LONDON; and STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Britain is seriously considering adopting a controversial approach to prostitution pioneered in Sweden that targets the customer instead of the sex worker, making it a crime to buy – but not to sell – sex.

A government minister, Vernon Coaker, is heading to Stockholm Thursday to discuss the impact of the Swedish reform. Officials in Stockholm claim the 1999 law has dramatically reduced the street trade and spared Sweden the attention of traffickers who ship unfortunate, vulnerable women around Europe in the thousands.

But sex workers argue that the law has made life more dangerous and precarious for them. Swedish prostitutes say that rather than reducing prostitution it has merely driven it underground; their British counterparts say importing the law would be disastrous.

“The [Swedish] government claims that prostitution has been cut, but where have the women gone?” asks Sarah Walker of the English Collective of Prostitutes. “Everything has been driven underground.”

Ana Lopez, founder of the International Union of Sex Workers, says the move would force the trade into the shadows.

“It may seem like a good idea because it shifts the blame from the sex worker onto the client, but it still creates a lot of trouble,” says Ms. Lopez, adding that clients nervous of breaking the law will be more capricious, more hasty, giving the sex workers less time to assess the danger level. “What we have been learning from Sweden is that sex workers are not better off with this model…. Whether you criminalize the client or the sex worker, it’s the same result.”

Mr. Coaker is expected to meet government officials and assess whether the Swedish experience would improve the situation in Britain. The plight of British prostitutes was given added urgency a year ago when five women were murdered in short succession near Ipswich, England.

With an estimated 80,000 people involved in prostitution in Britain, many of them caught up in the wretched industry of trafficking, the government has consistently said it wants to get a grip on the trade.

Measures tackling “supply” that would use carrots and sticks to get women off the streets are currently going through Parliament, so now ministers are interested in targeting demand. A recent survey in Britain found that 4.3 percent of men have paid for sex in the past 10 years. “Looking at the demand issue is something we want to focus on,” says a spokeswoman for Coaker.

Stockholm streets: one-third fewer workers
Sweden is the only nation in the European Union that has criminalized prostitution, and the only country in the world to make it illegal to buy – but not sell – sex services.

The law reflects a commonly held belief among Swedish feminist groups and government officials that prostitution victimizes women and that tackling the demand for sex is more effective that criminalizing people who sell their bodies.

To date, about 1,000 sex customers have been arrested. Of those, about 260 were formally charged and fined up to 40 days of their salary, according to the Stockholm city government’s prostitution unit.

“The law has helped,” says Agneta Borg, who has headed the unit since 1996. “We know that street prostitution is down, and we have no evidence that it’s increased elsewhere.” In Stockholm, the number of street workers has fallen from around 300 in 1999 to around 200 today, she says.

Ms. Borg also points to statistics showing that illegal trafficking of prostitutes, many of whom are young Eastern Europeans, is now less of a problem here than in other Nordic countries. Sweden receives an estimated 400 to 500 such women a year. By comparison, up to 15,000 travel to Finland every year and 6,000 to Norway and Denmark, Borg says.

“Police tell us that they’ve learned from wire-taps and other detective work that many of these trafficking gangs now try to avoid Sweden because we’ve focused so much on this issue – not just by passing the law, but because we’ve kept it high on our political agenda,” she says.

Borg will meet Coaker on Thursday and plans to tell the minister that Sweden’s model works.

Still, there is no evidence that the 1999 law has reduced prostitution in Sweden as a whole. A recent report by the country’s National Board of Health and Welfare acknowledged that there is no hard data backing up claims that fewer men buy sex – only that the venue for prostitution has changed.

Prostitutes say law makes their job riskier
Swedish Sex workers and Allies Network, a trade organization with 50 members, estimates that only 10 percent of sex workers walk the streets today. The rest make contact with their customers at clubs, bars, casinos, underground brothels and, above all, in cyberspace.

“I have many customers who would never dare to contact me on the street,” says Isabella Lund, a sex worker based in the southern university city of Lund. “But on a whole, our industry has exploded after the Internet came – just like in every other country.”

Ms. Lund, who uses a fictitious name to protect her two teenage children, argues that criminalizing the trade has made it more dangerous for workers. Customers are now much more reluctant to reveal personal information, which makes it tougher to sort “good guys” from “bad.”

