PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – A Cambodian man received 25 stitches to his penis after his wife attempted to sever the organ with scissors after a domestic dispute, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Khay Kaing, 40, returned home early Saturday after a night of drinking and karaoke with friends in Kampong Cham province, 50 miles northeast of the capital Phnom Penh, the Koh Santepheap, or Island of Peace, newspaper reported.

An argument ensued and he allegedly slapped his wife. As the man got into bed his wife came at him with the scissors and attempted to cut off his penis, the newspaper reported, not detailing whether she succeeded.

Kang Sakhan, the provincial police chief, confirmed the incident but did not provide details.

The newspaper said after being attacked, the man walked some 1,640 feet to a relative’s home to seek help and was later taken to a village doctor who administered the sutures.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian police have arrested a woman they believe ordered the killing of a female former co-worker and an attempt on the life of another to get a permanent job next to a man she loved.

A duty police officer in Cubatao, an industrial city next to Sao Paulo, said Carolina Farias Santos, 22, confessed that she had hired friends for about $1,300 to kill Monica Tamer, a full-time employee at an oil processing company where Santos had worked temporarily.

Santos told police she wanted to work next to a man she had fallen in love with during her stint at the company. She had been hired to temporarily replace another woman, Renata Boreli, who was filling in while Tamer was on maternity leave.

In November, Boreli was wounded as two assailants fired shots at her car, and then started to receive telephone threats warning her not return to work. The following month, Tamer, a mother of two, was killed.

Police traced phone calls to Boreli’s house, which led them to Santos and four friends. Two were arrested along with Santos on Wednesday and two remained at large.

SEOUL (Reuters) – A rural province in South Korea plans to give financial aid to help lonely male farmers pay for mail-order brides from overseas.

South Kyongsang province plans to start a trial programme in which it will give 6 million won (3,500 pounds) to male farmers who marry foreign women, an official said on Tuesday.

South Korean farmers have been turning to brides from other parts of Asia in recent years after struggling to woo local women, who are often less than enthralled with the prospect of rural life.

“Young men in the countryside have a hard time finding brides and they started to look elsewhere,” said Ryu Kum-ju, an agricultural policy official for the province, located in the southern part of the country.

“We decided to give financial support to those men for a trial period,” Ryu said by telephone.

The province also plans to increase courses for foreign brides to help them adjust to life in South Korea.

The local government estimates it costs about 12 million won (12,000 pounds) for a farmer to pay all the fees and travel required to find a bride overseas.

The number of South Korean men who have married foreign women has rocketed in recent years. It hit 25,594 in 2004, more than double the 11,017 in 2002, according to data from the Korea National Statistical Office.

China provides most of the brides, while Vietnam is second on the list

MADRID, Spain – Baring all in chilly weather, animal rights activists staged a naked protest Saturday in northeastern Barcelona to denounce the torture and slaying of animals to make fur coats.

Representing the number of minks it takes on average to make a fur coat, the 70 men and women lay down, curled up on the pavement outside Barcelona city hall.

The protest, staged by AnimaNaturalis and PETA international animal rights groups, was watched by several dozen passers-by.

In a statement, AnimaNaturalis said millions of animals were captured, tortured and killed each year to make fur coats. In Spain alone, 26 million animals — among them rabbits, foxes, minks and lambs — were killed in 2003 to make coats, the group said.

“If people could see the animals in fur farms, they would never use a fur coat,” AnimaNaturalis president Leonora Esquivel, said in the statement. “The look on those animals’ faces stays in your mind, a look that says: ‘why?’”

LOWELL, Mass. – A man who held up banks by claiming he had a bomb in a bag was arrested after police found the bag actually contained books, including a phone book that had a mailing label with the man’s full name and address.

“It was clearly not his best move,” Lawrence Police Chief John J. Romero said.

