MASON, Ohio – A man who was arrested in a park wearing a woman’s wig and a bikini accepted a plea deal Thursday that dropped a charge of public indecency.

Steven S. Cole, a former volunteer firefighter, pleaded guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and disorderly conduct.

Municipal Court Judge George Parker sentenced Cole to attend a mandatory driver intervention program and placed him on two years’ probation. Cole was ordered to stay out of the city’s public parks during that time and pay a $250 fine.

Parker also suspended Cole’s driving privileges for six months, except for work, counseling sessions, family appointments and visits with his probation officer.

Police arrested Cole on April 4 in his truck as he was leaving Heritage Oak Park in this Cincinnati suburb after parents complained about a man dressed in women’s clothing.

Police said they found an open, half-empty bottle of beer in the truck, along with a gym bag containing wigs, bikinis, silver go-go boots and other women’s garments.

Cole’s blood-alcohol test registered 0.17, more than twice Ohio’s legal driving limit of 0.08, police said.

The arrest report said Cole told an officer he was on his way to a bar in Dayton to perform as a woman in a contest offering a $10,000 prize.

RUTLAND, Vt. – A man who police say exposed himself to two Victoria’s Secret store clerks while trying on women’s underwear faces two felony counts and a misdemeanor charge of retail theft. Police say Robert K. Scott, 47, went twice to the lingerie store in the Diamond Run Mall in April and May.

At his arraignment Monday, Scott was released on conditions, including that he abide by a curfew and stay away from the mall and the store.

The Rutland County Sheriff’s Department, which provides security at the mall, investigated the incidents.

Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Cross wrote in a sworn statement that Scott went to the store on April 22 and told a female clerk he wanted to try on some lingerie and panty hose.

“Scott asked her to stay close by while he was in the dressing room,” Cross wrote,” adding that “Scott then had her look at him to see how the items looked on him.” When she looked, “she could tell he had no underwear on.”

Scott returned to the store May 6, picked out several items, went into a dressing room and then began calling a female clerk for help.

Scott then opened the door, wearing a white top, red heels and no underwear, exposing himself to her, Cross wrote. The clerk said Scott made no attempt to cover himself, the affidavit stated.

The clerk called the sheriff’s office, Cross arrived, went to the dressing room and told Scott to remove any clothing belonging to the store and put his own clothes back on.

Cross escorted Scott to the sheriff’s office at the mall, pat-searched him and found him still to be wearing white underwear with a Victoria’s Secret security tag attached.

“When I asked Scott about the underwear with the security tag, he stated, ‘I didn’t mean to take them,’” the deputy wrote.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian religious authorities, alarmed by a snowballing trend of crossdressing among young people, have threatened to set up a rehabilitation centre to counsel offenders if the situation gets out of hand.

Cross-dressing is frowned upon in mainly Muslim Malaysia, where devout believers consider the practice contrary to strict Islamic injunctions on the proper dress for men and women.

The New Straits Times newspaper said religious officials in a northeastern state would keep vigil on the favourite hangouts of transvestites and cross-dressers after young people drew inspiration from male celebrities with feminine characteristics.

“Those involved would be given a court order, similar to the Drug Preventive Measures Act, to attend rehabilitation programmes,” the paper quoted Rosol Wahid, an official of the Malaysian state of Terengganu, as saying.

Rosol said 12 cases of transvestites and cross-dressers had been recorded since January. “We found out that those sentenced to jail were back to their old habit when released. We are looking to counselling as a way to curb the problem.”

Rosol could not be contacted for comment.

The same state had in February unveiled a controversial plan to recruit “Islamic” spies to snoop on unmarried lovers and report them to the religious authorities.

But Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later shot down the idea, saying there was no need for such activities.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A male lawyer who appeared in court dressed in women’s clothes as a protest against what he said was New Zealand’s overly-masculine judiciary was suspended Wednesday after being found to be in contempt of court.

The High Court found Rob Moodie, a 68-year-old, balding man who appeared in court in dresses and toting a handbag, was in contempt for circulating suppressed documents outside the court in one of his cases.

Moodie officially changed his name to “Miss Alice” as part of his protest against the “old boys network” that he said runs the nation’s judiciary, and was granted an award for the most bizarre conduct by a lawyer in 2006 by London’s The Times newspaper.

The protest began after a coroner’s inquest largely blamed a farming couple for the collapse of a bridge on their property built by the army.

Moodie obtained documents apportioning much of the blame for the collapse to faulty wood used by New Zealand Defense Force engineers, and posted the report on the Internet despite a judge’s order it not be distributed.

