World and people

BANGKOK - A Thai comedian was left laughing on
the other side of his face when he was arrested for a mock
jailbreak in which he and another actor dashed onto a Bangkok
bus handcuffed and wearing prison uniforms.

Police arrested Santi Meesaengchan, 37, after intercepting
the bus and fined him 1,000 baht for "causing panic in
public places" while pretending to be a prisoner on the run in
Wednesday's made-for-TV prank.

The bus, carrying a mixture of actors and ordinary
passengers, was equipped with a hidden camera to capture the
reaction of members of the public, newspapers reported.

The verdict from the country's leading tabloid, Thai Rath:
"Not very funny."

# posted by Mike @ 12:51 AM

MEXICO CITY - A group of stranded illegal
immigrants facing death in the parched Arizona desert saved
themselves by using a cell phone they found to call rescue
services, the U.S. Border Patrol said Thursday.

The group got lost in the desert near Arivaca, south of
Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday after their guide abandoned them
during a four-day trek across the border from Mexico.

Lost and low on water, they used a cell phone they found in
their guide's bag to dial 911. Rescuers dispatched helicopters
and located the group in the desert shortly after sunset.

"Their quick thinking in using the phone to call for help
and lighting signal fires saved their lives," the Tucson Sector
of the U.S. Border Patrol said in a news release.

Since the beginning of July, 21 illegal immigrants have
died of heat exhaustion while crossing through the desert to
Arizona, where summer temperatures soar to highs of around 120
F .

The sun-baked state is the principal route used by mostly
Mexican immigrants seeking a new life in the United States.
Last year, more than half a million were arrested there.

The Border Patrol said Thursday there was a strong
possibility that a heatwave in Arizona could cause a record
number of immigrant deaths.

# posted by Mike @ 12:51 AM

OTTAWA - A Canadian teenager caught driving at
almost twice the speed limit told police he had overdosed on a
protein drink and was desperately looking for a washroom, the
Ottawa Citizen reported on Friday.

Hayder Mobarak's tale did not impress a local judge, who
gave him a whopping C$926 fine and banned him from
driving for 30 days. Mobarak was clocked doing 195 km per hour
on a road where the limit was 100 km/h.

"I was going to the gym and I was taking a protein shake
and if you overdose it's really painful. This is why I was
rushing to the washroom ... I wasn't thinking, I was in pain,"
the newspaper quoted 19-year-old as saying.

The incident could cost Mobarak even money later on. An
insurance company official told the paper that a high-risk
young driver would have to pay C$8,000 a year to insure a new
car.

# posted by Mike @ 12:51 AM

NEW YORK - A 9-year-old boy in upstate New York
got a rare early peek at the new "Harry Potter" book this week
after a store accidentally put it on sale before Saturday's
launch date, but agreed to give back the copy after reading
only a few pages.

But J.K. Rowling's U.S. publisher Scholastic Corp. said the
boy's family had quickly reported the breach of the strict
sales embargo and returned the copy of "Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince," which is being released around the world on
July 16.

"They're a wonderful family; they contacted us and they're
sending the book back," Kris Moran, director of publicity at
Scholastic in New York, told Reuters.

Millions of copies of the sixth book in the best-selling
series about the boy wizard have been shipped to stores around
the United States but Moran said this was the first report of a
leak in the United States.

Last week a store near Vancouver briefly put the book on
sale, but Raincoast Books Ltd., which distributes the books in
Canada, won a court injunction barring buyers from disclosing
the plot.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that 9-year-old Sylum
Mastropaolo from Rosendale and his mother Mandy Muldoon had
come across the book while shopping on Monday evening.

"It's pretty amazing," the boy was quoted as saying, adding
that he had read only a couple of pages. "Millions and millions
of people around the world are waiting for this book."

Moran said the publisher would send a book and a special
package of Harry Potter merchandise to the family to thank them
for sending the book back.

Mike Muldoon, Sylum's stepfather, said they had decided to
return the book because it was "the right thing.

"We don't want to ruin it for other kids and take away from
the experience of everyone reading it together," the
Poughkeepsie Journal quoted him as saying.

The store took the books off the shelves within hours but
Moran said it was not certain whether any more copies of the
book had been sold.

"I think it probably was an honest mistake," she said.

# posted by Mike @ 11:17 PM

CALGARY, Alberta - A northern Canadian village
that has been overrun by stray dogs has offered a C$50
bounty on each one in an effort to cure the problem.