George Melendez was arrested Thursday at his home in Lowell and charged with the Jan. 6 robbery of a bank in Dracut. Police said he is also likely to face charges in bank robberies in Lawrence and Salem, N.H.

Investigators said Melendez would hand tellers a note claiming to have a bomb in his bag and demand large bills. As he left with the cash, he would leave behind the bag, prompting Dracut and Salem police to call in bomb squads as a precaution.

In each case, the satchel-type bags contained tangled wires and books.

After he allegedly hit a Sovereign Bank in Lawrence last week, police found a Lowell-area phone book in the bag the robber had left behind. They went to the address listed on the label and arrested Melendez, who also fit the bank tellers’ description of the robber.

“It was so easy, so simple, it was hard to believe,” Romero told The Eagle-Tribune.

Melendez was arraigned Friday at Saints Memorial Medical Center in Lowell, where he was taken after complaining of chest pains. He was held on $10,000 cash bail and is scheduled to appear in Lowell District Court on Feb. 16 for a probable cause hearing.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A Thai prostitute escaped caning for drug dealing in Singapore after a doctor established that the accused, who was identified in a passport as a man, had undergone a sex change, the Straits Times reported on Friday.

Singapore’s drug laws, which include the death penalty for possession of certain amounts of drugs, provide for different punishments for males and females.

While male offenders can be punished with up to 15 strokes of the rattan cane for drug-related offences, female offenders are exempt from caning.

The Straits Times said Mongkon Pusuwan’s fate had been uncertain for weeks while the court waited for a medical report, which ultimately confirmed that the 37-year-old was a woman following a sex change operation undergone 10 years ago.

The Thai national was arrested close to the city-state’s upscale Orchard Road shopping district last December and charged with trafficking 1.52 grammes of cocaine and 2.5 grammes of ketamine.

DETROIT – City officials are trying to figure out how a woman sneaked into the North American International Auto Show after closing time to pose naked atop the new Dodge Challenger.

It happened around 2:30 a.m. Monday when only workers and security guards were supposed to be inside Cobo Center.

Guards found the woman and about a dozen gawkers taking photographs with camera phones, workers told The Detroit News.

“We heard they were all over the Challenger,” said Jason Vines, a spokesman for the Chrysler Group, which earlier had tried to give its cars more sex appeal by bringing in fully clothed “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria to pose at its exhibit.

Cobo Director Glenn Blanton said disciplinary action will be taken if employees were involved in the security breach.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Scientists in Ireland may have found the country’s most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring.

The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.

His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.

“It’s another link between profligacy and power,” Bradley told Reuters. “We’re the first generation on the planet where if you’re successful you don’t (always) have more children.”

The research was carried out by PhD student Laoise Moore, at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity. Moore, testing the Y chromosome which is passed on from fathers to sons, examined DNA samples from 800 males across Ireland.

The results — which have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics — showed the highest concentration of related males in northwest Ireland, where one in five males had the same Y chromosome.

Bradley said the results reminded the team of a similar study in central Asia, where scientists found 8 percent of men with the same Y chromosome. Subsequent studies found they shared the same chromosome as the dynasty linked to Genghis Khan.

GENGHIS KHAN EFFECT

“It made us wonder if there could be some sort of Genghis Khan effect in Ireland and the best candidate for it was Niall,” Bradley said.

His team then consulted with genealogical experts who provided them with a contemporary list of people with surnames that are genealogically linked to the last known relative of the “Ui Neill” dynasty, which literally means descendants of Niall.

The results showed the new group had the same chromosome as those in the original sample, proving a link between them and the Niall descendants.

“The frequency (of the Y chromosome) was significantly higher in that genealogical group than any other group we tested,” said Bradley, whose surname is also linked to the mediaeval warlord. Other modern surnames tracing their ancestry to Niall include Gallagher, Boyle, O’Donnell and O’Doherty.

For added proof, the scientists used special techniques to age the Y chromosome, according to how many mutations had occurred in the genetic material over time. The number of mutations was found to be in accordance with chromosomes that would date back to the last known living relative of Niall.

