BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AFP) - “I don’t really know what it is for,” says a salesman with some embarrassment, despite the explicit illustrations on the bottle of “Long Love Spray”.

Alongside it on the shelf of a tiny shop in the bazaar at Bagram is a “special sex” gel as well as distinctive blue Viagra pills that are almost impossible to find in the regular pharmacies of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The bazaar at Bagram, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul and a few hundred metres (feet) from the country’s biggest US military base, is stocked with a range of similarly risque Asian and American products that arrive via Pakistan.

It is a regular Ali Baba’s cave — and the 40 thieves are probably not far away for among the goods on sale, which include routine items such as food, hygiene products and clothes, are some “from inside” that have somehow made it off the base through layers of security.

“We get them from inside the base and we sell them more cheaply, both to Afghans and to the international soldiers, but we make the foreigners pay more,” says Obaid, who has been working here for eight months.

He offers some apparently authentic Oakley brand sunglasses at a tenth of the real price. He is not interested in making a profit, he says, because he is not the owner of the shop.

“I earn about 100 dollars a month. What I would like is to work inside the base because even as a housekeeper I would get at least 300 dollars,” he said.

Some of the items are innocent enough, such as toothpaste and razor blades. Others are more unusual considering the context and include food supplements for bodybuilding, walking sticks and a Christmas tree with lights.

There are new sports shoes, though they are fakes, and used ones that are genuine and probably sold by or stolen from their owners, along with folding camp beds for just 15 dollars each.

Prices, already low, are always negotiable especially if one is accompanied by an Afghan.

Another shopkeeper, Ali Mohammad, smiles and offers soft drinks popular with US soldiers. In a corner is a palette of non-alcoholic beer, the only kind the soldiers are allowed to drink and which also comes “from inside”.

Not everything comes from the base, however, with some of the stuff on sale, including military equipment, said to have been intercepted on the road to Bagram from the Pakistan port where they are offloaded in containers.

Either in the tribal zones on the Pakistan side, or in the famous Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, truck drivers are regularly held up by Pashtun tribesmen who sometimes steal entire loads.

Most of the shops around the Bagram base display similar products — such as Leatherman Crunch tools for 20 dollars each (normal price 65-90 dollars) — leaving little doubt that they are from the same source.

The presence of some items causes concern, however, such as articles of US military uniforms, including sand-colored hiking books that still bear the name of their former owners.

If you need a different size, the salesman takes just five minutes to come up with another pair that he offers to sell for less than 30 dollars.

“Sometimes the Afghan authorities create problems for us, like asking where the shoes came from. That’s why I keep a lot of the merchandise with me,” said one shopkeeper as a convoy of US Humvees churned up dust on a road nearby oblivious to the questionable trade being conducted on the doorstep of the base.

Further along are US Army-issue camouflage trousers for 20 dollars, although the next shopkeeper is more cautious, saying: “Some people from television came and did a report and after that the police started putting their noses in our business.

“They confiscated some of our things which are they keeping for themselves,” he says in anger, holding in his hand a desert-colored US Army hat.

Nawed, who offers second-hand USB flash drives, said: “The Afghans who work inside the base take things out on the quiet. Sometimes they carry them on their bodies, sometimes they hide them in boxes.”

On his laptop, he flicks through the contents of some of the flash discs and it clear that whoever took them from their owners did not even bother to erase the contents.

One, bought for just a handful of dollars, contains US military documents marked “not to be made public” that advise soldiers working in Afghanistan against using terms like “islamo-fascism” or “clash of civilizations”.

Another file lists the names and numbers of officers in charge of military-led construction teams across the country.

A Word document lists the tasks one soldier wants to complete during his mission, including “getting all my team home safe and sound,” “training to improve my physical condition” and “reading the Bible every day”.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Police in Australia have charged a man for drink driving in a motorized wheelchair after he was found to be six times over the legal alcohol limit, local media reported on Monday.

Police in the tropical northern Queensland city of Cairns said the man had a blood alcohol reading of 0.31, and was so drunk he was asleep at the controls of his motorized wheelchair in a turning lane of a major highway.

“It beggars belief,” Police Inspector Bob Walters told the Cairns Post newspaper, adding wheelchairs, bicycles, horses and skateboards were all considered to be vehicles under the state’s road laws.

“It’s unlawful, it is unacceptable and people should realize it could lead to a fatality,” he said.

Other motorists on the four-lane highway had to swerve to avoid the wheelchair, police said.

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Sometimes, it’s better to look like a jailbird than sport a birthday suit. Police say Bill Merit, 49, left the Chatham County jail and began walking by the side of the road, naked. Witnesses called police, who arrested him and jailed him again on a charge of public indecency.