Lopez adds that it has also made clients far less likely to report nefarious situations in which they detect the shadowy presence of traffickers. “Many police [investigating] trafficking start with clients calling in; but if they are doing something against the law the last thing will be to call the police.”

British prostitutes would rather their government cast the net a little wider in the search for foreign models from which to borrow. They scoff at the legal brothels in parts of Europe which they say amount to slave labor, and call instead for more attention to be paid to New Zealand, which decriminalized prostitution four years ago.

But Borg argues that Sweden’s approach will build a national intolerance to prostitution, and it and its problems will start to wither. When the law was passed, most Swedes opposed it. Today, she said, 80 percent are in favor. “So perhaps, when we’re at 95 percent, there won’t be so many men willing to buy sex,” Borg said.

WARSAW (Reuters) – A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment’s employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

“I was dumbfounded. I thought I was dreaming,” the husband told the newspaper Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A man and a woman in Germany lost their jobs after pretending to be on a training course while taking an S&M sex holiday at their employer’s expense.

“We’ve never had a case quite like this before,” said a spokeswoman for a labour court in Dortmund on Thursday.

The pair who worked at a Dortmund retirement home said they had been at a further education seminar in eastern Germany, for which their employer duly paid.

But after a tip-off, the home found out the middle-aged couple had actually taken a holiday apartment used by devotees of sado-masochistic sex near the Dutch border.

When the couple denied they had skipped the seminar, their employers took them to court. The pair agreed to resign when it was found that the training course had never taken place.

LONDON (Reuters) – A senior police officer who admitted to having sex while on duty has been fired, the police watchdog confirmed Tuesday.

Inspector Masood Khan, 41, who worked for the British Transport Police, was dismissed over his tryst with a 43-year-old woman in a room at Gatwick Airport railway station in July 2006.

At a misconduct hearing Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to one charge of “discredit” under the Police Code of Conduct after originally facing three charges, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said in a statement.

The charge read: “On 23rd July 2006 whilst on duty and in uniform at Gatwick Airport and holding the rank of Police Inspector and duty officer for the London South area of the British Transport Police, you brought discredit upon the police service by having sexual intercourse with the complainant.”

The officer, of Coulsdon, south London, had been cleared of criminal charges last August after a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Reports at the time said the inspector had met the woman through an Internet dating Web site, uniformdating.com, and had believed he would be off-duty when he arranged to meet her.

He had kept his earpiece in during the 20-minute rendezvous so he would be in radio contact with his colleagues in case of emergencies.

In a statement, Mehmuda Mian Pritchard, the IPCC commissioner, said the actions were unacceptable.

“The police service and the public have a right to expect the highest standards of conduct from officers,” he said.

“Masood Khan’s behavior is not of a standard we expect of an experienced officer.

“His actions have brought the police service into disrepute and ridicule and the panel has recognized this.”

During the trial, the officer admitted to a lapse in judgment. “It was absolutely the wrong thing to do, morally and professionally. I should never have done it,” he told the jury before it found him not guilty of criminal misconduct in public office.

BRUSSELS (AFP) – A Belgian holidaymaker who snapped French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new girlfriend Carla Bruni in swimsuits is donating the fruits of his scoop to a children’s charity, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Emile Lannoy, 56, spotted Sarkozy and Bruni, who reportedly plan to marry, at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh late last month.

Lannoy told the Dutch-language daily Het Laatste Nieuws how he “suddenly saw Sarkozy arrive in black swimming shorts and Carla Bruni in a bikini, walking on the beach.”

“I lost no time in taking a picture. They didn’t take offence and even walked a little way with us,” added Lannoy, who runs a hotel in Courtrai, western Belgium.

The paper published one photo, showing the French leader and the former supermodel walking hand-in-hand, on Saturday before selling the image to French and Dutch newspapers.

So far the picture has earned 11,700 euros (17,200 dollars) and negotiations are underway with publications in Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain, said the paper, which published a second similar Lannoy picture on Tuesday.

Lannoy said he had decided to hand over the photo’s copyright to the Flemish Kindergeluk (Happy Childhood) association, which helps disadvantaged children.

The picture royalties collected so far will allow 300 such children to go on holiday, according to an official at the association.

Sarkozy on Tuesday described his romance with Bruni as “serious” and suggested the pair will marry.