Niall reportedly had 12 sons, many of whom became powerful Irish kings themselves. But because he lived in the 5th century, there have been doubts the king — who is said to have brought the country’s patron saint, Patrick, to Ireland — even existed.

“Before I would have said that characters like Niall were almost mythological, like King Arthur, but this actually puts flesh on the bones,” Bradley said.

When international databases were checked, the chromosome also turned up in roughly 2 percent of all male New Yorkers.

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.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) – As Rio de Janeiro’s biannual fashion show moved into high gear on Friday, a group of prostitutes strutted bright garments they designed, stealing some limelight from top models like Gisele Bundchen.

In an open-air show in the centre of the city famous for Carnival jamborees, prostitutes from Davida — a non-governmental organisation that defends the rights of sex service workers — presented their brand of clothing to cheers from hundreds of onlookers and camera flashes.

“We managed to get recognised. Our working clothes exploit sensuality and fetish,” said Doroth de Castro, a self-described veteran prostitute and co-founder of Davida.

The line’s brand name, Daspu, is a play on “Daslu,” the name of Brazil’s most expensive boutique.

Even spectators from the upscale Fashion Rio events cut away to catch the Davida show on a purple-carpeted, narrow street in central Rio, off a square where prostitutes typically solicit customers.

“We’re thin, fat, old and young. Not like those models that are all thin,” de Castro said. “We have flesh that men like.”

Apart from dresses designed to lure clients, the Davida group also makes casual wear for activist work, such as AIDS prevention.

It is not illegal to offer sexual services in Brazil, but pandering is a crime.

With its sun, sea, mountains and sultry lifestyle, Rio is a popular tourist destination. But prostitution is also rife, and the United Nations and other groups have expressed concern that it is growing as a magnet for foreigners seeking cheap sex, especially during Carnival, which starts on February 24.

The Brazilian government launched a campaign in March to stop the sexual exploitation of minors by tourists.

Fashion Rio, where mainly Brazilian designers present their collections, has recently gained fame in the fashion world. Bundchen was a main attraction on Friday night.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The first uniquely female dummy for use in car safety tests is being developed in Sweden, researchers said Wednesday.

All current crash test dummies are based on how men’s bodies react in collisions and other accidents.

Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and the National Road and Transport Research Institute are researching how a female body moves as a first step in building the dummy.

“For neck injuries from rear-end collisions, whiplash, the risk for women is twice as high as for men,” the road institute said in a statement.

Will the dummies have boobies?

TRENTON, N.J. – With curious officeworkers gawking and strip-bar standards playing in the background, several hundred people joined a handful of exotic dancers in front of the Statehouse on Thursday to rally against New Jersey’s new indoor smoking ban.

About 20 of the women — who, to the disappointment of some in the crowd, didn’t reveal anything more risque than their midriffs — said the ban will result in lost clients and lost money.

“It’s going to murder our business,” said Dominique Hernandez, 24, who dances at a lounge in Florence. “A lot of people want to get off of work, have a drink and a smoke and watch some pretty girls. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Apparently not, judging by the looks Hernandez — in tight jeans and a revealing black T-shirt — received from onlookers.

“I’m just passing by on the way to the office,” was the refrain from many men, and some women, in the crowd.

But many said they came to protest the smoking ban, saying it was a violation of their rights.

“I’ve been a smoker since I was 13 and it’s really against our rights,” said Allan Brophy, 24, of Union. “Pretty soon they’re going to be outlawing it in our houses.”

Brophy did admit that word of strippers at the rally had “piqued my interest.”

The rally, trumpeted by two radio shock jocks, featured signs that read “Defy Anti-Smoking Nazis” and “Tobacco Control Is Out of Control.” In the background, a loudspeaker blared typical strip bar tunes such as “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “Girls, Girls, Girls.”