The High Court on Wednesday found Moodie guilty of contempt of court, suspended him for three months, fined him and ordered him to pay costs.

Moodie announced after the ruling he would quit the law altogether, and end his cross-dressing protest because he no longer needed to appear “in a 19th-century Alice in Wonderland environment that allows pomp, self-importance and deference to the court to eclipse the truth.”

TEHRAN (AFP) – An Iranian man has filed for divorce on the grounds that his wife used to be a man who had sex change operation, a press report said Sunday.

The man, identified as Farhad, told the court he had learned only after marriage that his wife Mina was a transsexual, but tried to “cope with it” in the four years they have been married, the Etemad newspaper reported.

But, infuriated by Mina’s recent complaint to the court to claim her dowry, the man sought to annul their marriage.

“I asked around and learned our marriage is null and void,” he said.

Mina said she does not want a divorce but only her dowry of 40 million rials (4,300 dollars).

Iranian law allows transsexuals to have sex change operations and legally change their identities. Society, however, is hostile towards people with “confused sexuality”

BEIJING (Reuters) – Touted as a celebration of sport, culture and national unity, the Ethnic Minority Games held in southwestern China descended into a farce of cross-dressing cheating and mob violence, state media reported.

Athletes representing China’s 55 ethnic minorities assembled in southwestern Yunnan province last week to compete in blow-pipe darts, horse-riding events and other traditional sports.

But blind pursuit of victory lead to some unorthodox tactics, Xinhua news agency reported.

Results of the women’s dragon-boat racing event were reviewed after athletes complained of “big women with Adam’s apples”, Xinhua said. Referees subsequently found that several of the competitors were actually men wearing wigs.

A dispute between a team from the games’ host city, Zhaotong, and another from Wenshan city in Yunnan province over the result of a wrestling final turned into a brawl, Xinhua said.

The Wenshan team was eventually chased away by a local gang

with blades and sticks called in by the Zhaotong team, Xinhua said.

“I’ve never seen violence and ugliness like that,” a reporter at the games told Xinhua.

The nationality games have been held eight times in Yunnan province, where 25 of the country’s 56 ethnic minorities live.

“The tenet of the games is to develop the minorities’ characteristic sports, build up their health and increase national unity,” Ren Muzhen, the chief organiser, told Xinhua.

Coaches blamed the unruly scenes on the pressures of having career advancement linked to results.

“Coaches and local officials still concentrate on medals and results in this games,” a coach told Xinhua.

“They have to think about every means to get better results.”

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

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

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

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

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

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A male lawyer who appeared in a New Zealand court dressed in an ankle-length skirt, lace stockings and a diamond brooch said Tuesday he was protesting against a male bias in the country’s justice system.

Rob Moodie, a former New Zealand Police union secretary, stunned the courtroom Monday when he appeared in women’s clothing at a hearing related to a long-running case involving the death of a man in a bridge collapse on a North Island farm.

Moodie said he wore the two-piece women’s suit because of what he described as a boys’ network in the court room.

“I’m objecting to the male ethos that is dominating this case and from now on I’m going to be dressing as a girl in my daily life,” Moodie told Reuters.

“It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t seen the gung-ho attitude in this case. The more this goes on and the deeper the cover-up gets, the frocks will get prettier,” he said.

Moodie, who said he was wearing a skirt while talking to Reuters by telephone, is married with three children but said he had a strong female gender bias.

“The sexes are not opposite, they’re complementary,” he said, drawing comparisons with New Zealand’s hugely popular All Blacks rugby side.

“The front row of the All Blacks is a very important part of maleness and is not to be disparaged at all, but neither should the guy who wants to do ballet,” Moodie said.

KEY WEST, Fla. – A man wearing a purple women’s bathing suit and carrying a flare gun was arrested after he told a bartender he was going to “get rid of all the dirt bags in Key West,” authorities said.

Jeffrey C. Anderson, 55, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm Monday after he brandished the flare gun, which was under a skirt he was wearing, Key West police spokeswoman Christie Phillips said.

The bartender, who was not identified, was working in the downstairs bar of The Bull and Whistle, a popular Key West watering hole located on Duval Street.

“She reported she had seen a man, later identified as Anderson, dancing in the street showing tourists his private parts, and asking people for money when they took his picture,” the news release said.

The bartender said Anderson then approached her, telling her he was going to get rid of the city’s “dirt bags” before displaying the gun, police said.

Police quickly located Anderson and found an orange 12-gauge flare gun in his possession, Phillips said. He was transported to the Monroe County detention center. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.