Japanese condom maker Okamoto Industries has begun producing novelty chocolates with similar expertise as they use in rubber molds for condoms. But sales of the candy, shaped like bears and squirrels as well as sumo wrestlers, haven't exactly been high and hard. And the company admits people have a tough time enjoying the candy because it's made by a condom maker. The company goes on to say that may not be the real reason the candy isn't selling - it's the comparatively high prices. Okamoto tells Reuters it got the candy idea when it found its rubber molds could produce them less expensively than standard metal molds.
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec - Prison inmates won't be collecting cards warning about unprotected sex - the Public Security and Health Department of the province says the cards are just too explicit. The cards use cartoon-like characters engaged sexually, doing drugs, or tattooing their bodies as part of a campaign against unsafe sex, drug needle sharing, and tattooing practices. A Quebec AIDS prevention clinic which created the campaign has agreed to scrap the project, according to health ministry official Alain Vezina. "We agreed to fund a tool to be developed in prisons. In the beginning we didn't know what kind of tool it would be, and when it was submitted a few months ago, we decided not to go further because we found it was at the limit of pornography,'' he tells Reuters. One of the cards shows two naked women and a vibrator, captioned, "We can do lots of things without risk - except sharing the vibrator." A reported 5 percent of Quebec prisoners are HIV-positive.
BERLIN - Christine Bergmann changed her Web site post haste March 29, after a newspaper reported the site has links to porn and male prostitutes. Why would a newspaper report have such a strong effect? Because Bergmann just so happens to be Germany's Minister for Women and Families. Bild had slammed her with a headline saying, "Families Minister Offers Call-Boys!" on its front page, adding the ministry Web site's Link of the Month featured more links to "dubious" material. Bergmann yanked the link and gave a statement saying the ministry would do a "fundamental review" of links on its Web site. The link in question went to www.powercat.de, based in Cologne, offering sites for women, from churches and cooking to erotic art and gigolo services.
ST. LOUIS - Six men charged with operating a child prostitution ring covering half the U.S. and parts of Canada have been found guilty. Members of the so-called Evans family, the six were convicted on all counts, ending what law enforcement calls the largest federal child prostitution ring prosecution in American history. Authorities claimed the ring recruited girls between 14 and 18 for over 17 years, and employed them under false names in escort services and massage parlors. The charges included interstate prostitution, conspiracy and money laundering, and the six face maximum sentences between 45 and 125 years in prison. They were also ordered to surrender property that included $1 million cash, four homes near Minneapolis and five luxury cars, says the Associated Press. The six will be sentenced in June. The original case landed 15 suspects, 12 of whom were members of the Evans family near Minneapolis. Nine of the 15 pleaded guilty earlier this year, the AP says. The ring was said to have included over 50 women and girls in 24 states and Canada. Some of them testified to being physically abused and held at gunpoint if they violated the rules of the ring. The defense argued the women worked voluntarily.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