“There is a strong chance that you will learn about it once it’s already been done,” Sarkozy, 52, told a press conference in Paris when asked about reports that a wedding is planned next month.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Mississippi businessman must pay more than 750,000 dollars in damages to the man whose wife he wooed away, after the US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal in the case.

In 1997, Sandra Valentine began working for Jerry Fitch, a wealthy realtor and successful businessman.

When she gave birth to a daughter two years later, it quickly became apparent that her boss — not her plumber husband — was the baby’s father.

The couple divorced a short time later, after legal proceedings in which she acknowledged an adulterous relationship with Fitch, whom she tied the knot with a short time later.

But armed with the admission of adultery, betrayed ex-husband Johnny Valentine decided to sue Fitch, based on an antiquated Mississippi state law permitting a cuckolded spouse to seek damages for “loss of society, companionship, love and affection,” as well as “the loss of sexual relations.”

About a half dozen US states have similar “alienation of affection” laws on the book.

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld a jury verdict awarding some 750,000 dollars to Valentine.

Fitch, who decried the verdict as unconstitutional, “antiquated” and based on “medieval notions” about marriage and property, appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court which refused to overturn the verdict.

His appeal of last resort failed on Monday when the US Supreme Court declined to take up the case.

ARLINGTON, Ore. – Some residents of this small town wish their mayor felt like she had something to hide.

Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist created a stir with her MySpace page, where at one time anyone could see photos of her on one of the town’s fire engines, clad only in a black bra and panties.

Now only the 42-year-old mayor’s friends have access to the page, but some people in this eastern Oregon community of about 500 are still upset.

Resident Lorena Woods said the photos reflect poorly on Arlington, especially since she was photographed on the fire truck. “This isn’t the way we want our city to be portrayed,” she said.

Kontur-Gronquist, who is also the fire department’s executive secretary, said the photos were taken before she was elected mayor three years ago, and she saw no reason to remove them from the Internet after taking office.

She told the (Pendleton) East Oregonian that she did nothing wrong and those who are offended need to get over it.

“That’s my personal life,” she said. “It has nothing to do with my mayor’s position.”

She added, “There’s a lot of officials that have a personal life, and you have people in this community who have nothing better to do than scrape up stuff like this.”

Councilman Jeff Bufton said he’s heard a lot of negative comments about the pictures, but declined to say whether the council plans to address the topic.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The names of three banks and the word “stocks” beat “sex” to become four of the most Googled words in China last year, according to a Google China list seen on Thursday.

China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank ranked second, third and sixth, according to a list supplied by Google China on its website (www.google.cn).

“On the Chinese mainland, it was money and technology that took the honours last year,” the China Daily said, pointing out that “sex” was the most popular keyword for Google users in some other countries.

Fourth on the list was “stock”, not surprising with Shanghai shares having risen 97 percent last year. At number 1 was “QQ”, a Chinese instant message service and a brand of car.

China’s Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Banking Regulatory Commission ranked first, third and fifth in the “Most Popular Departments” list, the Web site said.

In another list named “qiu zhi”, or “seeking knowledge”, “what is a blue chip” and “how to invest in the stock market” were the most searched questions on Google in China, while “what is love” and “how to kiss” ranked top of the global list.

China keeps a tight rein on Internet content and has launched several campaigns to root out online pornography, perhaps one reason why “sex” did not score so well.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Illegal betting syndicates in a northern Malaysian state have refused bets on the number of the hotel room where an ex-government minister was allegedly filmed having sex, the New Straits Times said on Monday.

Bookies in Perak declared the number 1301 off-limits in a numbers game, disappointing punters who had hoped to make a killing on the room where former health minister Chua Soi Lek was purported to have been taped engaging in sexual acts with an unidentified woman.

Chua resigned after the video was widely circulated in the southern state of Johor.

“We are not taking any more chances this time around,” the paper quoted an unidentified source as saying.

“The last time we accepted bets after a particular set of numbers was published on the front page of a Chinese daily, we were badly hit and lost several million ringgit.”

The report said illegal syndicates in the state lost millions of ringgit in 2006 when the death toll figure of bomb blasts in an Egyptian resort won first prize.

In that incident, some bookies only managed to pay winners 20-30 percent of their winnings while some did not pay at all.

But in the latest case, 1301 was not among the winning numbers, the newspaper said.

