy in the late 1970s under which many residents are restricted to one child.

“One (child) is not enough — two are better,” said visitor Song Weiliang.

But the main aim of the condom show was to promote AIDS awareness.

China originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West — a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly awakened to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population. But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Condoms of all shapes and sizes were on display at a Beijing fashion show on Wednesday featuring dresses, hats and even lollipops made of the said item.

Models fought through extravagant soap bubble special effects to show off tight-fitting wedding gowns, scaly-looking evening dresses, outrageous bikinis and other garments made entirely of condoms, inflated or otherwise.

The show was held at the Fourth China Reproductive Health New Technologies and Products Expo and organised by China’s largest condom manufacturer, Guilin Latex Factory, to promote the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

It also marked World Population Day, organised annually by the U.N. Population Fund.

China, with a population now of 1.3 billion, introduced a strict one-child policy in the late 1970s under which many residents are restricted to one child.

“One (child) is not enough — two are better,” said visitor Song Weiliang.

But the main aim of the condom show was to promote AIDS awareness.

China originally stigmatised AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West — a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population. But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Condom makers say it’s the world’s best job, a “sexecutive position”. An Australian company is seeking real life testers for its condom products.

“Got what it takes to be an official condom tester?” asks an advertisement launched by Durex Australia next to a photo of a busty young woman in a revealing nurse’s outfit.

“With this job on your CV, it really will be a chance to brag to your mates about the special skills you possess, not to mention that your new role will work wonders with the opposite sex,” Durex Marketing Manager Sam White told local media.

The “bed-testing” position is unpaid, but 200 selected testers would be up for free pack of Durex products, plus a bonus prize of A$1,000 (425 pounds) for one lucky winner, White said.

In return, testers would have to report back on the feel and performance of the company’s products.

Only Australians need apply, and would-be testers will be asked to explain why they should be considered. Humour would help in the application, Durex said.

“To apply, simply explain why you think you’re right for the position (missionary is acceptable) and you could be eligible for the employee bonus of $1,000,” said the ad.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India, struggling to promote greater condom use among its population, is looking to hire its own “condom man” to follow the example of a former Thai cabinet minister who successfully pushed for safer sex, the Times of India reported.

National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) chief Sujatha Rao said that India needed to find someone like Mechai Viravaidya, famous for getting Thais to talk about sex, condoms and AIDs.

“We are serious about finding India’s very own Mr Condom,” Rao was quoted as saying after visiting Thailand to study its dramatic increase in condom use over the past decade, which contributed to a sharp fall in new HIV infections.

“He has to feel passionately about the cause as Mechai does … have a dynamic personality to change both government policy and public perceptions about HIV/AIDS, sex and condoms,” Rao said.

Viravaidya became famous in Thailand as the “Condom King” for actions such as taking condoms to World Bank talks as well as for the name of his Bangkok restaurant “Cabbages and Condoms,” where condoms are a major part of the decor.

Authorities in India, where many people are hesitant to talk about sex and condoms openly, are trying to push condom use through television, radio and newspapers and by targeting high-risk groups.

India has millions of people who are HIV-positive and many of them face discrimination and prejudice.

In Thailand, Viravaidya’s organisation — the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand — won the $1-million Gates Award for Global Health this year that is awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A defective condom forced German police to arbitrate a brothel dispute after a prostitute and her client called for help when the contraceptive burst during sex.

Police in the central city of Braunschweig said the two telephoned for assistance after the man refused the 25-year-old woman’s request to hand over his contact details in case there were any unforeseen consequences from the condom’s failure.

Two officers arrived early on Wednesday and convinced both parties to exchange their details.

“We’d rather be on the safe side when there are rows in the red light area,” said a spokesman for local police. “Both were satisfied, and both now know exactly who they had sex with.”

Prostitution is legal in Germany.

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) – Health officials in western India are distributing condoms outside cinema halls screening illegal pornographic films, to promote safe sex and curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Officials in Gujarat state said many of those watching the blue movies were from high risk groups such as migrant laborers or truck drivers, who spend a lot of time away from their homes and are therefore more vulnerable to casual and unsafe sex.

“The migrant population will not stop watching pornographic movies or visiting sex workers,” said H.K. Anant, a health official in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main city.

“All we want them to do is to stop unsafe sex.”

India has the world’s highest number of HIV-positive cases with an estimated 5.7 million people infected, according to the United Nations.

In Gujarat’s 800 small cinema halls, young male volunteers stand outside handing packets of condoms to audience members as they emerge after watching the movie.

