Reuters By Josie Cox
Mon Apr 27, 2009 APPENZELL, Switzerland (Reuters) - Hikers will no longer be able to stroll naked through the idylic Alpine countryside of Appenzell Innerrhoden after the conservative Swiss canton banned nude walking there.
Appenzell Innerrhoden has become hugely popular for naked ramblers due to its tranquil, picture-perfect meadows and valleys. But the hordes offended Appenzellers' sensitivities and they voted Sunday to order them to cover up.
"It's ridiculous that Appenzell is getting an international reputation for such a despicable habit," said Peter Schmid, who turned up bearing the canton's traditional long sword to vote against nude hiking at the annual open-air Landsgemeinde.
The Landsgemeide is a popular assembly that takes place in Appenzell town on the last Sunday of April. Participants vote by raising hands to decide on local issues, a privilege reserved to men only until women were admitted in 1990.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 voters, many wearing traditional robes, turned up at this year's Landsgemeinde.
The canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden started earlier this year to take steps to rein in what the local justice and police department called "immoral habits."
In February, the cantonal council began levying naked hikers on-the-spot fines. But this seemed to backfire, raising Appenzell's international profile as a haven for naked hikers.
DANGEROUS HABIT
Naked hiking has become popular in countries like France and Germany, with supporters praising the liberating feeling of being able to roam freed from clothes in nature.
"There are naked hikers in France and Germany too," Edith Zweifel of the Swiss tourism board told Reuters. "But Switzerland is a lot more conservative and very traditional."
Detractors say the practice, against which the Appenzell canton will now impose a 200 Swiss franc fine, presents risks.
Swiss trekking clothing and equipment manufacturer Mammut deems the practice unsafe and irresponsible.
Mammut spokeswoman Katharina Habermann said exposing certain delicate areas of the body to the sun's UV-rays was dangerous.
Supporters say the rewards for those who dare to bare are worth the effort.
"Those who have already experienced walking nude through the damp mist, lying in the sun, swimming in the water and feeling the wind on your naked skin, know how liberating it is to move around with no clothes on," Alice Haller, president of the Swiss Naturists Organization, wrote in a public letter.
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Lebanese told not to kiss in anti-swine flu drive...
Reuters
Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:01pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Swine flu has not yet hit Lebanon but is threatening a national custom.
Lebanese should stop greeting each other with kisses to the cheek, Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh told a news conference on Tuesday and called to explain measures to tackle the potential spread of the deadly strain.
"If you visit someone, don't exchange kisses... Let's stop the social kissing habit," Khalifeh said. Lebanese have long greeted each other with three kisses to the cheek.
Other measures include keeping school children with flu at home and avoiding travel to countries where the virus has appeared. The new strain of swine flu has killed up to 149 people in Mexico. Israel, which borders Lebanon to the south, on Tuesday confirmed a case of the virus.
(Reporting by Nadim Ladki, editing by Paul Casciato)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:01pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Swine flu has not yet hit Lebanon but is threatening a national custom.Lebanese should stop greeting each other with kisses to the cheek, Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh told a news conference on Tuesday and called to explain measures to tackle the potential spread of the deadly strain.
"If you visit someone, don't exchange kisses... Let's stop the social kissing habit," Khalifeh said. Lebanese have long greeted each other with three kisses to the cheek.
Other measures include keeping school children with flu at home and avoiding travel to countries where the virus has appeared. The new strain of swine flu has killed up to 149 people in Mexico. Israel, which borders Lebanon to the south, on Tuesday confirmed a case of the virus.
(Reporting by Nadim Ladki, editing by Paul Casciato)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Karate expert kills two over lice infection...
Reuters
Mon Apr 13, 2009.MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian karate expert has been charged with beating to death a 61-year-old woman and her son, whom he accused of infecting his wife with lice, an investigator said Friday.
The drunk 26-year-old burst into a neighboring room in his hostel Tuesday and used karate moves to kill the pair, state investigator Eduard Abdullin said by telephone from Kazan, a city 700 km (430 miles) east of Moscow.
"He literally beat them to death with his hands and feet," Abdullin said. "The family were poor and drank a lot. He blamed them for infecting his wife and the entire corridor with lice."
The 58-year-old husband of the dead woman was also badly beaten, but survived.
The suspect, who studied karate for seven years, faces life in prison if convicted, Abdullin added.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
Mon Apr 13, 2009.MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian karate expert has been charged with beating to death a 61-year-old woman and her son, whom he accused of infecting his wife with lice, an investigator said Friday.
The drunk 26-year-old burst into a neighboring room in his hostel Tuesday and used karate moves to kill the pair, state investigator Eduard Abdullin said by telephone from Kazan, a city 700 km (430 miles) east of Moscow.
"He literally beat them to death with his hands and feet," Abdullin said. "The family were poor and drank a lot. He blamed them for infecting his wife and the entire corridor with lice."
The 58-year-old husband of the dead woman was also badly beaten, but survived.
The suspect, who studied karate for seven years, faces life in prison if convicted, Abdullin added.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Skeleton found in tree 29 years after suicide...
Reuters
Tue Apr 7, 2009 BERLIN (Reuters) - The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.
German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
"After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it," police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; Editing by Farah Master) '
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Tue Apr 7, 2009 BERLIN (Reuters) - The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
"After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it," police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; Editing by Farah Master) '
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Woman divorces husband for cleaning too much...
Reuters
Thu Apr 2, 2009 BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.
German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.
But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said on Thursday.
"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.
(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; editing by Myra MacDonald)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserve
Thu Apr 2, 2009 BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.
German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.
But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said on Thursday.
"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.
(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; editing by Myra MacDonald)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserve
Playboy TV fined over explicit content....