CAIRO (AFP) – An Egyptian woman is seeking clarification from a court on whether her husband’s declaration of divorce by text message is legally valid, a state-run newpsaper reported on Thursday.

After missing a call from her husband on her mobile phone, Iqbal Abul Nasr received a text message from him saying “I divorce you because you didn’t answer your husband,” Al-Akhbar said.

In line with sharia (Islamic law) men do not need to go to court to file for divorce. A unilateral declaration of divorce by a man, repeated three times, formally ends a marriage.

It was the third time Abul Nasr, an engineer from Cairo, received a divorce text message from her husband, prompting her to seek a legal decision from the a family court on the status of her marriage.

If the court declares the couple divorced, it would be the first reported case of divorce by SMS in Egypt.

The subject of divorce by SMS has been highly debated across the Muslim world and some Islamic countries like Malaysia have banned the practice.

According to Egypt’s state-run statistics bureau, a couple files for divorce every six minutes in Egypt.

PARIS (Reuters) – French customs officials have intercepted a shipment of 224,000 fake Viagra and Cialis anti-impotence pills worth 2.4 million euros ($3.5 million), the Budget Ministry said Monday.

The copies of the bestselling drugs were found on December 18 during a search at the French capital’s main air hub at Roissy, in a freight cargo on its way to Brazil from India.

“Branded Powergra and Erectalis, each box contained, in fact, four tablets in the characteristic shape and color of Viagra or Cialis pills,” Budget Minister Eric Woerth’s office, which is also in charge of customs, said in a statement.

“The companies Pfizer and Eli Lilly, which respectively own the Viagra and Cialis brands, quickly confirmed the counterfeit nature of these products and the 224,000 pills were seized,” Woerth’s office added.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A drug that could do for women what Viagra has done for men is being tested at the University of Virginia. The drug is a testosterone-laden ointment called LibiGel and it’s intended to boost the libido of women who have lost interest in sex. It will be prescribed at UVa in coming months to women who are suffering from hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

The condition is believed to affect one-third of American women.

“It is the most common sexual problem that women have,” said Dr. Anita Clayton, a psychiatrist with the UVa Health System and author of the 2007 book “Satisfaction: Women, Sex and the Quest for Intimacy.”

UVa joins 99 other medical institutions participating in testing the drug’s efficacy and safety.

If given the green light by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Illinois-based BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. hopes to offer the drug to any woman complaining of a low sex drive.

For now, though, Clayton will enroll 25 women between the ages of 30 and 65 to take part in the national study.

Those women must have had both ovaries surgically removed, be currently taking an estrogen supplement and be distressed about their lack of libido.

Ovariectomies, or surgical menopause, can lead to a drop in sexual interest because ovaries produce roughly half of the testosterone in a woman’s body.

Testosterone plays a key role in sexual functioning for men and women.

LibiGel comes in a pump bottle. The woman rubs the small dot of gel into the skin of her upper arm. Over the next 24 hours, the gel’s testosterone seeps into her bloodstream, boosting her energy and libido.

Clayton, who is running the clinical trial at UVa, said the drug is better than previous testosterone treatments because it keeps levels of the chemical constant, much like naturally occurring testosterone.

“I expect this will work,” she said.

In its second-phase clinical trials at 17 institutions, LibiGel led to a 283 percent increase of satisfying sexual encounters for the women taking the drug.

“A lot of women have this problem, but unfortunately they’ve been largely ignored by pharmaceutical companies,” said BioSante’s chief executive, Stephen M. Simes. “It’s not fair that women have no drugs, while men have many.”

BREMERTON, Wash. – A 25-year-old woman was arrested for investigation of second-degree assault for getting into an argument with her boyfriend over whether his dog should be in the bathroom while the couple were taking a shower together.

A police report said the man, 26, wanted his dog to join them in the bathroom, but the woman objected on Thursday night.

The woman told her boyfriend that if the dog doesn’t stay out, she didn’t want to be his girlfriend anymore. He replied that maybe his next girlfriend would appreciate the dog more, and called her a name.

The police report said the woman punched him in the face several times and the man dislocated his shoulder after the naked couple grappled. He told police his girlfriend threw a picture frame, which broke and cut him.

The woman was taken to the Kitsap County Jail in Port Orchard. Bail has been set at $50,000.