But residents are now having to keep an extra close watch
on the family pooch after some attempts to steal pets for the
cash reward, a village official said on Wednesday.

Officials in Rae-Edzo, twin communities of about 2,300
people in the Northwest Territories, are trying stop a scourge
of dog attacks on children and the elderly by giving residents
cash incentives to bring the stays in alive, Cecile Desjardins,
the town's acting senior administrator, said.

But it's had unintended consequences.

"We had one incident -- we have dog kennels just out of
town here, and a kid went over there and untied three of the
owner's dogs and dragged them over to the garage where we have
the dog pound and tried to cash in," Desjardins said.

"The owner went to feed his dogs and realized three of them
were missing. They got them in time."

Another youth untied a dog from the front porch of a house
and was about to take it to the pound when the owner ran out
yelling and managed to retrieve the pet, she said.

Officials estimate there are more than 50 stray dogs in as
many as seven packs. They have bitten dozens of residents, most
of whom have required a rabies shots.

Many residents are frightened to walk around town,
Desjardins said.

The bounty was recently raised from C$30 for each stray
brought in, after town workers found the canines were often too
cagey to catch.

"The funny thing is, those darn dogs, they know the company
vehicles, and when they see them they run the other way. So
that's why the community people have been hauling the dogs in
as they see them," she said.

Thirteen dogs were euthanized in June.

# posted by Mike @ 11:17 PM

BRUSSELS - A shoplifter sweltering in more than
10 pieces of stolen clothing while summer temperatures soared
toward 86 degrees Fahrenheit was apprehended by security guards
in the Belgian city of Antwerp.

Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws reported Thursday that the
woman, aged 24, had been arrested after guards at a sports
clothing shop in the busy commercial heart of the city noticed
her bulky garb.

When detained, she was found to be wearing a jogging suit,
a sweater, four polo shirts, three T-shirts, four sleeveless
tops, a pair of shorts and trainers, the newspaper said.

# posted by Mike @ 11:17 PM

NEW YORK - Connecticut Tuesday joined a growing
effort to weed out marijuana-flavored candy from store shelves
when its attorney general said he would sponsor a statewide ban
on "Pot Suckers" lollipops.

Five other states have either banned or are considering a
ban on the candy, causing New Jersey distributor ICUP to
suspend further sales of the green candy as of June 28.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the
candy was being sold in novelty stores in large malls
throughout the state, marketed with slogans such as "Every lick
is like taking a hit."

The candy, which is flavored with hemp essential oil, does
not contain THC, the hallucinogenic compound in marijuana, but
Blumenthal called it "a gateway product" that "glamorizes drugs
for children."

The candy has been banned by the Chicago City Council and
in Suffolk County, New York. The New York City Council and the
states of Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia are considering
legislation to ban them.

ICUP president Steve Trachtenberg said reaction to the Pot
Suckers "borders on ridiculous."

"Is it a novelty? Yes. Was it meant to encourage kids to
use drugs? Absolutely not," he said, noting that more than 70
percent of U.S. candy consumption is by adults.

Trachtenberg said that in addition to suspending
distribution of Pot Suckers because of the backlash, his
company has put on hold plans for related items, including a
hemp-flavored chocolate candy Buzz Bar.

Other marijuana-flavored candy products have found their
way to the market place in recent months including "Kronic
Kandy," made in the Netherlands and sold in the Atlanta area,
and items from the Mary Jane Candy Company including "Ganja
Pops" and "Icky Sticky Nuggets."

# posted by Mike @ 11:22 PM

CHICAGO - That was easy.

A bank robber behind the wheel of his car on Tuesday sent a
note through a vacuum tube to the teller at the drive-through
window at a branch of Chicago's LaSalle Bank and the teller
obliged, returning an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

The exchange was completed through the bank's pneumatic
tube communications system, in which canisters are passed back
and forth between motorist and teller.

The FBI said it was investigating the drive-through theft.

# posted by Mike @ 11:22 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Armed bandits in Brazil
robbed a vehicle carrying more than 400 breast implants,
officials said on Tuesday.

"It happened last week, but we only learned about it
recently as our clients started complaining. It is the hottest
period of the year in terms of implant sales," said Margaret
Figueiredo, director of silicone implant manufacturer Silimed.

A spokesman for the state Postal Service confirmed that
assailants, apparently men, robbed the postal van with implants
on Thursday night in Rio de Janeiro. Each Silimed breast
implant costs nearly $400.