A police report says Merit told an officer that he didn’t take the clothes jailers gave him because he thought they were stolen. The report says the man “appeared rational, except for being naked.”

Jail records show Merit had been booked two days eariler on charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Chatham County Sheriff Lt. Thomas Tillman said Wednesday Merit remains in jail awaiting arraignment. He says he does not know if Merit has a lawyer.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria’s Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her “excruciating pain.”

Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC’s “Today” show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.

“I was putting on my underwear from Victoria’s Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That’s what happened,” Patterson told NBC.

Patterson’s lawyer Jason Buccat, who also appeared on the “Today” show, said the metal staple causes “severe damage” to her cornea that required a topical steroid.

The product liability lawsuit, which was filed on June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported on the Smoking Gun Web site, seeks unspecified damages.

A spokeswoman for Victoria’s Secret, which is operated by Limited Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese policewoman who breastfed babies orphaned during last month’s earthquake has been given a better job, prompting online protests that promotions should be awarded on merit, not merely for good deeds.

Jiang Xiaojuan, 30, left her own baby with her parents and took part in the disaster relief work, breastfeeding nine babies, earning her the nickname of “the police mum” in the press.

She has since been awarded titles of “hero and model police officer” and “excellent member of the Communist Party”, was appointed to the Communist Party of China Committee of the Jiangyou Public Security Bureau and became the bureau’s vice commissar, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

Jiangyou, population 850,000, is a city near the epicentre of the May 12 Sichuan quake which killed more than 69,000 people with thousands still missing.

“Many people voiced objections when the Jiangyou government sought public opinion after making the promotion,” Xinhua said. “They said an official position should not be used to promote a moral model.”

There were also supporters of Jiang’s promotion, saying that what she did showed she was a good public servant.

SEOUL (AFP) - A jilted South Korean has lost a court bid for repayment of the money he spent on his dates, a report said on Tuesday.

The Korea Times said the high court reversed a lower court ruling in favor of the 30-year-old, identified only as Park, who claimed he spent 10 million won (9,615 dollars) on his wooing.

It said a 27-year-old woman surnamed Im dumped Park in March last year.

The following month, he made her sign a written promise to repay the sum he allegedly spent on their dates. When Im failed to comply, he went to court.

The lower court ruled in his favor but the high court decided she had been coerced into signing the promise.

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Some 200 semi-nude bicycle riders snarled traffic Saturday in downtown Sao Paulo to protest car pollution and dangerous riding conditions in the city.
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The demonstration drew the attention of motorists and passersby alike with no incident reported other than the arrest of one of the riders who had decided to take all his clothes off, city traffic officials said.

“Our nakedness shows how we feel as cyclists riding in traffic next to motorists well protected inside their vehicles,” a demonstrator who preferred to remain anonymous told AFP.

The naked pedal pushers were part of the World Naked Bike Ride, an organization holding similar events in some 70 countries to protest “indecent exposure to cars.”

“We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy,” the group said on its website.

MANILA, Philippines - Members of a fraternity at the University of the Philippines held their annual ritual of running naked on campus six months early on Wednesday — by official request — to celebrate the state-run school’s centennial anniversary.

Hundreds of cheering students lined the main campus avenue, jostling for positions with their digital and cell phone cameras.

The “Oblation Run” — named for the university’s iconic symbol of a naked man with outstretched arms that symbolizes his selfless offering of himself to the nation — started in 1977 as a gimmick by the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity to promote the screening of a movie about oppressed plantation workers called “Naked Hero.” The film had been banned by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Since then, the fraternity has used the stunt to make political statements, from raising AIDS awareness to demanding the resignation of the Philippine president, said Armand Padilla, a fraternity alumnus and organizer of the centennial run.

He said the university’s centennial committee requested the fraternity stage the annual nude demonstration as one of the activities to mark the school’s 100th foundation year.

The fraternity mustered 100 members and alumni — the largest number of naked runners ever — for the event, he said.

The naked runners, who wore golden masks and wrapped T-shirts around their heads to hide their identities, offered roses to scores of giggling female students who they took their pictures as they jogged about half a mile (1 kilometer) from the student center to the Oblation statue in front of the university’s administration building.

A student, who identified herself only as Bang, praised the runners’ grit.

“It is not just a show of bodies, but they even carry the principles on the placards they were holding,” she said.

Several runners carried placards saying “Serve the People,” a rallying call for students of the university, who are called “Scholars of the People” for the state subsidies to their education.