“We’re standing up for the average Jersey citizen who on their own would never be heard,” said Craig Carton, one of the radio hosts on New Jersey 101.5.

The ban, which affects bars and restaurants — but not gambling areas of casinos — is to be signed into law Sunday by Gov. Richard J. Codey.

The strippers and their supporters said they oppose the ban, which is designed to protect employees and customers from second-hand smoke, because it will hurt business.

Alan Blumenfeld, owner of a Mount Holly club described as a “gentlemen’s day care center,” said the smoking ban will drive away customers, who he said will cross the Delaware River to Philadelphia, where there are no such bans.

“It’s about camaraderie. It’s the way it’s been for hundreds of years,” Blumenfeld said. “The guys who signed the Declaration of Independence were smokers.”

The raucous crowd often interrupted the speakers — who included club owners and the radio hosts — with shouts of “Codey Don’t Sign” and expletives proclaiming their dislike for the ban.

At one point, the crowd fell silent for the singing of the national anthem, which ended with the strippers saluting and many in the crowd waving baseball caps and cowboy hats while chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Codey, who was holding an unrelated news conference inside the Statehouse while the rally was taking place, joked that he would make his event quick so reporters could go outside. But, he said, the protest wouldn’t change his vow to sign the legislation.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in one of those establishments, I assure you, but smoking is deadly without question,” Codey said.

Carton and co-host Ray Rossi have garnered headlines in the past. Last year, they made disparaging comments about Codey’s wife, who has talked publicly of her struggle with postpartum depression.

Before the rally, the radio hosts said they decided to team up with strippers to spotlight the issue because strip clubs would be the first businesses to be hurt under the anti-smoking legislation.

And, said Carton, “Strippers get people’s attention.”

Thursday’s rally took take place one week into the winter ratings period for radio stations.

TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) – Naked News, which features anchors and reporters who disrobe during newscasts, launched its risque take on current affairs in Japan Tuesday.

Beneath a banner proclaiming Naked News as “The program with nothing to hide,” Sunrise Corp. CEO Takuya Uchikawa described the service as “a unique concept for the Japanese market.”

Sunrise, which specializes in sales of goods and services via the Internet, and Naked News owner eGalaxy Multimedia have set a target of 10,000 mobile subscribers in the first year.

“We would not have dared to come to Japan unless we were convinced that there was a definite market, and we now see there is a massive market here, we have a partner that understands that market and the technological skills to provide an enjoyable product,” eGalaxy Multimedia Inc. CEO David Warga said.

Since making its debut in Canada in 1999, Naked News has become available via the Internet, television and mobile phones in North America, Australia and Europe.

“We believe there is a huge untapped market for the right kind of information if it was properly packaged,” Warga said. “So we created a news-entertainment program in which women, and later men, informed while removing their clothing.”

The service initially will be news that is provided for Naked News’ existing markets but with Japanese subtitles. The plan is eventually to produce content in Japan that will appeal to a larger percentage of the population.

Another area being tested concerns the degree of nudity of the presenters. Initially, newscasters will strip to their underwear, but Uchikawa indicated that he hopes to be able to see how far Japanese obscenity broadcasting laws can be bent before they are broken.

Canadian-born presenter Lily Kwan has been peeling off her work clothes for five years and described the experience as “liberating.”

“I love being able to go out onto the streets and take my clothes off,” she said. “While we have been in Tokyo, people have been very surprised to see us with no tops on, but they’re very happy and interested in talking to us.”

MINNEAPOLIS – One gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota is giving a whole new meaning to the “dark side” of politics. A man who calls himself a satanic priest plans to run for governor on a 13-point platform that includes the public impaling of terrorists at the state Capitol building.

Jonathon Sharkey, also known as “The Impaler”, plans to launch his gubernatorial campaign on — when else? — Friday the 13th. He’ll make the announcement in Princeton.

“I’m going to be totally open and honest,” said the 41-year-old leader of the “Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.”