“We do not want to embarrass the movie-goers by nabbing them, so the volunteers are instructed not interact or question them,” said Anant.

Gujarat is home to many large industries such as textiles and chemicals, employing more than eight million migrant workers who come from neighboring states in search of a better life.

Screening and selling of pornographic films is illegal but the law is rarely enforced.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Wyoming County man who says he found a condom in his iced tea glass last Mother’s Day and lives in fear that he contracted a disease from it is suing the Shoney’s restaurant in Logan and the company that operates it.

The lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of James and Selena Bledsoe says that upon discovering the condom James Bledsoe “immediately became horribly ill, dry heaving and nearly vomiting at the table. He then ran for the nearest restroom to vomit.”

Named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in circuit court in Kanawha County, where restaurant franchisee ShoRest LLC is located, are the restaurant manager, assistant manager and the server who waited on the Bledsoes.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bledsoes, their two children and several other family members were eating at the Logan restaurant last May 14 when James Bledsoe, 30, saw the unwrapped condom in his half-finished drink.

When he returned from the bathroom, Bledsoe allegedly saw the restaurant’s assistant manager and several other employees, including his server, laughing.

A call to ShoRest Chief Operating Officer Rory Smith was not immediately returned on Friday.

The lawsuit alleges that the restaurant manager promised to comply with Bledsoe’s request to keep the glass and its contents so it could be tested, but didn’t.

“It’s caused him (Bledsoe) a great deal of stress,” Bledsoe’s Beckley lawyer, Stephen New, said Friday.

Initial tests for communicable diseases were negative, but Bledsoe expects to be tested for the next seven years. He’s been so worried, the lawsuit says, that it’s affected his relationships with his family and caused him trouble sleeping and concentrating.

The lawsuit, which requests a jury trial, seeks an unspecified amount in both punitive and compensatory damages.

ANKENY, Iowa – Several classrooms at Des Moines Area Community College were evacuated after college officials became nervous about a suspicious package.

College officials called police and postal inspectors after the box was delivered Thursday. What they found inside wasn’t a bomb — it was a box containing 500 condoms.

The package was sent to a teacher of a human sexuality class, and was sent by a person who had been a previous speaker at the class, said Rob Denson, the college’s president.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A grandmother was alarmed to find a condom in a happy meal gift pack bought for her 7-year-old granddaughter at a McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand, local media reported Thursday.

The condom was discovered Tuesday night in a bag that came with Maia Whitaker’s meal, which her grandparents bought at a McDonald’s outlet in the city of Wellington.

Grandpa Rowan Hutch told The Dominion Post newspaper it was lucky his wife was first to look inside the small sports bag that came with the meal.

She was aghast when she found the green condom and its packet inside the bag, he said.

“I was pretty horrified really. The fact my granddaughter was going to look in the bag and find this thing. It would be difficult to explain, she’s only seven,” said Hutch.

The outlet quickly swapped the happy meal for a hamburger and pencil case. McDonald’s is investigating the find.

Spokeswoman Joanna Redfern-Hardisty said because of its popularity, the previous happy meal gift had sold out at the outlet and prepackaged sports bags were substituted as children’s gifts.

One was left unsealed for display purposes and “somehow” had ended up with the customer, she said, without explaining why the condom was present.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars more than $600 (307 pounds) if they do not provide condoms, part of efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday.

The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, started enforcing the rules on Thursday, the Beijing News said.

“Condoms or condom-vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined 5,000 yuan ($650),” the report said.

The Chinese government originally stigmatised AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West — a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.

But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

NEW YORK (AFP) – New York authorities unveiled the country’s first city-themed condom to mark Valentine’s Day and National Condom Day, in a bid to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

The subway-themed condoms, which are being promoted with the slogans “New York we’ve got you covered,” and the provocative “NYC condoms. Get some,” are part of a drive by the city’s health department to increase condom use.

The one-size-fits-all condoms come in black packaging featuring colored circles that spell out “NYC Condom” in the style of the city’s subway. Other suggested designs had featured city skycrapers.

“Not enough condoms are being used,” Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said, unveiling the design. “This is about brands. Brands work, they increase use, they increase distribution,” he added.

The condoms even have their own website, with a .org address. “You can decide what the org stands for,” Frieden said.

The health department, which already provides 18 million free condoms a year, was to hand out 150,000 free condoms in the city on Wednesday alone.

Reaction to the new branding was mixed. “I think it’s a great idea,” said one 48-year-old man picking up a free sample on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, while another dismissed it as “kind of silly. It doesn’t take safe sex seriously.”

