ATHENS (Reuters) - Nine British women were facing prostitution charges after being arrested at the weekend for taking part in an oral sex competition in the Greek holiday island of Zakynthos, police said on Monday.

Six British and six Greek men, including two bar owners, were also charged in the incident, which took place at Laganas beach in the south of the Ionian island, which lies off the west coast of mainland Greece, police said.

The women, who came to the popular resort on holiday, had been paid to take part in the competition, which was video recorded and was to be posted on the Internet, police said.

The men were charged with encouraging obscene behavior.

In recent years, Laganas has established itself as one of Greece’s most popular destinations for twenty-something holidaymakers and is known for its wild party scene.

Around 15 million people — a fifth of them British — visit the eastern Mediterranean country each year, drawn by its soaring summer temperatures, azure waters and sandy beaches.

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.

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian couple who were caught having sex in a church confessional box while morning Mass was being said have repented and made peace with the local bishop.

The couple, in their early 30s, were detained by police earlier this month after they had made love in the confessional box in the cathedral in northern Cesena. They were cautioned for obscene acts in public and disturbing a religious function.

Their lawyer said they had been drinking all night and realized they had gone too far.

The lawyer told the area’s local newspaper on Wednesday the couple met with the local bishop on Tuesday night, asked for his forgiveness and that he had given it.

Last week the bishop celebrated a “Mass of reparation” in the cathedral where the confessional box incident took place to make up for the sacrilege.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A pilot’s nighttime romp in the woods with a flight attendant has ended with both suspended and under arrest, police said.

Jeffrey Paul Bradford, 24, and Adrianna Grace Connor, 24, both employees of Pinnacle Airlines Inc., were at a diner on Sunday night before they apparently decided to take a walk, police said.

“They told the officer they wanted to go do it in the woods, essentially,” said Lower Swatara Township Police Sgt. Richard Brandt. “That’s the best answer they had.”

Things went awry when people who live in the neighborhood summoned police around 9:30 p.m., saying they had seen a naked man and an intoxicated woman.

A helicopter with heat-seeking equipment was called in, and Bradford was discovered hiding behind a shed shortly before midnight.

His only attire was a pair of flip-flops and a wristwatch.

Bradford, of Pittsburgh, was charged with indecent exposure, public drunkenness and other offenses. Connor, of Belleville, Mich., was charged with theft, public drunkenness and other offenses; police said she took a flashlight from a neighbor’s vehicle.

The office of District Justice Michael John Smith, where Bradford and Connor were arraigned, said they were not represented by lawyers. Telephone listings for them could not be located by The Associated Press.

A spokesman for Pinnacle Airlines said the two were suspended while the company investigates.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A 45-year-old Indonesian maid admitted having sex with her Hong Kong employer’s 14-year-old son after watching Internet porn together, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

A court heard how the maid, a divorcee and mother of two, had sex with the boy in a relationship that lasted five months, the South China Morning Post reported.

The boy tried to end the affair, but she refused, the paper reported. The teenager eventually confessed to the relationship to the leader of a Christian group he belonged to and the maid was arrested.

The maid, Suwartin, had worked with the boy’s extended family for 11 years and pleaded guilty to five charges of committing an indecent act with an under-age partner, the Post reported.

She later apologized and said she “would live with the shame of what she had done for the rest of her life”, the paper reported.

“She had acted out of loneliness,” the paper quoted the maid’s lawyer as saying.

She will be sentenced in two weeks’ time.

Maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are often the subject of court cases in richer neighbors such as Hong Kong and Singapore, but usually as victims of abuse rather than offenders.

HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - A court in Germany sentenced a law professor to three years in prison for giving students better marks in exchange for sex and money.

The 53-year-old from the central city of Hanover admitted accepting 156,000 euros ($244,000) in total for awarding doctorates to students who failed to make the grade.

The man also told the court in nearby Hildesheim he had given female students better marks in return for sex.

The academic, whom the court on Wednesday convicted on 68 counts of corruption, said he had resorted to taking bribes because he was having financial difficulties.

His net monthly salary of nearly 5,000 euros had not been sufficient to pay off his debts, the court heard.

PARIS (Reuters) - A nude portrait of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Carla Bruni will go under the hammer in New York next month, according to auctioneers Christie’s.

The 13 x 10 1/8 inch gelatin silver black and white photograph was taken in 1993, when Bruni was one of the world’s top fashion models, and is being sold by art collector Gert Elfering.

It is expected to fetch $3,000 to $4,000 when it is sold in New York on April 10, according to the Christie’s web site.

Sarkozy married Bruni, 40, in February after a whirlwind romance that began shortly after his divorce from his second wife Cecilia.

Their relationship has coincided with a sharp fall in Sarkozy’s approval ratings which have tumbled as voters judged that the president’s glitzy lifestyle jarred with his responsibilities and status as head of state.

Sarkozy and his new wife are due to pay a state visit to Britain this week during which they will be hosted by Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.