The popularity of Brazil's plastic surgery pioneer and
trendsetter Ivo Pitanguy, whose clients include celebrities
like Sophia Loren, has made the tropical country one of the
leading international nip and tuck venues.

Figueiredo explained demand is the highest in July, during
the southern hemisphere winter, as women schedule surgery
during the winter school holidays, which precede the beach
season.

Figueiredo said the implants, each bearing an individual
number, could now only be sold for clandestine surgeries.
Horrific stories abound in Brazil about the illegal operations
that can cause gangrene and death.

# posted by Mike @ 11:22 PM

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO - A 45-year-old transgender woman who
received illegal silicone injections at a party in a private
home in San Diego has died after nearly a month on life
support, the county medical examiner said on Monday.

Patricio Gonzalez, who police said received silicone
injections to her hips, buttocks, cheeks and lips, died on
Sunday. Gonzalez and at least nine other people were injected
at a so-called "pumping party" on June 19, police said.

"Pumping parties," where people seeking a more feminine
appearance have silicone injected into their bodies, have been
on the upswing in the last few years, experts say. The silicone
used at the parties is often industrial-grade material like
floor sealant.

The Food and Drug Administration banned direct injections
of silicone in 1992 and the substance has been known to migrate
within the body and cause chronic, degenerative illnesses.

Gonzalez and another transgender woman received more
silicone than the other party guests and suffered immediate
respiratory problems, prompting the Los Angeles-area woman who
was administering the silicone to flee, police said.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for Sammia "Angelica"
Gonzalez, 39, who was injecting the party guests with silicone,
is believed to have fled to Mexico.

The second transgender woman, 30, was also comatose after
the party. There was no update on her condition from police on
Monday.

Deaths stemming from "pumping parties" are on the rise,
with at least five fatalities reported in Florida, Texas and
Georgia since 2003.

The illegal silicone injections are in demand because it
remains cheaper and easier than plastic surgery, said Dr.
Walter Bockting, the coordinator of transgender health services
at the University of Minnesota's Center for Human Sexuality.

Transgender women often have humiliating experiences with
traditional surgery clinics, and surgeons often require a
psychological exam before they will consider treatment, he
said.

"The greatest danger is that people don't know what they're
getting," Bockting said. "People are very vulnerable because of
the self-esteem issues they suffer from and they are willing to
risk long-term disaster to feel better."

A.J. Davis, public policy director for the San Diego Gay
and Lesbian Community Center, said the center does everything
it can to discourage silicone injections.

"We talk to people about the dangers and we provide lots of
information for nonsurgical alternatives," she said.

# posted by Mike @ 8:00 PM

RIYADH - A Saudi woman defied a ban on women
driving to get her husband urgent medical help after he
collapsed at the wheel, Al-Watan newspaper said Tuesday.

It said the couple was driving from the eastern city of
Dammam to the capital Riyadh Sunday night when the man started
having trouble breathing and lost consciousness.

His wife, who had learned to drive on trips to the desert,
jumped behind the wheel and drove 10 miles down the motorway to
a gas station where he was treated.

Women are banned from driving in the conservative Muslim
kingdom, where religious scholars fear it would encourage them
to mix with men outside their family. The ban is enforced in
cities and on main roads but often flouted in rural areas.

A proposal to ease the ban was blocked by the kingdom's
consultative Shura council in May and the powerful interior
minister, Prince Nayef, said the issue is not a priority.

Arab News daily reported Sunday that a Malaysian woman, who
was unaware of the prohibition, was involved in an accident in
the holy city of Mecca after she lost patience waiting for a
driver and drove off by herself.

# posted by Mike @ 8:00 PM

BEIJING - Japanese customers must apologize for
their country's wartime occupation of China before getting a
seat at a restaurant in former Manchuria or find another place
to eat, Japan's Kyodo news agency said Tuesday.

No Japanese had tried to enter the restaurant in the
northeastern Chinese city of Jilin since it started the new
apology policy and hung a sign that read "Japanese people
barred from entry."

"We totally welcome those Japanese customers who can
correctly view history," the manager, surnamed Tian, was quoted
as saying.

"But as for those customers who still refuse to admit to
history, we want to say we don't like them."

Staff at the Western-style restaurant were told to ask
Japanese customers who walked through the door to give their
views of Japan's 1931-1945 occupation of parts of China,
including the northeast, and to turn away those who did not
apologize and share the owner's opinions, Kyodo said.