CHAPARRAL, N.M. – Getting a tattoo can be a painful proposition, but usually it’s just the needle you have to worry about. Two men trying to trace a loaded .357-caliber Magnum as a pattern for a tattoo accidentally shot themselves, the Otero County Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

Robert Glasser and Joey Acosta, both 22, were treated at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, after the shooting Thursday evening in nearby Chaparral.

Authorities said Glasser was struck in the hand when the gun accidentally went off, and Acosta was hit in the left arm. Their injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.

BEIJING (AFP) – The wife of a top sports anchor on Chinese state television has created a buzz in the blogosphere by crashing an Olympic media event — to publicly accuse her husband of adultery.

A video clip of Zhang Bin’s wife Hu Ziwei commandeering a microphone at a China Central Television (CCTV) presentation of its coverage plans was easily one of the most viewed items on Chinese video site tudou.com on Monday.

Friday’s event in Beijing was in order to rebrand CCTV’s sports channel as “The Olympic Channel” for the August 2008 Olympic Games hosted by the Chinese capital, but it quickly turned embarrassing for the state broadcaster.

“Today is a special day for The Olympic Channel, and a special day for Mr. Zhang Bin, and for me too,” said Hu, herself a presenter on another network.

“Because just two hours ago, I found out that besides me, Mr. Zhang Bin has been maintaining an improper relationship with another woman.”

Zhang could only stand by stone-faced as Hu went into details, fending off attempts to remove her from the podium.

Gossip about the private lives of television personalities is a hot topic among Chinese, and the incident touched off a flurry of blog entries.

China has been keen to project a flawless image for the Olympics, and the embarrassing clip was quickly removed from top internet video sharing web sites.

ROME (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in a giant New Year’s kiss in front of Saint Mark’s Basilica in the romantic Italian city of Venice, the authorities said Friday.

“New Year 2008 in Venice will become the New Year of love,” the Venice municipality said on its website.

Willing kissers are expected to gather from around 10 pm (2100 GMT) Monday in Saint Mark’s Square where they will kiss at midnight “to begin the New Year with a gesture of love, peace, brotherhood, and passion,” according to the website.

Some 60,000 people are expected to join in the “Love 2008″ event, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.

MANILA (AFP) – Customs officials in the Philippines have seized inflatable sex dolls meant to be used for an international campaign against animal cruelty, an animal rights group said Thursday.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had planned to use the sex toys as props in its Asian campaign against alleged abuses of chickens by a major US fast food chain.

The dolls were to have gone on a tour of red light districts in the Philippines, Thailand and Japan where they would be displayed with a banner reading “KFC Blows,” PETA said.

The dolls however were confiscated by customs officials here when they arrived in the Philippines through a US-based parcel service, it said.

Philippine representatives of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) as well as customs officials were not immediately available to comment.

Citing its own “undercover operations,” PETA said suppliers for KFC often abused chickens, including allegedly scalding them to death and cutting off their beaks while they are still conscious.

The US firm has dismissed the allegations in the past.

WASHINGTON – Dietary supplements marketed to provide male sexual enhancement contain undeclared erectile dysfunction drugs putting users at risk, the Food and Drug Administration warned Friday.

The agency advised consumers to stay away from Shangai Chaojimengnan supplements sold under the names Super Shangai, Strong Testis, Shangai Ultra, Shangai Ultra X, Lady Shangai and Shangai Regular. The Chinese-made supplements are packaged and distributed by Shangai Distributor Inc. of Puerto Rico.

Product testing indicates that some of these so-called supplements contain Viagra’s active ingredient, sildenafil, or a compound with a chemical structure that mimics sildenafil.

These chemicals could interact with nitrates in drugs taken for disorders commonly associated with erectile dysfunction, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease. The result could dangerously lower a user’s blood pressure, according to the FDA.

The agency also warned that the safety and purity of these illegal ingredients is unknown.

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. – A woman stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife following an argument that began when she accused him of opening a Christmas present early, authorities said Friday.

Misty Johnson, 34, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and battery, a felony, and misdemeanor domestic battery. Her husband, Shawn Fay Johnson, 34, was treated at a hospital for a wound to the chest, police said.

Misty Johnson made an initial court appearance Thursday in which she requested a court-appointed attorney, authorities said. She was released after posting bail, which was set at $7,500.

There was no telephone listing for her in Rock Springs.

