LOTS of weird news

[Escaped Lunatic]

It's been a SPECTACULAR few days for odd news from All Under Heaven. I have for your amusement, not 1, not 2, but 3 stories.

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Wow! I'd heard of pirating books, music, software, and designer labels, but this takes piracy to a whole new level.

Yo Ho Ho!!!


"Pirated" English town in China amuses and riles

SONGJIANG, China, Nov 6 (Reuters Life!) - China, often regarded as the copycat capital of the world with fake designer bags and even counterfeit cars, has added a new string to its imitation bow -- an English town.

An hour's drive from Shanghai's skyscrapers in the suburb of Songjiang lies Thames Town, complete with pub, fish-and-chip shop and even a bronze statue of British wartime leader Winston Churchill.

There is a neo-Gothic church as well as Georgian- and Victorian-style terraced houses that would not look out of place in the poshest parts of London.

"I wanted the properties to look exactly the same as those in the United Kingdom," James Ho, the director of privately owned Shanghai Henghe Real Estate Co. Ltd., one of the town's five developers.

"I think English properties are very special. When we decide to learn from others, we should not make any improvements or changes. I emphasized this policy to my staff," he told Reuters.

The development, which cost about 5 billion yuan ($635 million), is expected to house 10,000 people.

Most of the houses have been sold, however, the town is hardly bustling: few residents have moved in and most of the shops are not yet open for business.

During a recent visit, the only signs of life were couples in heavy make-up having their wedding snaps taken.

"I can't find such unique buildings in Shanghai's city center," said Emily Ma, before having a wedding picture taken.

"I just love Western-style buildings," she gushed.

ENGLISH TOWN RATTLED

Yet that copycat feeling has irked some people, not least Gail Caddy from Lyme Regis in Dorset, southwest England.

She said her pub and fish-and-chip shop have been replicated in Thames Town. Her establishments, the Rock Point Inn and Cob Gate Fish Bar, have both been reproduced almost exactly, though Caddy's fish-and-chip shop is spelt "Cobb."

"As you can imagine, the jokes are absolutely rife here," she told Reuters in Britain. "They are as follows: 'I have been Shanghaied' and 'My business is on the Chinese take-away menu.'"

Caddy, who found out from the British press that her shops had been copied in China, is more peeved than amused.

"I feel cheated considering that they have copied the whole unique experience of my two businesses here," she said.

Paul Rice, an associate director from Atkins Shanghai, a British agency which designed the project, said they did not knowingly copy anything.

"Maybe it's a little bit of a misunderstanding," he told Reuters. "It's not in any way supposed to be a replica."

Rice said it just so happened that Atkins had offices in parts of England near historic towns like Lyme Regis and Bath, which inspired their designs.

Almost all the houses have been sold for prices starting at three million yuan ($381,000). Most buyers are from Shanghai.

The city itself is no stranger to European architecture. Art Deco and neoclassical buildings put up in its colonial heyday at the turn of the 20th century still dot Shanghai, most noticeably on the historic Bund waterfront.

"Traditionally, Chinese people think China is in the center of the world. So it makes sense to build foreign-style towns around Shanghai because this will make most Chinese proud," said designer Huang Ziaming from Tian Hua Construction Design.

British architecture is not the only inspiration for town planners in China. An Italian and German town are also planned.

A year ago, a shocked English press was full of stories about how Dorchester, the country town in Dorset that inspired novelist Thomas Hardy, was being recreated in Chengdu, central China, after a Chinese developer saw it on a Christmas card.

The name of the place? British Town.

(Additional reporting by Reuters Television in London)


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Finally, they are beginning to admit to a little kinkiness.



China sex experts draw the line at wife-swapping
Mon Nov 6, 8:18 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese sociologists said that the country should promote bolder attitudes toward sex, but that wife-swapping was off the agenda, state media reported Monday.

Chinese attitudes toward sex have relaxed in recent decades, triggering a boom in extramarital relationships which the Communist Party has blamed on bourgeois mores imported from the West.

"Wife-swapping should not be promoted to the public as it will lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases," the China Daily quoted Zhang Feng, a family planning official, as saying at the fourth Guangzhou Sex Culture Expo at the weekend.

"Neither the sex forum nor the expo should provide a platform for advertising bold and unacceptable views to the public."

Zhang's comments echoed the views of other speakers but contrasted the views of Li Yinhe, a sociologist who last year said that wife-swapping was a "normal kind of entertainment" and that "all couples should have the right to do it."