Many Chinese feel Japan has never owned up to atrocities
committed during its occupation, including the 1937 Rape of
Nanjing in which Beijing says as many as 300,000 Chinese men,
women and children were slaughtered by Japanese troops.

The 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops
killed 155,000 people, mainly women and children.

China has repeatedly asked Japan to "take history as a
mirror" and "correctly" view history to repair ties between the
two countries, which this year have sunk to their lowest point
in decades.

# posted by Mike @ 8:00 PM

MOSCOW - Workers demolishing a Stalin-era Moscow
hotel Sunday discovered a tonof explosives that would have been
used to blow the building sky-high if Nazi troops had taken the
Soviet capital, media reported.

After its opening in 1935, the hotel Moskva was one of the
Soviet Union's flagship hotels and stood opposite the Russian
parliament and only a stone's throw from Red Square.

"The boxes held only explosives without detonators so there
was no risk of an explosion in the hotel," a
police spokesman told Russian news agencies.

NTV television showed sappers and construction workers
removing bags of explosive from the deep, muddy hole that is
all that is left of the hotel, which once sported a distinctive
facade and dominated one of the capital's main thoroughfares.

"According to preliminary information, the explosive was
hidden in a cache during the Great Patriotic War," a police
spokesman was quoted by Itar-Tass agency as saying, referring
to World War II. Police said they had removed a tonof explosive
by evening.

NTV said the hotel was mined in case Adolf Hitler's forces
had taken Moscow. The German troops made it to the outskirts in
1942, but Soviet troops stopped them pushing into the center.

The Soviet Union had extensive contingency plans in case it
lost the capital. Many factories, institutes and government
bodies moved into Siberia and Central Asia.

The hotel has been demolished in what officials say is a
drive to improve and modernize Moscow's tourist facilities.
Media have reported that city officials intend to build a new
hotel looking exactly the same.

Many architectural historians say the demolition is a
shameful end for a key Moscow landmark that should have been
preserved.

# posted by Mike @ 3:27 AM

BERLIN - A Berlin grandmother who has worked the
city's diplomatic quarter as a prostitute for the last 49 years
plans to retire when she turns 64 next year, according to
Germany's Bild newspaper.

Even though prostitutes were forced to leave the area after
the Berlin Wall, fell because dead-end streets in the
downtrodden district were re-connected to east Berlin and
property values surged, Renate Dolle was allowed to stay, Bild
said.

"I've got a lot of regular clients," the blonde woman told
the newspaper, pictured wearing a short red mini skirt and
high-heeled white boots as she stood near the Japanese embassy.
She said she charges 30 euros and on good nights she has
four to five clients.

"I'm going to stop at 64 and retire," said Dolle, whose
husband drops her off for work each night after the television
evening news and who has a nine-year-old granddaughter.

She is one of 10,000 prostitutes in Berlin and 400,000 in
Germany, where prostitution is legal. Dolle said she tried to
work in a popular red light district nearby recently but was
chased away by younger competitors.

"What do you want here, you old whore, get lost," Dolle
said they shouted at her. "What did I ever do to them?"

# posted by Mike @ 3:27 AM

ROME - Most Italians think nude sunbathing is
perfectly natural and don't mind crossing paths with bottomless
beach-goers -- even when those bottoms are unsightly, survey
results released Sunday said.

While topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy,
bottoms are usually required and nudists can face fines of more
than 500 euros on some beaches, the Italian Naturalist
Federation said.

But the federation said a poll it commissioned from a
mainstream media outlet found nearly 70 percent of those
surveyed said they would sunbath nude if everyone else did it.
More than 80 percent said nudism was not erotic, but natural.

Women were more frequently bothered by nude sunbathing than
men. Just over 40 percent of women said they did not like
seeing other naked females on the beach, while just 5 percent
of men shared their opinion about nude women.

The survey found nearly two-thirds of men said they weren't
bothered by nude male sunbathers.

When it came to unattractive or "brutto" sunbathers, most
of those surveyed in the country that champions physical beauty
said they didn't object to seeing them naked either.

Only about 16 percent said they were vexed by unattractive
women nudists and 9.7 percent objected to unsightly men.

The Federation said the survey would bolster their hopes of
getting more beaches set aside for nude sunbathing.