Both asked not to be named.

“It’s unbelievable. I think whoever thought this up has a great sense of humor,” said an anonymous 76-year-old man, pocketing a handful.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 11 (Reuters Life!) – As millions of revelers across Brazil prepare for Carnival festivities, the country’s health ministry began on Sunday its yearly safe-sex campaign and the distribution of free condoms.

The government will distribute 10 million free condoms in addition to the 15 million already sent to states in January in preparation for Carnival, which begins next Saturday and lasts for five days. The radio and television advertising began on Sunday with the official slogan “With condoms, the good feeling goes on after the party is over.”

“This slogan isn’t just a carnival message, it’s so that people are aware that with prevention they can have continued fun after Carnival,” Health Minister Agenor Alvares told journalists.

The campaign was launched in the famed Mangueira samba school in Rio de Janeiro, amid criticism from Catholic bishops against the distribution and church opposition to a government move to install condom machines in public schools. Brazil is the world’s largest Catholic country with some 150 million Catholics.

The safe sex campaign is part of Brazil’s AIDS prevention program, which also offers free medicine for patients and costs the government 1.4 billion reais ($663.8 million) a year.

Alvares said the government’s program to install condom machines in public schools in 2008 has received support from parents, students and teachers.

Cardinal Geraldo Majella, head of Brazil’s Catholic Bishops Council, condemned the machines on Friday.

HONG KONG, Jan 19 (Reuters Life!) – Forget chocolates or roses this
Valentine’s Day — a gift of musical condoms is bound to be more entertaining.

Hong Kong’s Ondo Creation, which makes designer condoms, hopes its Idom sheathes will put a more romantic spin on safe sex — and reduce the risk of a slap on the face that a pack of six might elicit among some conservative Asians.

The Idom itself doesn’t sing — but the mint, strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms come in an attractive package with a music CD to get you in the mood for love.

“We create an environment for lovers who would like to try a different experience,” said Victor Tsang who runs Ondo Creation.

“We try to create products that are not embarrassing, but very trendy and hip. It’s a lifestyle product,” he added.

Cynics may scoff at the marketing gloss, but the 18 month start-up’s products sell across the world. The firm also won a bronze medal in the Industrial Design Excellence Awards run in conjunction with BusinessWeek magazine, which said Ondo had managed to “revitalise the image of condoms”.

Tsang, a former IT executive, says his product was inspired by a desire to promote safe sex and to provide a fun, relaxed alternative for what he calls “more conservative” customers.

The brand eschews regular prophylactic distributors, instead peddling its wares in bookstores, record shops and trendy nightspots in a long list of cities that includes Hong Kong, London, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Singapore.

“We’re targeting more lifestyle stores, rather than 7-11′s and pharmacies,” said Tsang.

“There’s a market gap in the condom industry that we may be able to make fun — and also penetrate,” said Tsang who expected a 30 percent surge in sales ahead of Valentine’s Day.

The Idom’s Exotica, Chocotasy and Loveberry brands come with CD compilations of chillout, acid jazz and dance music.

“The music starts slow, then medium, then becomes fast before getting slow again,” said Jack Wong, who helped with the music.

He shrugs off the fact that the CDs run for exactly 18 minutes: “Whether this is long enough or not, really depends on the individual.”

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A U.S. college student imprisoned for three weeks for trying to take flour-filled condoms onto an airplane has settled her lawsuit against Philadelphia for $180,000 (93,000 pounds), a city spokesman said on Friday.

Janet Lee, 21, a student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after police and security officials thought the flour was an illegal drug.

She was held in Philadelphia on drug-trafficking charges and released only when tests proved the substance in the three condoms was flour.

The condoms, which are sometimes used to smuggle drugs, were a joke among the students, and Lee was taking them home to Los Angeles.

Her civil rights case against Philadelphia, which had been set to go to trial on Thursday, was settled for $180,000 , said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

BERLIN (Reuters) – From the Turkish Airline workers who sacrificed a camel at Istanbul airport to celebrate a job well done to the German who invented snug spray-on condoms, the world was full of offbeat news in 2006.

While “Miss Israel” Yael Nezri was exempted from carrying her assault rifle in the Israeli army because it bruised her beauty queen legs, “Mr. Switzerland” Renzo Blumenthal lured lonely women who hate soccer to his country for the World Cup.

Careless thieves once again made headlines round the world. A burglar in Germany left behind a vital clue — his finger tip.