"There is only a meager amount of couples who accept Li's views, as most people still have more traditional and moral attitudes about sex," Zhu Mingxi, a provincial sexology official, told the paper.

Themed "building moral sexual attitudes," the expo's opening day Saturday attracted 60,000 visitors, 10,000 more than last year.

"As China is undergoing the so called 'sexual revolution', we are attaching great importance to promoting traditional moral ideas about sexuality," the paper quoted an expert identified only as Duan as saying.

"China has a totally different attitude toward sex from many countries. We should not only promote a bold, open attitude, as in Western countries, but also preserve healthy, traditional views on sex."


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At least wife swapping wasn't to blame for the confusion.


China families sue hospital for baby mix-up
Tue Nov 7, 4:34 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Two Chinese families are suing a hospital 15 years after they took home the wrong newborn babies, state media reported on Tuesday.

A couple surnamed Lu, who gave birth at a hospital in Nanning in the southern province of Guangxi in 1991, suspected that the boy was not her biological son after a test in 2004 showed their blood types were incompatible, Xinhua news agency said.

After further testing confirmed the boy was not biologically related, the couple acquired a register of babies born on the same day as their son from the hospital, Xinhua said.

"It was confirmed that a boy raised by a woman surnamed Liu who had given birth to a son on the same day was actually theirs, and that the boy they had raised was the son of Liu and a man surnamed Yao," Xinhua said.

Liu and Yao told the court that as their "son" grew older, his appearance and personality were so different to their own as "to make people point", and eventually lead to their divorce.

Both couples blamed hospital "mismanagement in the process of providing treatment" and staff negligence for the mix-up.

The case continues.

[Escaped Lunatic]

And a 4th one.

I wonder if croc meat tastes as good as alligator?


China zoo sells crocodile meat to raise money
Tue Nov 7, 3:33 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - A crocodile zoo in south China's island province of Hainan has started selling its animals to local meat lovers in an effort to raise money, a zoo official has said.

The Nantai Crocodile Lake Zoo, home to over 3,000 crocodiles, started the trade late last week, offering the exotic meat at 216 yuan (27 dollars) per kilogram, said Zheng Yi, the zoo's director.

"So far we've managed to sell the meat of one or two crocodiles a day," Zheng told AFP by telephone. "If there is a market, we plan to sell 2,000 crocodiles that way."

He said the zoo was forced to take the drastic step to survive, but added potential buyers had nothing to fear. "The meat is definitely safe," he said.

[Lotus Eater]

Croc meat tastes fine - a bit chicken-y. Haven't tasted alligator so can't make a comparison there.

[Crippler]

So China is catching up on western vices. Interestingly that extramarital affairs get less disdain than wife swapping. That transltes to it is less of a vice to cheat than to be open and honest in the realtionship.

Oh, have eaten both and really could not tell the difference between fresh water crocs and alligator. The salt water croc was very close but I thought a little bit fishier, maybe a little like shark.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Gator meat is sort of chicken-ish. Not bad, but not something I'd eat every day.

Personally, I prefer buffalo or ostrich. Yum!!!

[George61]

This is a bit weird, too....
www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/11/07/1162661677316.html

[Escaped Lunatic]

The fun just never stops. Here's a couple more.


Beijing issues 1 dog per family rule
By SCOTT McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 8, 7:42 AM ET

BEIJING - First it was one child. Now authorities say Beijing families will be allowed only one dog.

The restriction is part of efforts to stamp out rabies, state media said Wednesday. It follows a campaign in August in which thousands of dogs were killed in order to fight the disease.

China's capital will institute a "one dog" policy for each household in nine areas, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"Only one pet dog is allowed per household in the zones, and dangerous and large dogs will be banned. Anyone keeping an unlicensed dog will face prosecution," Xinhua said.

It said rabies killed 318 people nationwide in September.

Rabies is on the rise in China, with 2,651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004, the last year for which data were available.

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Shopkeeper purged over Mao condoms
Wed Nov 8, 9:27 AM ET

SHANGHAI, Nov 8 (Reuters Life!) - A condom seller has been ordered to shut his shop for displaying his wares without Chinese instructions and in "inappropriate packages," including ones bearing a likeness of Mao Zedong, a state newspaper said.

The Industry and Commerce Administration in Ningbo, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, received several complaints about Zhang Zhiwen's products last month, the Shanghai Daily said.