# posted by Mike @ 3:27 AM

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON - A panda cub the size of a stick of
butter was born early Saturday at the National Zoo , the first for the pair of endangered bears now
living there and a milestone for the zoo.

Mei Xiang gave birth at 3:41 a.m. and zoo
veterinarians were watching closely to see how the tiny cub,
which weighs just ounces , will fare in its first
critical days.

"Luckily, right now both mother and cub are doing really,
really well," said zoo spokesman John Gibbons. "Mei Xiang is
proving that she knows best and she's doing exactly what Mother
Nature intended her to do."

That would be cradling and nursing the white-haired cub,
which Gibbons said was about "the size of a stick of butter."

The newborn's sex may not be determined for weeks as zoo
officials stay out of the panda den while mother and baby bond
and the cub builds immunity from infection.

"From a health standpoint this is a critical, critical
time. In no way are we out of the woods yet," said Gibbons.

The striking black-and-white giant panda is one of the
world's best known endangered species. Mei Xiang and the cub's
father, Tian Tian, are on a 10-year loan to the Smithsonian's
zoo from their native China. Any cub they produce belongs to
China and would be sent there after weaning in about one or two
years.

Successful panda births are rare, especially in captivity.

"It's a huge, huge deal that we have a panda cub at the
National Zoo and it's something we've been waiting for a long,
long time," Gibbons said in a telephone interview.

The zoo's previous pair of the bamboo-munching bears, the
late Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, produced five cubs between 1983
and 1989 but all of them died within days.

Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated on March 11, but zoo
officials were not sure until now that she was pregnant,
Gibbons said.

Pandas have "pseudopregnancies" -- in which they exhibit
pregnant behaviors including nesting -- every time they mate or
are inseminated, as Mei Xiang has been the last two springs.

Even the ultrasound image, given Mei Xiang's furry mass,
was too blurry to make out a cub, Gibbons said.

"Mei Xiang is one of the few pandas in the world that is
fully trained to have an ultrasound," he said. "She is trained
to lay down, someone feeds her pears and apples while someone
else does an ultrasound on her.

"A week and a half ago she decided she didn't want to have
ultrasounds anymore. We were kind of flying blind after that."

Only about 20 giant pandas live in zoos outside China,
according to the zoo, and the mother and cub will be watched
around the clock. If the cub survives, it won't go on exhibit
for three months.

Which is probably a good thing for panda fans.

"Cute is not a word I would use in describing it," Gibbons
said of the newborn cub. "It's somewhat bald, eyes are closed,
kind of pink and it wiggles around a little bit. It's this
tiny, tiny thing."

# posted by Mike @ 12:36 PM

NEW YORK - London was the scene of carnage on
Thursday after a series of deadly blasts but American R&B
crooner Omarion, who suffered no injury or inconvenience, wants
people to pray for him.

"Omarion was in London during the tragic bombings that
struck this morning," a statement by the singer's publicist AR
PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said.

Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the
blasts, the singer's statement concluded, "He would like his
fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He
appreciates your support."

He was in London for Saturday's Live 8 show, his publicist
Shana Gilmore told Reuters from Los Angeles. Asked why anyone
should pray for him, Gilmore said, "He wasn't hurt or anything,
but just the fact that he was there and all that."

Omarion was the teenaged lead singer of the chart-topping
band B2K before going solo. The 20-year-old's first solo album
"O" debuted at No. 1 of Billboard charts earlier this year.

# posted by Mike @ 12:04 PM

LOS ANGELES - A California woman is suing a
hospital for wrongful death because her husband fainted and
suffered a fatal injury after helping delivery room staff give
her a pain-killing injection.

Jeanette Passalaqua, 32, filed the suit against Kaiser
Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical
Group Inc. in San Bernardino County state court last week.

In June 2004, Passalaqua's husband, Steven Passalaqua, was
asked by Kaiser staff to hold and steady his wife while an
employee inserted an epidural needle into her back, court
papers said.

The sight of the needle caused Steven Passalaqua, 33, to
faint and he fell backward, striking his head on an aluminum
cap molding at the base of the wall.

Jeanette Passalaqua delivered the couple's second child, a
boy, later that day. Steven Passalaqua, however, suffered a
brain hemorrhage as a result of his fall and died two days
later, the lawsuit said.

The suit seeks unspecified damages related to Steven
Passalaqua's death and to Jeanette Passalaqua's emotional
distress at being widowed with two young children.