“We usually find finger prints but it’s not every day that the thieves leave the original there too,” a police spokesman said. It took only a few hours to track down the thief.

A Jordanian salesman was arrested for trying to fleece a money exchanger with a fake ID card bearing a Brad Pitt picture.

In Vienna, burglars fled after finding eight severed human heads. A dentist had stored the mummified heads for research.

Village leaders in India ordered 150 men to dip their hands in boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen.

An Australian man stopped for drunk driving threatened police with a live snake he picked up off the road.

In Cologne, a plastic surgeon cheated out of payment by two women using fake names gave “Wanted” pictures of their enlarged breasts to police. “It’s probably the most unusual ‘wanted’ poster police ever had,” wrote top-selling Bild newspaper, which helpfully published life-size pictures of the boosted breasts.

There were tragic moments too. In Hanoi, a Vietnamese man famous on a national TV program for his ability to resist electric shocks was electrocuted while fixing a generator.

In Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian man died when he tried to open a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer.

STRANGE LOVE

The political year began with a bang when Vice President
Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend on a quail hunt.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany sparked rioting by admitting he lied to win a general election.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie pretended to slap a cheeky teen-ager for a photograph but was questioned by police after child protection officers reported her.

In Bangkok, Thai coup leaders banned go-go girls from dancing near tanks and posing for photos with soldiers because they were distracting the troops.

Random acts of bad judgment in 2006 included: the Philadelphia man who pulled a gun on his 7-year-old son’s football coach to demand more playing time; and in Koblenz, Germany, a woman who was caught driving her dead mother across country to save on mortuary transport costs.

Two women working at the German Labor Office got into trouble for writing emails at work moaning about their dull sex lives — and sending the exchange to thousands of co-workers.

A pilot of Air Canada’s Jazz subsidiary got locked out of the cockpit after stepping out to go to the washroom.

Three doctors in India were caught by a TV camera agreeing to amputate healthy limbs of beggars who wanted more sympathy.

Love had its strange moments too. Two prisoners in an Ivory Coast jail got married after falling in love through the peephole in an iron prison door.

And in Finland, a court ruled against a woman in her 20s who charged a 74-year-old man 25,500 euros ($32,000) to fondle her breasts on 10 occasions.

“Based on general life experience, it is indisputably clear that a 25,500 euro charge is disproportionate to the compensation in question,” Judge Hasse Hakki told Reuters.

WELLINGTON (AFP) – New Zealanders looking for some extra curricular activity are now able to apply for the position of condom tester.

Condom manufacturer Durex is looking for test pilots of its products, and says New Zealanders were chosen because they are among the most sexually active and adventurous in the world.

“Kiwis have proven they’re a sexually energetic bunch, and therefore it makes sense that a select few will have the chance to try our latest condom innovation, all in the name of research,” said Durex New Zealand manager Victoria Potter.

“Durex wants to ensure that its condoms are best meeting the needs of New Zealanders, from delivering on sexual pleasure, to keeping them safe.”

Potential applicants are invited to log on to www.explorersclub.co.nz and provide details as to why they believe they are up to the job.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Condoms designed to meet international size specifications are too big for many Indian men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, an Indian study has found.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run centre, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 percent of men in the financial capital Mumbai had penises about 2.4 cm (one inch) shorter than those condoms catered for.

For a further 30 percent, the difference was at least 5 cm (two inches). A poor fit meant the prophylactics often didn’t do the job they were bought for, and led to some tearing or slipping off during use.

“One of the reasons for a failure of up to 20 percent (of condoms) is the association of the size of the condom to the erect penis,” the council’s Dr. Chander Puri told Reuters, adding another reason was couples often put them on in a hurry.

Puri said many men in India, which has the world’s highest
HIV positive caseload, were too shy to ask for condoms.

“We need more vending machines for condoms of different sizes so people can pick a condom with confidence that is suited to their needs,” he said.

The Times of India reported the ICMR survey had studied 1,400 men between 18-50 years of age in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi as well as in rural areas in a report. It entitled its story “Indian men don’t measure up”.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A one-day art exhibit on the Indiana University campus includes works created from condoms. The display, called “Latexhibition,” was created to mark World AIDS Day on Friday.

Christopher Fisher, an IU doctoral student, got the idea from a display last year at San Francisco State University. Fisher is research coordinator for the Sexual Health Research Working Group, which is presenting the exhibit.

Students from two human sexuality classes created most of the art works, which will be judged Friday. About 10 other students also contributed to the exhibition.