Reuters
Thu Apr 2, 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - British media regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV 22,500 pounds ($32,990) for airing sexually explicit images in breach of broadcasting rules. It said on Thursday the free-to-air channel Playboy One had broadcast unencrypted raunchy, and what the watchdog deemed offensive, material until September 2008.
Ofcom had received five complaints relating to seven late night programs broadcast between September and December 2007.
Shows investigated included: "Sexy Girls Next Door," "Sexy Urban Legends" and "Adult Stars Close-up."
"Depending on the individual breach, the explicitness, strength and, or, sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel," Ofcom ruled.
It said Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd had failed to ensure adequate protection for viewers from "potentially harmful or offensive material."
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Thu Apr 2, 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - British media regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV 22,500 pounds ($32,990) for airing sexually explicit images in breach of broadcasting rules. It said on Thursday the free-to-air channel Playboy One had broadcast unencrypted raunchy, and what the watchdog deemed offensive, material until September 2008.
Ofcom had received five complaints relating to seven late night programs broadcast between September and December 2007.
Shows investigated included: "Sexy Girls Next Door," "Sexy Urban Legends" and "Adult Stars Close-up."
"Depending on the individual breach, the explicitness, strength and, or, sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel," Ofcom ruled.
It said Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd had failed to ensure adequate protection for viewers from "potentially harmful or offensive material."
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Friday, April 03, 2009
World's best job? Add sex, scandal for Web marketing dream...
Reuters:
Thu Apr 2, 2009. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tropical island. Eleven competitors. Osama bin Laden. Porn scandal. Prize? Best job in the world.
This is not a reality TV show, but a contest playing for real in Australia's Queensland state in an advertising campaign that highlights how more firms are tapping the power of social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, for marketing.
Tourism Queensland hit on a winner with a global campaign to lure visitors to the Great Barrier Reef by asking people to submit online video applications for the 'best job in the world' - caretaker of a tropical island for six months.
As news of the job advert on www.islandreefjob.com spread, 34,684 people from more than 200 countries submitted 60-second video applications, which everyone could see, for the $150,000 position on Hamilton Island.
'It was just a great idea that captures everyone's imagination as they're sitting in a dreary office and it's raining outside,' said Australian marketing analyst Tim Burrowes, editor of media and marketing website Mumbrella.
'It was already very PR and publicity-friendly but because of all the promotion through videos and file sharing in social media the idea exploded into something much bigger.'
Along the way Tourism Queenland, a government body, received a hoax application from Osama bin Laden, and admitted it concocted the story of a woman in a YouTube video who tattooed an advert for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win the position.
By: Tourism Queensland
Thu Apr 2, 2009. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tropical island. Eleven competitors. Osama bin Laden. Porn scandal. Prize? Best job in the world.This is not a reality TV show, but a contest playing for real in Australia's Queensland state in an advertising campaign that highlights how more firms are tapping the power of social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, for marketing.
Tourism Queensland hit on a winner with a global campaign to lure visitors to the Great Barrier Reef by asking people to submit online video applications for the 'best job in the world' - caretaker of a tropical island for six months.
As news of the job advert on www.islandreefjob.com spread, 34,684 people from more than 200 countries submitted 60-second video applications, which everyone could see, for the $150,000 position on Hamilton Island.
'It was just a great idea that captures everyone's imagination as they're sitting in a dreary office and it's raining outside,' said Australian marketing analyst Tim Burrowes, editor of media and marketing website Mumbrella.
'It was already very PR and publicity-friendly but because of all the promotion through videos and file sharing in social media the idea exploded into something much bigger.'
Along the way Tourism Queenland, a government body, received a hoax application from Osama bin Laden, and admitted it concocted the story of a woman in a YouTube video who tattooed an advert for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win the position.
By: Tourism Queensland
Very elderly man caught with huge marijuana haul...
Reuters
Wed Apr 1, 2009 (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency confiscated 6.5 tones of marijuana Tuesday from the home of a man who claimed to be 114 years old.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it had found 254 sacks of cannabis at the home of Sulaiman Adebayo in Ogun state, north of the commercial capital Lagos.
"The quantity of drugs suggests a large scale involvement ... There is more to the case than Pa Sulaiman," NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade said in a statement.
Adebayo, who said he had been a farmer all his life, told police he thought the sacks contained rice.
The agency said he claimed to have attended the inauguration of a famous hall in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, in 1895 as a small boy and said he was 114 years old. There was no independent confirmation of his age.
Marijuana is grown illegally on large-scale farms in many parts of Nigeria and is smuggled across its porous borders to neighboring countries.
Lax customs control and corruption have also made Africa's top oil and gas producer a conduit for hard drugs from Asia and Latin America into Western markets.
(Reporting by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Wed Apr 1, 2009 (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency confiscated 6.5 tones of marijuana Tuesday from the home of a man who claimed to be 114 years old.The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it had found 254 sacks of cannabis at the home of Sulaiman Adebayo in Ogun state, north of the commercial capital Lagos.
"The quantity of drugs suggests a large scale involvement ... There is more to the case than Pa Sulaiman," NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade said in a statement.
Adebayo, who said he had been a farmer all his life, told police he thought the sacks contained rice.
The agency said he claimed to have attended the inauguration of a famous hall in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, in 1895 as a small boy and said he was 114 years old. There was no independent confirmation of his age.
Marijuana is grown illegally on large-scale farms in many parts of Nigeria and is smuggled across its porous borders to neighboring countries.
Lax customs control and corruption have also made Africa's top oil and gas producer a conduit for hard drugs from Asia and Latin America into Western markets.
(Reporting by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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