Authorities said Shawn Johnson called 911 just before 1 a.m. Wednesday to report that his wife had stabbed him. He told police that his wife started arguing with him over his opening a Christmas present, according to court records.

As the argument escalated, Misty Johnson accused her husband of having an affair, authorities said. Police found a marriage license in the couple’s apartment stating they were married in late September.

Police Detective David Thompson said he didn’t know what the present was, or if it was intended for the husband.

WATERFORD, Wis. – Some people get surprise birthday parties. Ilda Ruth Southey gets surprise weddings.

Twice in her life Southey was surprised with a wedding ceremony on Christmas Eve, both times to Francis Southey.

Her future husband planned their original wedding for Christmas Eve 1942 while he was stationed in Sherman, Texas, awaiting orders to ship off to Europe during World War II.

“I didn’t know I was getting married, I just went to spend Christmas with him and I got down there, he had the wedding all arranged,” said Ruth Southey, 85, who lives at the Waterford Senior Living facility.

On Monday, staff at the senior facility arranged the same surprise for their 65th anniversary. The couple renewed their vows in front of three generations of teary-eyed family and friends.

At the ceremony, Francis Southey, 90, reminisced about how the first wedding almost didn’t happen.

“She said that she wasn’t going to marry me,” he said. “She said she didn’t wanted to get married. She wanted a wedding, a big wedding, but I didn’t have any money.”

To Ruth Southey, her 65th anniversary is a milestone she always sensed would come.

“As my mother always said, when you are married, you are married for life and that’s what we did,” Ruth said. “It’s just life, that’s what it is. Just life.”

LOS ANGELES – Some gifts from Kris Kringle are better kept wrapped.

A man in a Santa hat was arrested Sunday night for investigation of drunken driving after he was spotted outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string, police said.

“We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus,” Deputy Chief Ken Garner said.

The suspect was booked into jail after his blood-alcohol level measured just above the state’s legal limit of .08, police said. He was later released on $5,000 bail.

The man, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 280 pounds, also wore black leg warmers and black shoes. His car was towed to an impound yard, police said.

PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) – A doctor at a prestigious Arizona clinic who took a photograph of a patient’s tattooed penis during surgery is “no longer practicing medicine” at the center, it was confirmed Friday.

Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Lynn Closway would not reveal whether surgeon Adam Hansen had been fired or resigned following the revelations which rocked the Nobel Prize-winning medical center this week.

“I am not allowed to speak off of that statement,” clinic spokeswoman Lynn Closway said. “Play it as you see it.”

Hansen, chief of general surgery at the clinic in Scottsdale, had admitted taking the patient’s photo after noticing it was emblazoned with the words “Hot Rod,” local media have reported.

The patient at the center of the controversy is a strip-club owner who had been undergoing a gall bladder operation. The incident came to light after a member of the clinic’s surgical staff contacted a local newspaper on Monday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to explain in a year-end interview why he’d met the Dalai Lama in his Ottawa office, it was clear he wanted to show respect for the exiled Tibetan leader.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite come out that way.

“I met the Dalai Lama in my office but I meet everyone in my office. I don’t know why I would sneak off to a hotel room just to meet the Dalai Lama. You know, he’s not a call girl,” Harper told OMNI television.

He quickly added: “As I say, he’s a respected international spiritual leader.”

China condemns the Dalai Lama as a separatist and presses world leaders to shun him. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met him in September, but only in private, and last month the Vatican called off a meeting with the Pope set for December 13.

Harper is a strong critic of China’s human rights record and what he calls the “undemocratic regime” in Beijing.

China condemned Harper for “disgusting conduct” in late October after he met the Dalai Lama in his parliamentary office with television cameras and photographers present.

The Dalai Lama — who fled his predominantly Buddhist homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule — was granted honorary Canadian citizenship in June.

Harper’s chief spokeswoman did not respond to a query as to whether the prime minister regretted his choice of words in the interview, which took place on Tuesday but was embargoed until Thursday.

LONDON – Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe.

“Syphilis used to be a very rare disease,” said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “I’m not sure we can say that anymore.”

Most cases of syphilis are in men, and experts point to more risky sex among gay men as the chief cause for the resurgence. But more cases are being seen among heterosexuals, both men and women, too.