“Unlike other candidates, I’m not going to hide my evil side,” he said.

In Minnesota, anyone who pays the $300 filing fee can get on the gubernatorial ballot and it seems that every year a few eccentric candidates make the rounds.

Sharkey raises the bar. For one thing, he told the Star Tribune in an e-mail that he drinks blood.

Including the impaling of terrorists, rapists, drug dealers and other criminals, Sharkey’s platform includes emphasis on education, tax breaks for farmers and better benefits for veterans.

Sharkey said he worships Lucifer and, while he says he has nothing against Christians, he calls the “Christian God the Father” his “mortal enemy.”

Sharkey said he was injured during a parachute jump with the Army in 1982 and receives veterans’ disability benefits.

He has not yet registered as a gubernatorial candidate, but he has already filed as a candidate for the 2008 presidential election.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Police in a Vancouver suburb reminded residents on Tuesday it was not a good idea to play with a loaded gun while using the bathroom, after a man accidentally shot himself.

A 21-year-old North Vancouver man was facing numerous weapons charges after he shot off one of his fingers while apparently playing with a gun on New Year’s Day, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“Perhaps, our mothers never explained to us that it was not a good idea to play with handguns whilst using the restroom. But then again, maybe that was supposed to be a given,” the Mounties said in a press release.

SANFORD, Fla. – Sally Erickson and Renzie Davidson thought they had the secret to marital bliss. But the eccentric list of demands outlined in their prenuptial agreement, including mandatory backrubs and a $5 nagging fee, still couldn’t save their marriage.

Now Erickson is suing Davidson for fraud, alleging he divorced her in secret more than two years ago, according to Seminole County court records.

Before exchanging vows in 2001, the couple agreed to a quirky prenuptial agreement. Erickson promised to cook breakfast at least four times a week, and, in return, “Renzie will not wake Sally up on her ‘off days,’” according to the document.

The agreement also required Davidson to rub Erickson’s back three times a week for five minutes. If Erickson used a certain expletive, she would be sentenced to one hour of yard work. And Davidson was to pay $5 each time he complained, nagged or made “a fuss about Sally’s expenditures.”

Despite their carefully laid plans, Davidson, 62, decided to call it quits 3 1/2 months into the marriage. Erickson, 61, acknowledged she was served notice of the divorce suit, but she said in court pleadings that Davidson later told her he had dropped the suit.

Erickson said Davidson secretly went to court and got a default judgment against her. Documents show Davidson was granted an uncontested divorce in February 2003 without Erickson ever appearing in court. She claims she didn’t know about the divorce until recently.

Davidson has not contested Erickson’s claim

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Take a few leggy California blondes, throw in a passion for luxury cars, plenty of parties, and a distaste for parking your own car.

What have you got? A multimillion-dollar, female valet parking business, where struggling models and actresses dressed in bikinis, miniskirts or lingerie and Santa hats park the cars of the rich and famous in the Los Angeles area.

Beverly Hills, California-based Girls Valet Parking opened for business less than six months ago. This week, it took over its rival, Valet Girls, and announced plans to expand to San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix.

“Given the option of hiring acne-riddled teenage boys in red vests, or beautiful and sexy models and actresses trained in safety and hospitality, we’re betting our success that restaurants, boutique hotels, clubs and private parties will prefer the latter,” company founder Brad Saltzman said on Wednesday.

Saltzman said the privately held company expected 2006 sales in excess of $3 million, rising to $14 million by 2010.

Clients, most of them movie stars and producers, can request a variety of uniforms, including lingerie, bikinis, capri pants, camisoles and miniskirts.

“If it is legal, we will do it, but we draw the line at nudity or topless,” Saltzman said.

About half the business is based on requests for women valets dressed in the traditional dark pants and shirt.

Employees are hired through the kind of casting calls traditionally seen in the movie business and there are plenty of applicants. About 260 women showed up recently and six were hired.