"In a raid, the business administrator discovered that most of the condoms stored in Zhang's warehouse were unqualified as they lacked Chinese instructions," the newspaper said.

The condoms were wrapped in small metal containers decorated with funny pictures or images of historical people.

"Zhang printed China's national emblem on a condom called 'lady-killers', and on the packing of the box was the image of soldier Lei Feng and the country's late Chairman Mao Zedong," the newspaper said.

Lei Feng was a model Mao-era soldier.

Zhang, accused of violating advertising and product quality laws, defended himself, saying his condom packages were art.

"They were unimaginably hot sellers," he was quoted as saying.

Only 3 percent of China's dogs are vaccinated against rabies, which attacks the nervous system and can be fatal.

China has limited most urban couples to one child and those in the countryside to two since the 1970s in an effort to limit population growth and ease the strain on resources.

The dog limit was announced by Beijing police and the city agencies for agriculture and commerce, Xinhua said.

A notice on the police department's Web site did not refer to a "one dog" policy but said a clampdown on stray and large dogs would be implemented.

It called on dog owners to "create a harmonious society and be a civilized dog-raiser."

Harmonious society is the term for President Hu Jintao's campaign to share the gains of China's rapid economic growth more fairly across all levels of society.

Authorities prompted an outcry in July and August when they launched several mass slaughters of dogs.

In one county in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where three people had died of rabies, authorities killed 50,000 dogs, many of them beaten to death in front of their owners.

But many people supported the move, saying it was the only way to contain the disease.

[Newbs]

Debating whether to put this in My country, right or stupid but I reckon it fits here.
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1784205.htm

[Dajiang]

the oddly enough sections in yahoo are brilliant lesson material too btw. ive edited a few of my favourites that ive saved up and they work great with discussions and opinion making.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Perhaps we need a set of threads for the weirdest stuff from each country?
Weird China
Weird Hoganland
Weird USania
etc., etc.

[Ruth]

Why doesn't Beijing make having your dog vaccinated against rabies mandatory instead of how many dogs you can have? How about clamping down on puppy mills? (You know they exist. Lots of darling puppies in cages on street corners.) How about sterilizing pet dogs to control the population?

As for the condoms: Isn't it patriotic to use them? Keeping the one-child policy in mind.

[Decurso]

The reason they don't have a rabies vaccination is because the government feels that China should only use vaccinations developed by Chinese as a matter of national pride.

An example of this brilliant line of thinking...China recently announced a major medical breakthrough...a vaccination for Hep B!!!

[Escaped Lunatic]

OOOH BABY! HARDER! YES YES HARDER!



Thai zoo to teach panda to mate with "porn" videos
Fri Nov 10, 10:02 PM ET

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo, which has hosted a couple of pandas for four years, will play "porn" videos for the male next month to encourage them to breed in captivity, the project manager said on Saturday.

The pair -- living chastely together at the zoo in the northern city of Chiang Mai since arriving from China in 2003 -- would be separated in December, but stay close enough for occasional glimpses of each other, said panda project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee.

"They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos," Prasertsak told Reuters.

He said Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, would be shown the videos on a large screen when he might be feeling amorous.

"We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner," Prasertsak said, hoping Chuang Chuang would then use the techniques on Lin Hui, a five-year-old female.

The zoo is hosting a four-day international panda conference that starts on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.

[Escaped Lunatic]

The silliness just never stops.


Man registers "Yao Ming" sanitary pads
Fri Nov 10, 11:35 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A man in southern China has applied to register a line of women's sanitary products under the name of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, state media said on Friday.

"This kind of registration is obviously malicious," Xinhua news agency quoted "Team Yao" spokesman Lu Hao, as saying. "It's unbelievable that someone could do such a thing. It's just too much."

Yao is one of China's best known and highest paid sportsmen. The 7ft-5in centre plays with the Houston Rockets in the NBA.

The application, which also included Yao Ming-branded medicine and disposable underwear, was listed on the national trademark office Web site and about to enter a "three-month approval" period, Xinhua said.

The application comes as Chinese singer Ai Dai plans to take legal action over a businessman registering a line of condoms in her name, Xinhua said in a separate report.

The brand name "Ai Dai" is a play on words for "love to wear".

In July, a media storm broke after a man from China's southeastern province of Fujian applied to register condoms and other contraceptive products using the brand name of China's state-run news channel, CCTV1.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Another brilliant concept from the inventors of Panda Porn!

Printing panda faces on paper made from panda feces. There's just something very wrong with this concept.