Syphilis was the sexual scourge of the 19th Century, and is believed to have killed artists like poet Charles Baudelaire, composer Robert Schumann, and painter Paul Gauguin. But the widespread use of penicillin in the 1950s all but wiped it out in the Western world.

In the last decade, however, syphilis has unexpectedly returned, driven by risky sexual behavior and outbreaks in major cities across Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.

• In Britain, syphilis cases have leapt more than tenfold for men and women in the past decade to 3,702 in 2006, according to the Health Protection Agency. Among men in England, the syphilis rate jumped from one per 100,000 in 1997 to nine per 100,000 last year.

• In Germany, the rate among men was fewer than two per 100,000 in 1991; by 2003, it was six per 100,000.

• In France, there were 428 cases in 2003 — almost 16 times the number just three years earlier.

• In the Netherlands, cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, up to 31 men per 100,000 were infected, while the rate was much lower in other regions.

Similar trends have been seen in the United States.

In 2000, syphilis infection rates were so low that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention embarked on a plan to eliminate the disease. But about 9,800 cases were reported in 2006.

In Europe, Van de Laar said syphilis’ reappearance was so surprising that many doctors initially had trouble diagnosing it.

Though these days it mainly affects urban gay men, experts worry that the disease could also rebound in the general population if stronger efforts to fight it are not taken soon.

In 2005, British authorities reported that syphilis was spreading across the entire country, and that more heterosexual men and women were being infected.

“These increases may lead to increases in diagnoses of congenital syphilis over the coming years,” said Kate Swan, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.

Pregnant women with syphilis can pass it on to their babies. Nearly half of all babies infected with syphilis while they are in the womb die shortly before or after birth.

Syphilis is a bacterial disease causing symptoms that include ulcers, sores and rashes. In extreme cases, it can result in dementia or fatally damage the heart, respiratory and central nervous systems. Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics if caught early.

Once there are more than just a few isolated cases, containing the disease is difficult.

Advances made in treating AIDS may have inadvertently boosted syphilis’ spread.

“The evidence points to an increase in unsafe sexual behavior since anti-retrovirals for AIDS came along in 1996,” said van de Laar.

After decades of being instructed to use condoms and to limit the number of sexual partners, some people are probably suffering from “safe sex fatigue,” van de Laar said. The Internet has also allowed people to find sexual partners more easily than before, and some experts link the rise of dating Web sites to the jump in syphilis cases.

For some men, the Internet connections can be especially dangerous.

“Networks of HIV-positive men to find other positive men have sprung up on the Internet,” said Jonathan Elford, an AIDS epidemiologist at London’s City University.

Some men who have the AIDS virus are seeking condom-free sex with other men who are also HIV-infected. However, they aren’t protected against syphilis and other sexually spread diseases. Among gay men who have syphilis in Britain, nearly half have HIV, Elford said.

Amid this resurgence, some officials are now attacking the epidemic online.

Every day, health workers at the Terrence Higgins Trust, Europe’s largest AIDS charity, log into chatrooms on a popular British gay dating Web site to spread safe sex messages and answer questions.

“We know that men are arranging hook-ups for sex online,” said Mark Thompson, the charity’s deputy head of health promotion. “So we decided to tap into cyberspace to try reaching them before unsafe sex might happen.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Tuesday finalized a rule requiring makers of certain contraceptive gels, foams, films and inserts to carry a warning that the products do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require the warning on over-the-counter products containing nonoxynol 9, used in many stand-alone spermicides.

“FDA is issuing this final rule to correct the misconceptions that the chemical N9 in these widely available stand-alone contraceptive products protects against sexually transmitted diseases,” Janet Woodcock, FDA’s deputy commissioner for scientific and medical programs, said in a statement.

The FDA proposed the warning in 2003, after results from a large study in Africa and Thailand found women using a contraceptive gel were not protected against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and were at a higher risk of HIV than those on a placebo.

The new FDA warning states that because the products can irritate the vagina and rectum, they may boost the risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. A skin irritation may boost the chance of infection as the virus has more ways to invade the body.

NEW YORK – A Manhattan doorman has been suspended for having bad breath. Jonah Seeman, who has been ushering tenants into a four-building complex on East 89th Street for 40 years, was told not to come to work Friday because of halitosis.

Seeman said he has stopped eating garlic, uses mouthwash and takes breath mints on the job.