Because Passalaqua was solicited by Kaiser to assist in the
epidural, the lawsuit said, the hospital "owed him a duty to
exercise reasonable care to prevent foreseeable injuries
resulting from his participation."

A spokesman for Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente
called the death "a tragic accident."

"Some of the allegations in the lawsuit are simply that --
allegations. The legal process is under way and we should
respect that," said Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson.

# posted by Mike @ 12:04 PM

PHNOM PENH - A melon caused a Cambodian truck to
overturn, killing one person and injuring 30, officials said
Thursday.

The melon rolled under the truck's brake pedal and the
vehicle overturned as the driver tried to unjam it, they said.

The overloaded truck, which crashed Wednesday, was carrying
workers, fruits and vegetables from a local market in the
remote and hilly northeastern province of Mondulkiri.

"The driver could not use the brake to slow the truck,"
policeman Ieng Tum told Reuters by telephone.

"The truck overturned as the driver was trying to get the
fruit out from under the pedal brake," he said.

# posted by Mike @ 12:04 PM

By Tiziana Cauli

PARIS - Diners rub their eyes as they emerge from
behind a curtain after eating at France's only pitch black
restaurant.

For nearly two hours they have relied on blind guides who
helped them reach their table, pour wine and find their way to
the lavatory.

Some of them are not even sure what they had for dinner as
they pay the bill after leaving the darkened restaurant.

Dans Le Noir is one of three such "blind"
restaurants in Europe. The others are in Berlin and Zurich, and
its owners are opening a fourth in London with the help of
charity association Action for Blind People.

"Finishing your meal when not much is left on the plate is
the most difficult part," said 30-year-old student Alessia
Milani. She came from Milan with her husband Giorgio Beltrami,
37, after she had heard about the restaurant on the radio.

They had chosen the surprise menu, a full meal including
starters and dessert from a wide range of French and Italian
dishes clients can ask for, spending an average of 40 to 50
euros per person.

"I think the second dish was chicken with vegetables.
Dessert was difficult to guess, but I tasted ice cream, jam and
fruit," Milani said.

"It felt as if time was standing still," Beltrami added.

The restaurant's owner, 42-year-old Frenchman Edouard de
Broglie, said working in the dark had not led to accidents in
the year since the restaurant opened in central Paris.

"We haven't had any accidents in the past year. And we're
much more experienced than when we started," he said.

KISSING THE WAITER GOODBYE

De Broglie said he was not an entrepreneur before he opened
the restaurant with a team of experienced collaborators from
the Paul Guinot foundation, an organization for the blind.

"I was simply interested in corporate social
responsibility," he said.

He says the restaurant is the first permanent one of its
kind in Paris, although there had been several such eating
places in the capital in the past few years which did not last.

De Broglie said diners learn something of what it is like
to be blind and develop a special relationship with the
waiters.

"It's the only restaurant where diners kiss their waiter
goodbye," he said.

Blind waitress Susanna de Brito, 32, said clients were
often curious about how blind people get by. "They start asking
questions about the food and end up asking about us," she said.

Customers realize "blind people can be very good for some
jobs. We want to be an example that can be also followed for
other handicaps. We've had a lot of important politicians
eating here, people who have the power to change things," de
Broglie said.

The restaurant had to go undergo tight safety checks before
it could open, as did the two "blind" restaurants in Berlin and
Zurich. Securing a loan was a big problem.

Ten blind guides assist diners, but de Broglie's policy is
based on profit. Other members of staff can see.

"I don't hire people because they're blind but because
they're better in their job than people who are not blind. I
wouldn't put them in the kitchen, because it's a dangerous
place for them," he said.

ENTER HOLDING HANDS

A lounge with tables and chairs is the only dark section of
the restaurant.

Clients enter holding hands and accompanied by their guides
and have to follow rules such as not moving around by
themselves and being extremely careful with cutlery, plates and
glasses.

Politeness is required. The most common breaches of the
code of conduct clients are asked to read before entering the
dark room are speaking too loudly and not being sensitive to
other diners' need to talk to their neighbors in the dark.

Families with children are among the about 100 people that
eat in the restaurant each day. Ten-year-old Beryl Chevalle
Reau said she had some trouble cutting her meat, but she
enjoyed her dinner, even though she wouldn't come back.

"Once you've tried why should you do it again?," she said.

Aude Neveu, 26, came with her husband to celebrate their
wedding anniversary but said she couldn't have put up with the
darkness any longer.