ROCKVILLE, Md. – A Montgomery County judge ruled Tuesday that the act of mooning is not illegal in Maryland, clearing a man accused of indecent exposure after showing his buttocks to a neighbor during an argument.

Judge John W. Debelius III said the defendant, Raymond Hugh McNealy, 44, committed a “disgusting” and “demeaning” act when he allegedly exposed himself to his neighbor and her 8-year-old daughter June 7. But the judge overturned an earlier decision by a District Court judge against McNealy.

“If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure, any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty,” Debelius said, according to a report Wednesday in The Washington Post.

McNealy’s neighbor, Nanette Vonfeldt, accused him of yelling at her and threatening to “blow up my building” as she and her daughter walked out of their apartment. The two had a heated meeting the night before at the home owner’s association, according to McNealy’s attorneys, and McNealy wanted Vonfeldt off the board.

“Then, for whatever reason, in full view of my daughter, he mooned us,” Vonfeldt wrote in court documents.

Montgomery District Court Judge Eugene Wolfe ruled against McNealy on the indecent exposure claim, a charge that is punishable by up to three years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

McNealy appealed, saying state law only covers display of a person’s “private parts,” which does not include the buttocks. His attorneys cited a 1983 case of a woman arrested in front of the U.S. Supreme Court with only a cardboard sign on the front of her body. An appeals court later ruled indecent exposure only relates to a person’s genitals.

Prosecutors disagreed, saying Maryland law is ambiguous.

“This was not a bathing suit scenario,” said Montgomery County prosecutor Dan Barnett. “This was a grown man exposing himself to an 8-year-old girl.”

McNealy attorney James Maxwell said the Debelius ruling should “bring comfort to all beachgoers and plumbers” in the state.

LONDON (AFP) – The search has begun for a new glamour girl to appear topless on the celebrated page three of Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper, The Sun.

The first 10 hopefuls bared their wares for Wednesday’s readers, who are invited to vote for their favourite beauty to burst through to the next round.

“Our judges have picked some of the swellest from thousands of entries,” The Sun said.

An indisputable star feature of the tabloid, the phenomenon known as the “Page Three Girl” is synonymous with the pun-laden newspaper.

“You can change the life of one of these lovelies,” it read, detailing the life of luxury on offer to the “Page 3 Idol”.

The winner scoops a year’s modelling contract, a Japanese car, 2,000 pounds (2,900 euros, 3,500 dollars) to spend on clothes, a “glamourous modelling assignment in an exotic foreign location” and 1,000 pounds-worth of sexy garments and acessories.

Wannabe models from across Britain are busting to land the plum job.

Among the contenders are Freya, 20, from Nottingham, Kimberley, 22, from Orpington and Gemma R, 18, from Rochdale.

The lucky girl could become bosom buddies with previous winners Nicola T, Krystle and Keeley.

The Sun sells over three million copies per day, with Page Three Girls getting off their chests their analysis of current affairs in a speech bubble.

In a gamble which sent The Sun’s sales soaring in 1970, Stephanie Rahn, a 20-year-old German, became the newspaper’s first topless model, sparking outrage from women’s groups and conservatives.

Many have since tried to ban Page Three Girls but The Sun has bounced them all off with SOS “Save our Sizzlers” campaigns — proving it can handle the knockers.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Posters depicting Britain’s Queen Elizabeth having sex with the U.S. and French presidents were removed from Vienna’s streets on Friday to defuse an uproar that embarrassed Austria as it prepares to take on the EU presidency.

The images, splashed on scores of electronic rolling billboards, showed two naked female models wearing masks of President George W. Bush and the queen, and a male model with a President Jacques Chirac mask, posed as if engaged in a sex act.