The Brooklyn resident, who supports his 81-year-old mother, has been suspended twice before for bad breath — one day in May and then again in July.

Apartment dwellers at the Gracie Gardens complex expressed surprise over Seeman’s suspension and came to his defense.

“His job, which he does well, is opening the door — not to be opening his mouth,” said Adam Reingold.

Officials with Cooper Square Realty, the management company that oversees the property, did not return calls seeking comment. But the company sent the doorman a letter dated Nov. 21, stating: “We can no longer tolerate the fact that you have severe breath odor while on duty.”

The union that represents Seeman, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, has filed a grievance in the case.

RALEIGH, N.C. – A man accused of stealing a car in front of a police officer and television cameras in North Carolina has been arrested in Virginia. Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said Tuesday that 38-year-old Anthony Wayne Williams was arrested overnight in New Kent County, Virginia.

Television footage from Durham’s WTVD-TV shows a man getting into a 2004 Honda Accord on Monday while the female owner talked with a police officer nearby. The officer ran to the car when it started to move, slapped the hood and told the man to stop. But he drove away.

The car was recovered during Williams’ arrest.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US company is poised to launch the world’s first safe sex passport, aimed at giving users of dating and social networking websites extra “information protection,” the man behind the idea said Wednesday.

“Some years ago I met an individual who had intercourse with someone they met online, who didn’t disclose that they had an STD” or sexually transmitted disease, Gonzalo Paternoster of Florida-based SSP BioAnalytics said ahead of the launch of the Safe Sex Passport on December 1, World AIDS Day.

“The idea popped into my head that people know but don’t tell the truth, and we needed an independent way to verify someone’s health status,” he told AFP.

The Safe Sex Passport will be available — at a cost — to anyone over the age of 18 who goes online and orders the credit-card-size article.

“As soon as you order your card, you are referred to an affiliated laboratory where you can get tested for five major STDs,” Paternoster said.

Card holders are tested for HIV, genital herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis

“When you go to the test facility, you will have to show your official ID to make sure you are the person who owns the safe sex passport.

“The test results are tied to the card. So let’s say now you meet someone: they can call a phone number and get the test results and test date for you, plus identification information so that they know for sure that you are really the person who was tested,” he said.

“In the old days, you had to take someone’s word for it when they said they had been tested and were in the clear. Now you can ask for proof.”

Subscribers will also be provided with virtual health certificates, which can be posted on their online dating or MySpace profile page.

Nearly 15,000 people and several dating websites have already expressed an interest in the safe sex passports and online health certificates, Paternoster said.

The biggest age group showing an interest in acquiring the card are aged between 27 and 47, he said.

“A lot of them are divorced or have broken up after a long-term relationship, and now they’re back in the dating world and they’re terrified.”

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.

LOS ANGELES, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Porn star Mary Carey, who shot to fame by running for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger, unveiled plans on Tuesday to auction off her autographed, recently removed breast implants for charity.

Carey said the size 36-D implants were taken out two weeks ago and replaced with larger 36-DDDs and while under anesthesia she realized they could be used to raise money for breast cancer research.

“The doctors asked me what I wanted to do with them and I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to keep them and try to sell them. Because my grandmother had breast cancer,” Carey told Reuters in an interview.

The 27-year-old star of such adult films as “Boobsville Sorority Girls” and “Big Breasted Beauties” will be seen in the upcoming VH1 reality show “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” and said that during taping she kicked addictions to the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and alcohol.

“Now that I’m sober I wanted a new physical state to go along with my new mental state,” Carey said. “I thought the auction would be a great way to spread some holiday cheer and make sure someone out there would have a Mary Mary Christmas.”

The autographed implants have been placed on eBay and Carey, whose real name is Mary Cook, said she planned to donate some 90 percent of the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

She intends to use the rest of the money on medical bills for her mother, who suffered major injuries after jumping off a four-story building in 2006.

“I’m actually overall very anti-plastic surgery,” Carey said. “I watched my mom go through 11 surgeries (for her injuries) and it’s like, for me to voluntarily put myself through that, the only right thing to do is make money and donate it to charity.”

Carey gained international fame in 2003 with her quixotic gubernatorial campaign against eventual winner Schwarzenegger. She abandoned a second run for governor against Schwarzenegger to be with her ailing mother and said it was then that she turned to Xanax, taking three times the prescribed dose.