BERLIN (Reuters) – German sex educators plan to launch a spray-on condom tailor-made for all sizes.

Jan Vinzenz Krause from the Institute for Condom Consultancy, a Singen-based practice that offers advice on condom use, told Reuters Thursday the product aimed to help people enjoy better and safer sex lives.

“We’re trying to develop the perfect condom for men that’s suited to every size of penis,” he said. “We’re very serious.”

Krause’s team (spraykondom.de) is developing a type of spray can into which the man inserts his penis first. At the push of a button it is then coated in a rubber condom.

“It works by spraying on latex from nozzles on all sides,” he said. “We call it the ’360 degree procedure’ — once round and from top to bottom. It’s a bit like a car wash.”

Krause said the plan is to make the product ready for use in about five seconds. He said it would function more effectively as a contraceptive because it would fit better and not slip.

However, before the new condom can be sold in shops, the firm must ensure that the latex is evenly spread when sprayed, as well as optimize the vulcanization process.

Krause hopes the high tech condom, which will be available in different strengths and colors, will on the market by 2008.

He said the spray can would likely cost some 20 euros ($26) as a one-off purchase. The latex cartridges — sufficient for up to 20 applications — would cost roughly 10 euros, he said.

Krause said he had hit upon the idea when considering the difficulties some people faced using condoms, and drew inspiration from spray-on plasters now used in medicine.

BOSTON – A former strip club waitress was sentenced Wednesday to five years of supervised release after she pleaded guilty to mailing threatening letters and flammable material, including condoms filled with a potentially explosive mixture, court documents said.

The documents said Kimberly Lynn Dasilva, 49, of Hull, mailed the condoms to a television station, strip clubs where she had worked and other places, saying she was tired of being mistreated by men. In May, she pleaded guilty to mailing threatening communications and a violation of injurious articles as nonmailable.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole sentenced Dasilva to the supervised release with conditions, including not contacting victims, receiving mental health counseling and treatment, performing 500 hours of community service and refraining from alcohol.

None of the condoms exploded. Dasilva told investigators she did not think they would explode.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian authorities want to stop the daytime airing of a television advertisement promoting flavoured condoms saying it is obscene and in bad taste, a newspaper reported Friday.

The advert promotes DKT’s “XXX” strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms with the catchline “What is your flavor of the night?.”

But the Advertising Standards Council of India and the Censor Board have asked the government to bar the ad from being broadcast during the day, especially during the popular Champions Trophy international cricket tournament.

“This campaign is obscene,” Sharmila Tagore, chairwoman of the Censor Board was quoted as saying in the Times of India. “Maybe DKT is targeting raunchy teenagers. But the ads are definitely not meant for children.”

Tagore, who is also an anti-AIDS activist, said she did not want to ban the advert totally, but recommended it be aired after 11 p.m. or in cinemas with an “A certification” instead of during the day when children were watching television.

An A certification on a film or advert indicates that it is meant for adult viewing only.

A senior DKT official told the newspaper the flavored condoms were not meant to promote oral sex, but to encourage couples who do not like the smell of latex.

Conservative attitudes to sex and contraception and a lack of awareness is common, especially in rural India.

Experts say this has not only left children and women vulnerable to abuse but has also exacerbated the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, which now has the highest number of cases in the world.

According to the United Nations, 5.7 million Indians are living with the virus. But activists say the true figure may be far higher as social stigma forces many of those infected to keep their status a secret.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Dundee” in Thai means “Good Penetration.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

LONDON (AFP) – It will be cheaper to make love in Britain from Saturday thanks to a reduction in sales tax on condoms announced by the Treasury Friday.

Value added tax (VAT) on condoms and other non-presciption contraceptive products will be five percent, rather than the standard 17.5 percent, “leading to immediate reductions in the prices paid by consumers”, it said in a statement.

“Safe sex has never been cheaper,” said Public Health Minister Caroline Flint, who cautioned that couples still bear responsibility for halting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Reduced VAT for condoms was promised in Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown’s budget three months ago. Birth control pills and other prescription contraceptives are sold without any sales tax.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PALM BAY, Fla. – A 23-year-old man was arrested after he tried to buy condoms and cologne with a fake $100 bill, authorities said.

Christopher Leigh Smith was charged with attempting to use a counterfeit bill to purchase the items at a Walgreens Drug Store, Florida Today reported Thursday.