ASHLAND, Ore. - A woman seen frequently in Ashland riding topless on her bicycle says she plans to be in Ashland’s Fourth of July parade free and independent of all clothing but a hemp G-string. The Chamber of Commerce says that’s contrary to the rules for the family celebration. She says she’ll sue if she can’t parade as she wishes.

Jen Moss has been known as “The Naked Lady” since she moved to Ashland in May from Ojai, Calif., drawn by the town’s nudity laws. They specify only that people must cover their genitalia in a city park or the downtown commercial district, which means Moss need not cover her breasts.

The police in California, she says, harassed her when she rode her bicycle wearing a G-string and pasties.

Moss applied for an entry for the parade, which draws thousands each year.

The Ashland Chamber of Commerce learned of her coverage plans from an online posting. She promised to lead in-line skaters “wearing only a hemp G-string and blowing a conch shell.”

“We don’t feel that someone in the parade who is topless or nearly naked is appropriate for a family audience,” said parade chairman James Kidd.

He said a letter was sent to Moss on Monday and wouldn’t speak specifically about the chamber’s position until he was certain that she had received the letter.

Kidd did say that parade rules clearly indicate that entries must be appropriate for a family audience. He also said he understood that the Ashland city ordinance allows women to be topless.

“She’s welcome on any other day of the year to do that,” he said. “But not on the Fourth of July while in the parade.”

City Council member Eric Navickas said he’s on Moss’s side.

If she can’t be in the parade, Navickas said, it would be “an interesting commentary on our society that we’re willing to tolerate dead bodies through our aggressive foreign policy from the war, but not healthy, naked bodies.”

Moss told the Ashland Daily Tidings in an e-mail that if she can’t be nearly naked in the parade, she would “run around near naked protesting their unconstitutional(ism) and un-Americanism.” And she said, she would ask the American Civil Liberties Union for help in a lawsuit.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A long-awaited obscenity trial opened and was promptly put on hold, after revelations that the top federal judge hearing the case had posted sexually explicit material on the Internet.

Judge Alex Kozinski agreed to the prosecution’s request for a 48-hour delay so the Justice Department could look into possible issues of prejudice in the case, in view of the judge’s actions.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Kozinski, 57, posted a photograph of nude women on all fours painted to look like cows, while a video on the site showed a semi-naked man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal.

Kozinski told the Times he was unaware that photographs posted on his personal website could be viewed by the public and that he had removed the pictures.

The Times reported that Kozinski had blocked access to the site after being made aware that it could be viewed by the public.

The judge was quoted by the Times as saying he did not believe any of the images on the site qualified as obscene.

“Is it prurient? I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “I think it’s odd and interesting. It’s part of life.”

Kozinski, who is chief judge of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, is widely viewed as a champion of free speech who once led a successful legal bid to remove filters that blocked access to Internet pornography on computers used by 9th Circuit staff.

The Times said he declined to comment when asked if he felt he should now excuse himself from hearing the trial of Ira Isaacs, a Los Angeles-based film-maker accused of selling criminally obscene sexual fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.

Isaccs, 57, faces up to 20 years in jail and fines of one million dollars if convicted on multiple counts of importing or transporting obscene material for sale or distribution.

Prosecutors say Isaacs sold three films — “Gang Bang Horse ‘Pony Sex Game,’”, “Mako’s First Time Scat,” and “Hollywood Scat Amateurs No. 7,” between May 2004 and October 2006.

“These movies are not considered to be typical or ordinary pornography or consensual sex between adults,” US Department of Justice attorney Kenneth Whitted told a jury.

The films were “vile, perverted and profane to such an extent they are outside your community standards.”

Defense lawyer Roger Jon Diamond said in his opening statement that the films being peddled by Isaacs were “offensive and shocking.”

“They are disgusting, I would say, to most people,” Diamond said.

But Isaacs was a “shock artist” who would testify to the artistic merits of the films.

While neither side disputes the facts of the case, jurors will be asked to decide whether or not the films are obscene under federal law.

Any film found to have serious “literary, scientific or artistic value” does not meet the federal standard of obscenity established by a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.

Kozinsky has reconvened the trial for Monday morning.

EASTON, Md. - For only the third time in five years, Easton police have ticketed someone for going topless in public. Sean Cephus, 18, was cited June 4 when police say he was spotted without a shirt on South Street near Hanson Street. He was also cited for failing to obey a lawful order to stop for police.

A town ordinance adopted in 1974 forbids anyone from going topless in public buildings or on public streets and sidewalks. Possible penalties are a fine of up to $100 and up to 10 days in jail.

Easton Police Lt. Gregory Wright said people without shirts are considered a public nuisance. He said three citations have been issued since 2003.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women’s armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

The 36-year-old, who the Straits Times said was mentally unstable, had previous convictions for drug and sex-related offenses.

