Police barred from penis enlargement

Forget about getting a job as a police officer in Indonesia's Papua if you have had your penis enlarged. You won't get it, according to local media reports citing the Papua police chief.

An applicant "will be asked whether or not his vital organ has been enlarged," said Papua police chief Bekto Suprapto, quoted on local website Kompas.com.

"If he has, he will be considered unfit to join the police or the military."

The ban was applied since the unnatural size causes "hindrance during training," said police spokesman Zainuri Lubis in Jakarta, quoted by news portal Detik.com.

Indonesia's remote easternmost province is home to Papuan tribes, many of whom are known for wearing penis gourds.

A low-level separatist insurgency has waged in the resources-rich part of Indonesia for decades and there is a heavy police and military presence there.

Papuans use a local technique to achieve the enlargement, according to a sexologist quoted by local newspaper Jakarta Globe, wrapping the penis with leaves from the "gatal-gatal" (itchy) tree so that it swells up "like it has been stung by a bee," the expert said.

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Hotels with no condoms get fined

BEIJING - A Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars more than $600 if they do not provide condoms, part of efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday.

The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, started enforcing the rules on Thursday, the Beijing News said.

"Condoms or condom-vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined 5,000 yuan ($650)," the report said.

The Chinese government originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West -- a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.

It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.

But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Rules force man to urinate in bottle in exam hall

BERLIN - Exam supervisors at a German university stuck to rules so rigidly that a man with a bladder dysfunction had to urinate in a bottle in front of 120 fellow students because they would not let him go to the toilet.

Overseers at the University of Freiburg in southwestern Germany told the 27-year-old, whose bladder control was impaired in an accident that left him on crutches, that he would be failed if he left the room during the exam.

None of the three supervisors would accompany the man to the toilet despite other students' protests.

Eventually one female student emptied her water bottle so the man could go to a corner of the room and relieve himself.

In a letter written on Wednesday and seen by Reuters, university deputy head Karl-Reinhard Volz apologized to the student, saying the supervisors' behavior was completely unjustified and "lacking in any normal human sensitivity."

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Iran Plans a Female-Only Island to boost Tourism

TEHRAN - Iran plans a female-only island to boost tourism in a northwest province, the Tehran-e Emrouz newspaper on Wednesday quoted a local official as saying.

It will be on the Urumiyeh lake in Western Azerbaijan province, a municipality official identified only as Aghai said.

Under Iran's strict Islamic law, mixing with men in public is forbidden. Strict sex segregation actually protects women rather than restricting their rights, officials argue.

"There will be no men on the Arezou (Wish) island. Public transport, restaurants and other facilities will be staffed only by women," Aghai said.

Parts of Iranian beaches are reserved for women, where they can remove their headscarves and wear swimming costumes. Women have forced their way into the national sports stadium, defying strict sex segregation. There are several parks for women only.

In public women have to cover their body in long loose coats and their hair with headscarves. The chador, literally meaning 'tent', an all-enveloping, usually black cloth is obligatory in some government offices.

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Islamic Spies to Snoop on Lovers in Terengganu

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian state plans to recruit "spies" from the public to snoop on unmarried lovers and report them to Islamic religious authorities, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The Terengganu state government plans to enlist the part-time spies to look out for un-Islamic behavior, such as unmarried couples kissing or holding hands, the Star daily said.

"Some of these 'spies' could be waitresses or even janitors at hotels acting as auxiliary undercover agents for our religious department," the head of the state government's Islamic and welfare committee, Rosol Wahid, was quoted as saying.

"Accurate details are required for the enforcement officers to act, otherwise they could be pouncing on married couples."

Last October, religious police in another part of this mainly Muslim country caused an outcry when they mistakenly raided the rented holiday apartment of a Christian American couple on suspicion that they were unmarried Muslims in "close proximity."

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

One Million Women could SUE Wal-Mart

The biggest sex discrimination lawsuit in US history has taken a big step forward with the ruling by a federal appeals court allowing a complaint brought by six women in 2001 against Wal-Mart to proceed as a class-action case.

The decision means that over one million past and present female staff may seek compensation from the world's largest retailer which could ultimately run into the billions of dollars.

The panel of three judges at the San Francisco court did not pronounce on the merits of the case but upheld a 2004 lower court ruling allowing it to go forward as a class-action issue. Wal-Mart, however, vowed to continue the fight, first by asking the appeals court to reconsider the decision, and if that fails, by taking the matter to the Supreme Court in Washington.

The company contends that the circumstances of the orginal case could not apply to the two million women who have worked there since December 1998, the starting date of the lawsuit.

"Wal-Mart has a strong anti-discrimination policy," said Theodore Boutrous, the lead defence lawyer. Decisions taken over six years at 3,400 stores by thousands of individual managers "cannot be tried in one fell swoop in a nationwide class-action lawsuit," he added. But by a 2-to-1 majority the panel declared that so many women were potentially involved it was simply not practical to allow each case to go ahead on an individual basis.

Legal experts now say it is unlikely a superior court would overturn a ruling upheld twice in lower court. "The evidence, we think, is very strong. It is time for Wal-Mart to face the music," said Brad Seligman, lead lawyer for the six plaintiffs. He was ready to discuss with Wal-Mart an out- of-court settlement with the company - the usual way such class-action suits are resolved.

But this is no ordinary case. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the US, with net sales of $312bn (£156bn) in the year to January 2006, and 1.3 million employees, or "associates" in the US alone. If every woman who worked for it from 1998 to 2004 joined the suit, the final bill could be billions.

"I'm absolutely overjoyed," said Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff and an employee for nearly 13 years, who is now a greeter at a Wal-Mart store east of San Francisco. Ms Dukes first sued the company because she and her fellow female employees felt they were systematically overlooked when job openings were advertised inside her store.

After working as a cashier for three years, she became a customer service representative - a promotion, she maintains, that some male staff obtained even before they had completed their standard probationary period.

The class action suit is one of several developments in recent years to tarnish Wal-Mart's reputation as an employer. It has been accused of breaking immigration laws and failing to provide lower-paid employees with adequate healthcare coverage.

Source

[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

New York may ban iPods while Crossing Street

NEW YORK - New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine.

New York State Sen. Carl Kruger says three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district have been killed since September upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device. In one case bystanders screamed "watch out" to no avail.

Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street.

"Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry," Kruger said in a telephone interview from Albany, the state capital. "This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand."

Tech-consuming New Yorkers trudge to work on sidewalks and subways like an army of drones, appearing to talk to themselves on wireless devices or swaying to seemingly silent tunes.

"I'm not trying to intrude on that," Kruger said. "But what's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles. It's becoming a nationwide problem."

Source

[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

S Koreans Offered Cash for No Sex

Male workers who vow to stay away from prostitutes after year-end celebrations in South Korea are to be rewarded.

The Ministry for Gender Equality is offering cash to companies whose male employees pledge not to pay for sex after office parties.

Men are being urged to register on the ministry's website. The companies with most pledges will receive a reward.

Officials say they want to put an end to a culture in which men get drunk at parties and go on to buy sex.

But some critics have described the move as a waste of money.

Despite new anti-prostitution laws passed in 2004, the practice is said to be widespread in South Korea, with some estimates suggesting more than one million people work in the sex industry.

Source
[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]