A second poster, among 150 from around Europe and organized by Austrian curators with partial state funding, displayed the lower torso of a woman sprawled in knickers adorned with the European Union’s circle-of-stars emblem.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel had appealed to the artists to pull the posters after opposition leaders and the media blasted them as pornographic, sexist and a blow to Austria’s reputation on the eve of its EU presidency, starting on Sunday.

Tanja Ostojic, who created the knickers image, resembling a controversial 19th-century painting by Gustave Courbet entitled “Origin of the World,” complained of “public censorship.”

Spanish artist Carlos Aires, responsible for the Queen-Chirac-Bush trio, said he “suddenly had this image of three decision-makers having an orgy while everything around them collapses.”

But while Aires and Ostojic said they were disappointed the public had not “engaged with the artistic message” of their works, they agreed to remove them to avoid detracting from the others involved in the “euroPART” project.

The art promoter 25peaces, which commissioned the project, said the images were meant to “reflect on the different social, historical and political developments in Europe” and that the fuss over the sex posters distorted the entire undertaking.

The controversy exercised newspapers around Europe. Germany’s Financial Times-Deutschland headlined its story “European group sex in Austria” and Italy’s Corriere della Sera said the images were “not necessarily the height of good taste.”

Left-wing opposition leaders accused the government of using 500,000 euros ($590,000) in taxpayers’ money to fund the project via a cultural agency. The government said it had no part in choosing the images and did not know their content in advance.

The poster series is to be shown until the end of January.

LONDON (AFP) – It is one of the most fundamental — and, for men, potentially hazardous — questions of modern life, for which academics now hope to provide the definitive answer: “Does my bum look big in this?”

The School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have begun what is believed to be the world’s first-ever study on how women’s clothing affects the bottom.

Models with variously sized posteriors will wear different types of clothing as part of the research, which will examine how designs, colours, patterns and fabric types affect perception.

Others will be asked to assess how big or small each model’s backside appears to look in the outfits.

“This study will provide for the first time detailed and usable information that would enable designers to make the clothes that help women make the most of their natural assets,” said Dr Lisa Macintyre, who is leading the study.

“There’s much discussion in the media of clothing styles that flatter the body and it’s generally accepted that enhancing body perception can improve confidence and self-esteem.

“But the factors behind this have never been fully investigated in a proper scientific manner.

“Designers and consumers don’t currently have access to established information that could enable them to make or choose garments that enhance body size and shape.”

Four models had been chosen to provide a representative sample of female backsides, Macintyre said: the “standard”, the full “pre-Raphaelite” type, the smaller backside of a slim model and a curvier behind, like the famed example of actress and singer Jennifer Lopez.

First ever study? Wake up, guys, and girls for that matter, have been studying the female behind for a very long time.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – An Arkansas man is facing his own felony charges after allegedly using a sex offender registry to scam about $20,000 from credit cards and federal tax refunds in the name of registered sex offenders.

The man, 35, was arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop by a Benton County Sheriff’s deputy who found file folders containing financial information on several people.

Deputy Doug Gay said Buescher apparently targeted Indiana sex offenders because their information was easy to get from the Internet, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

He told investigators he used the money to gamble in Oklahoma casinos, officials said.

Buescher, of Siloam Springs, was charged with financial identity fraud, driving on a suspended license and having fictitious tags. He posted a $7,500 bond Friday and was released from jail, authorities said Saturday.

How stupid can a person be?

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Not only did Mayor Bill Bunten miss a tree while throwing a snowball at it, he also violated a city ordinance.
Kristen Aberle, of Thawville, Ill., wrote to Bunten after the little-known Topeka ordinance was pointed out as a “Dumb Law” in her government class.

“I thought somebody was pulling my leg,” the mayor said. “But I checked, and she’s actually right.”

Bunten admitted his fastball missed the tree by about 30 feet, but he said that didn’t make his crime any less serious.

“After I write to you, I am going to the police station and report myself and throw myself on the mercy of the court,” Bunten said in a letter dated Dec. 27. “After that, I’m going to have an ordinance drawn up to repeal this Dumb Law lest our already-crowded prisons are filled up with children who, while making a snowman, got carried away and had a snowball fight.”