He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes, the paper said. He was caught after a housewife reported him to the police.

The court meted out the jail term, normally reserved for hardcore criminals, saying the man was likely to commit crimes again, the paper reported.

Caning on the buttocks is an additional punishment for male criminals in Singapore for offenses ranging from vandalism to illegal possession of drugs and rape.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Whether it has any bearing on Monday’s crunch Euro 2008 match between the two countries is debatable but Austria drew first blood on Sunday when their topless women’s soccer team beat Germany 10-5.

The traditional swapping of shirts afterwards was not an option as the six-a-side teams wore nothing but thongs, with the national colors painted on to their bare skin.

The football may not have been of the highest quality but that did not temper the enthusiasm of a mostly male crowd boosted by a sizable media presence only too happy to desert Euro 2008 training for an hour or two.

The match was organized by a chat room website.

Austria were delighted with a victory they hoped would be a morale-booster for their male counterparts but was not without its serious side.

“I hope our men will take heart from that tomorrow. We played pretty hard, we even had some injuries, like I for example broke my toe nail,” 29-year-old bank employee Doris Fastenmeir told Reuters.

The Germans took defeat sportingly and joined their opponents for alcopops and dancing at a beach club alongside the Danube.

“I was supposed to hold the balls but I really have no idea how to do that,” said German keeper Jana Bach.

“Maybe it is because I am not all that much into soccer. I am more into shoes to be honest.”

The verdict of the onlookers?

“They might have to work on their technique a bit but it was definitely a rather pleasant game to watch and a very nice version of the ‘beautiful game’,” said Rolf Hansen from Berlin.

BATAVIA, Ohio - An ailing, retired farmer who refused to give up his outhouse after authorities declared it to be a public nuisance finally got a new one.

Elbert “Lew” Preston, 79, stood his ground long enough for a nonprofit group to come to his aid and build him a sturdy new outhouse with a waste tank underneath.

“There she is,” Preston said as he showed off the new outbuilding. “She’s a lifesaver.”

The wooden outhouse, complete with a crescent moon on its door, replaces a 1960s-built version that had run afoul of public health officials in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati. While the old one was over a hole in the ground, this one sits atop a concrete base and a 1,000-gallon tank.

“It’s too nice and complicated to be an outhouse,” Preston said. “I call it a privy.”

Preston, a former trustee for Washington Township, challenged the board of health for months before seeking help from People Working Cooperatively, a nonprofit that has done thousands of projects for low-income, elderly and disabled residents in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky.

Past jobs have included replacing roofs and building wheelchair ramps, but this was its first outhouse.

Preston lives near a busy shopping area and has 175 acres of potentially lucrative real estate but didn’t want to go to the expense and complications of installing a septic system.

Preston, who is slowed by diabetes and has colon problems and pacemaker, said he never saw the need to replace the old outhouse — which once was picked up and carried into his garden by a tornado without major damage.

He said he has used an outside toilet since settling in Washington Township 40 years ago and likes the privacy of a privy.

“When you’re in a house, sounds carry,” Preston said. “Everybody knows your business.”

JAKARTA (AFP) - An Indonesian city is offering more than 1,000 boys a free circumcision as part of celebrations for the 58th anniversary of its foundation, a report said Tuesday.

Health officials in Kotabaru, South Kalimantan province, said the circumcisions were a gift of better health to hundreds of boys whose families may not be able to afford the procedure, Antara news agency reported.

“We hope the mass circumcision… can help the people in maintaining their health because free medical services do not include small operations,” local health department chief Cipta Waspada said.

Free cataract and harelip operations are also being offered to more than 100 people as part of next week’s festivities.

ATHENS, Greece - Three islanders from Lesbos told a court Tuesday that gay women insult their home’s identity by calling themselves lesbians.

The plaintiffs — two women and a man — are seeking to ban a Greek gay rights group from using the word “lesbian” in its name.

Also known as Mytilini, Lesbos was the home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love among women. It is a major travel destination for gay women.

The Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece “causes confusion by using a geographic term in connection with (the group’s) special character and social action,” said Dimitris Papadelis, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

A spokeswoman for the group accused the plaintiffs of homophobia.

“I believe … the other party’s intentions were purely racist,” Evangelia Vlami said. “They showed that what bothers them is a specific sexual orientation.”

“What will they do next, sue the United Nations? They, too, use the term lesbian,” Vlami said.

Plaintiff Dimitris Lambrou has insisted the lawsuit “is not an aggressive act against gay women.”

Lawyers from both sides are to submit written arguments on Wednesday, and the court is expected to issue its decision in the next six months.