"One-and-a-half hours is enough. After that it becomes
oppressive," she said after making sure her white shirt was
still clean.

Customers are asked to put comments in a book as they
leave.

"It was a bright experience," Paola from Rome wrote.

Not all the guests were satisfied.

"Darkness kills any prejudice on food and taste. So
sometimes people suddenly realize that much of the food they
usually eat is not that tasty," de Broglie said.

# posted by Mike @ 12:27 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Pit bulls were banned
from Rio de Janeiro's famous beaches and other public places in
the Brazilian city on Wednesday under new regulations that
could eventually make the sometimes aggressive breed extinct in
the area.

Many residents own the fearless, sturdy dogs for protection
in a city where murder rates are among the highest in the
world.

The ban, issued by the state of Rio de Janeiro after more
than six years of debate, follows numerous cases of maulings by
pit bulls, especially of children. Last year, a pit bull badly
injured a 4-year-old girl in the city, while a year earlier
another pit bull mauled a 72-year-old woman to death.

Gov. Rosinha Matheus announced a ban on breeding, importing
and selling pit bulls and made the registration and
sterilization of existing dogs compulsory within the next four
months.

In addition, pit bulls, rottweilers, dobermans and fila
brasileiro dogs -- purebred as well as mongrel -- can only
appear in the streets between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m, and away
from public parks and squares.

They can only be walked by a person older than 18 and
always on a leash, with a muzzle when in the street. Owners who
do not comply can face charges while their dogs will be taken
away by police.

According to the Brazilian Pit Bull Club, there are some
30,000 pit bulls in the state.

# posted by Mike @ 12:27 PM

BEIJING - Chinese are more ignorant about sex
than any other subject, the official Xinhua news agency quoted
a sex expert as saying Thursday.

"In the survey we conducted, not only youngsters but many
grown-ups are sex idiots, which is really dangerous and
woeful," Xinhua quoted Xu Tianming, president of the China
Sexology Society, as telling a seminar.

"More Chinese are ignorant about sex than about other
knowledge, even including those having received higher
education and experts of other fields," he was quoted as
saying.

Xu himself demonstrated a unique understanding of the
subject, saying people could only enjoy a normal sex life until
the age of 25. He added that meant teenagers should be allowed
to socialize more freely with members of the opposite sex.

"Parents and society should allow them to have normal
contacts with the opposite sex, such as dancing, and to read
some books with certain sex descriptions," Xu said.

Attitudes about sex have relaxed since Communist China
began market reforms in the late 1970s, opening the doors to
teenage dating and also creating a huge increase in adultery
and divorce.

# posted by Mike @ 12:27 PM

MOSCOW - A Russian astrologist who says NASA has
altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is
suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local
media reported Monday.

NASA deliberately crashed its probe, named Deep Impact,
into the Tempel 1 comet to unleash a spray of material formed
billions of years ago which scientists hope will shed new light
on the composition of the solar system.

"It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and
correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion,
which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my
horoscope," Izvestia daily quoted astrologist Marina Bai as
saying in legal documents submitted before Monday's collision.

A spokeswoman for a Moscow district court said initial
preparations for the case were underway but could not say when
the hearing would begin. NASA representatives in Moscow were
unavailable for comment.

# posted by Mike @ 3:18 PM

BERLIN - A German thief effectively signed his
own arrest warrant after photographing himself at the scene of
a crime and accidentally leaving the pictures for police to
discover.

Police in the northern town of Neumuenster said the youth
stole a digital camera during a break-in in nearby Rendsburg
and took the photos before discarding the device nearby.

"We don't know if it was down to a series of unfortunate
events or whether the thief couldn't get to grips with the
technology," police said in a statement Monday.

Officers found photos which could only have been taken by
the perpetrator, including pictures of the 17-year-old, whom
they recognized from previous offences.

"The evidence was fairly compelling so he had to admit it,"
said police spokesman Soenke Hinrichs.

# posted by Mike @ 3:18 PM

MOSCOW - A young Russian man who dressed in
women's clothes to take an exam for his sister was caught after
his oversize bust gave him away, Interfax news agency reported
Monday.

The youth's "unusually prominent female features," and
heavy make-up drew security guards' attention and they stopped
him from taking the test, Yasen Zasursky, dean of Moscow State
University's journalism faculty, told the agency.

# posted by Mike @ 3:18 PM