The clerk suspected the bill was fake and stalled Smith until police arrived, a spokeswoman for the Palm Bay Police Department said. “He told them that he knew it was fake and that he had gotten it from an unknown man,” said spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez.

Police found no evidence that Smith had produced the bill himself, she said.

Smith is being held Brevard County Jail on a $1,000 bond. The case has also been referred to the U.S. Secret Service, which routinely handles cases involving counterfeit bills.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – The Brazilian government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country’s Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said Monday.

The condoms, provided under the government’s acclaimed anti- AIDS program, will be given out at health clinics and in sites like public squares and dances.

“It’s that time of year when we boost distribution because of the increase in demand,” an official from the Health Ministry’s anti-AIDS program said.

Carnival kicks off across the nation on February 25, heralding several days of parades, parties, revelry and, for some people, sexual abandon. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is the best known worldwide but every big city has its own celebrations.

The Health Ministry said the purpose of the handout was to prevent the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Last year, it announced a plan to distribute more than 1 billion free condoms nationwide in 2006.

The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil — the world’s largest Catholic country — routinely denounces such programs as encouraging sex and contravening its stand against contraception.

BOSTON – A former strip club waitress mailed condoms filled with a potentially explosive mixture to a television station, strip clubs and other places, saying she was tired of being mistreated by men, according to court documents.

In FBI documents unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston, Kimberly Lynn Dasilva, 40, said she “couldn’t take it anymore.”

None of the condoms exploded. They each contained a mixture of drain-cleaning detergent and gasoline, which could explode when combined, authorities said. Dasilva told investigators she did not think they would explode.

On Sept. 21, a suspicious package arrived at the Bridgewater State College admissions office, according to two FBI affidavits. When it was discovered that fluid had leaked from the package, the building was evacuated and the State Police Bomb Squad was called in. A note inside the package said “Boom.”

Five more packages containing condoms filled with Drano and gasoline were found the next day at the Brockton postal annex, according to the FBI affidavits. They were addressed to Boston television station WFXT, Boston radio station WXKS-FM, the Outlaws motorcycle club in Taunton, and two strip clubs — Alex’s in Stoughton and The Foxy Lady in Brockton.

Dasilva, a single mother of two teenagers who used to work at Alex’s and The Foxy Lady, was arrested Friday night after FBI agents and state police troopers raided her home and found letters hidden in the ceiling tiles of her bedroom that allegedly linked her to the mailings.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings released her on a $10,000 unsecured bond and scheduled a hearing in the case for Feb. 23.

When contacted by The Boston Globe on Tuesday, Dasilva referred questions to her lawyer, who had no comment.

BOSTON (Reuters) – A Connecticut abortion rights group has angered some conservative Christian groups by selling condom key chains that include an image of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel with God handing Adam a condom.

“It’s an example of depraved morals and contempt for the sensibility of Catholics everywhere,” said C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.

The $3 (1.7 pound) key chains sold by Planned Parenthood of Connecticut on its Web site come in 28 designs including an image of a U.S. flag with the stars replaced with the words “Wear with Pride” and a Statue of Liberty holding a condom instead of a torch.

Another reads” “Condoms are cheaper than diapers” over a cartoon of a screaming baby.

Judy Tabar, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut’s president and chief executive, said growing controversy over the key chains sparked a surge in Internet traffic to its Web site this week.

She said 100,000 visitors swamped the site on Thursday, causing it to shut down temporarily, after Internet columnist Matt Drudge posted a statement by a conservative Christian group condemning the key chains as “blasphemous.”

The key chains had been on sale for a year, but had attracted controversy only this week.

“The media attention led to an avalanche of orders so much so that it caused our Web site to shut down. We have expanded our capacity and it is up again today,” she said.

The politically sensitive issues of unwanted pregnancy and abortion are among the hottest topics in Washington this week during Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Kristian Mineau, president of the conservative Massachusetts Family Institute, called the Sistine Chapel key chain image “a very crude and crass manoeuvre.”

“This does nothing to deal with the horrific promiscuity rate we have among teenagers,” he said. “We believe the real approach particularly to the young people that this is targeted at is abstinence before marriage.”

Taber said the variety of designs was aimed at appealing to a wide range of personalities. “Condoms are the best protection against unintended pregnancy and infection, so it’s really important to get the message out there,” she said.