Violators could be fined up to $499 and jailed for 179 days for breaking the rule, which also prohibits stones and “other missiles.”

Bunten said he asked the city’s attorney “to draw up an ordinance to delete that part of it about snowballs.

MONTREAL (Reuters) – On a recent night out on the town, Michel and Chantal Delbecchi left their suburban Montreal home and drove to the L’Orage Club in the city’s east end, where they had sex with a couple they had never met before.

The Delbecchis, husband and wife since 1978, are “echangistes,” French for “swingers,” who for the past 21 years have been visiting clubs like L’Orage (Thunderstorm) to have consensual sex in a group with one or more other people.

For future outings, they will no longer have to fear police will raid the club and arrest them for being in a “bawdy house,” a place where prostitution or acts of public indecency take place.

In a landmark decision on Dec, 21, the Supreme Court of Canada lifted a ban on swingers’ clubs, ruling that group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society.

The ruling sparked outrage, largely in English-speaking parts of Canada, where critics said it would erode limits on indecency or obscenity, encourage prostitution and even contribute to the corruption of minors.

In the mainly French-speaking and predominantly Catholic province of Quebec, however, the decision caused barely a ripple of adverse reaction. Newspaper editorialists fumed in Toronto, but largely yawned in Montreal.

Swingers across Canada cheered the ruling, especially those in Quebec, where adherents go to clubs not only to meet others like them, but also to have sex on the premises.

“It might make it easier for others interested in swinging to take the next step and visit a club,” said Michel, 48, huddled next to Chantal, 43, on a sofa at the dimly lit L’Orage.

Michel, who works at an outlet of warehouse retailer Costco, and Chantal, on leave from her job at a school bus operator, said most swingers are not comfortable in the public spotlight.

“We have a few friends who were afraid to come out to a club because they were worried about how a raid might affect their work or family situation,” said Chantal.

For L’Orage club owner Jean-Paul Labaye, the court ruling is vindication after a seven-year court battle that began with a 1998 police raid in which he and 40 of his patrons were arrested for being in a bawdy house.

“Everyone was shocked that we would be treated like bandits,” said Labaye. “I vowed to defend myself and their cause if that was their desire and that is what I did.”

GANG BANG TUESDAYS

Labaye, a portly and jovial 46-year-old native of France, said swingers celebrated the Supreme Court victory with a late-night party at L’Orage.

In an interview the next day at the club, temporarily housed at a venue which features “gang bang” Tuesday afternoons, Labaye apologized for not being able to show a reporter and photographer the upstairs rooms where groups have sex because the housekeeping service had not yet cleaned them.

The club is housed in an elegant but aging two-story house on a busy street. The ground floor has mismatched sofas and chairs, scant lighting and framed photographs on the walls depicting scenes of mild sexual bondage.

The club has no license to sell alcoholic beverages, but sports a small bar that offers coffee and caffeine-loaded soft drinks.

Labaye hopes a group of Florida investors will help him move into swankier digs, which in addition to the requisite private rooms will have something resembling a refined cigar lounge.

Club rules will be the same — no illicit drugs or alcohol abuse, and when it comes to propositions for sex, a reply of no means no.

In the meantime, the swinger soirees will continue at L’Orage and at least two dozen similar clubs in Quebec, including one in Gatineau, just opposite the Ottawa River from the imposing stone hulk of the Supreme Court building.

Labaye and the Delbecchis, who have three adult sons, are preparing for important changes in their personal lives.

Labaye plans to marry his girlfriend in Paris in May.

As for Michel and Chantal, a 25-year-old woman has become their mutual lover and all three plan to move in together early next year. Despite that new relationship, the Delbecchis expect to continue exchanging sex partners in Quebec clubs.

Said Michel: “At the club, we have sex with people. At home, we make love.”