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung
Tue Nov 14, 3:14 AM ET

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo has discovered a way to utilise unwanted dung from a couple of pandas by using it to make paper for souvenirs, the country's panda project manager said on Tuesday.

The zoo had improvised a traditional way of making paper from mulberry trees in the northern city of Chiang Mai by using bamboo pulp that the pair of pandas could not digest, Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee said.

The pandas, who are fed chopped bamboo, excrete about 23 kg (50 lb) of the pulp a day, he said.

"We know that any kind of pulp can be used to make paper, so we have applied the 2,000-year techniques of making paper from mulberry tree in this rural neighborhood to bamboo pulp from panda dung," Prasertsak said. The zoo had earned 300,000 baht (4,309 pounds) a year from selling fans, greeting cards, key chains, book marks -- all with panda faces and made from panda excrement paper -- and dried panda dung, enough to fund the project, he said.

The project would be presented at a four-day international panda conference in Chiang Mai that started on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.

The zoo would also start to separate the pair -- six-year-old male Chuang Chuang and five-year-old female Lin Hui -- in December in a bid to breed them in captivity as Chaung Chaung would be shown frank videos of how to mate, Prasertsak said.

($1=36.50 baht)

[con's fly is open]

Chinese attitudes toward sex have relaxed in recent decades, triggering a boom in extramarital relationships which the Communist Party has blamed on bourgeois mores imported from the West.

"Wife-swapping should not be promoted to the public as it will lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases," the China Daily quoted Zhang Feng, a family planning official, as saying at the fourth Guangzhou Sex Culture Expo at the weekend.

"Neither the sex forum nor the expo should provide a platform for advertising bold and unacceptable views to the public."

I've had a rough week. Thanks, EL, I really needed that.

[Escaped Lunatic]

I'm sure this will make those of you in Beijing happy.


Noise rules should be music to Beijing's ears
Mon Nov 20, 12:12 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's bustling capital will fine construction firms, markets, bars and other places of entertainment up to $25,400 (13,410 pounds) if they make too much noise, state media said on Monday.

Building sites, which have mushroomed in the run up to the 2008
Olympic Games, will not be allowed to mix cement or do anything else noisy between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., "expect in emergencies", the official Xinhua news agency said.

Around the clock construction is a common feature in many Chinese cities, though technically work is supposed to stop after sunset. Trucks rumble through the night and jackhammers are used at all hours keeping residents awake.

During middle school or college entrance exam days, loud construction work would also be banned, Xinhua said, adding that fines of up to 200,000 yuan (13,410 pounds) could be levied.

Entertainment venues, stores and restaurants which disturb people with noise could be fined with up to 100,000 yuan, the Beijing Morning News said. It did not give a date for implementation of the new rules.

"Some promotional activities in supermarkets usually use loud speakers, loud singing and dancing which annoys residents, but there's nothing they cab do about it," the newspaper said. "The implementation of the regulations will put an end to this."

Noise from roads have also exceeded the national limit, which is 70 decibels, the newspaper said.

Drivers who use their horns to harry pedestrians and other drivers would be fined up to 5,000 yuan, it added.

Neither Xinhua nor the Beijing Morning News gave a date for implementation of the new rules.

[Escaped Lunatic]

What's Chinese for "Madison Avenue"?


Fishy freckle remover inflames consumers
Mon Nov 20, 8:54 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned TV ads for a freckle remover, touted as being so good it could remove spots from fish, when it not only killed fish but led to rashes, blisters and skin inflammation on the humans who tried it.

Advertisements promoting "Magic Freckle Removing Gel," produced by a Shanghai company, used a celebrity, bogus experts and fish to endorse the cosmetic, but fish exposed to the gel by a research institute later died from poisoning, the Beijing News said.

"(The institute) carried out a test washing the fish's spots in the gel. Two fish died successively on the third and sixth days," the paper said, citing an investigative report on Chinese state television.

Experts later found that three different fish had been used in the advertisement to make the cleanser appear effective, the paper said.

Claims that the cleanser was produced by an American company using "American technology" were also found to be false.

The gel used a plant-based compound often used in traditional Chinese medicine to reduce fever and phlegm, but its claim that it had spot-removing properties was "unscientific," the paper said.

"Not only can it not remove spots, it also has a certain amount of poison," the paper said.

Consumers in Shanghai, Beijing and several Chinese provinces had complained of "rashes, skin inflammation, blistering, colored spots and other adverse reactions," after using the product, the paper said.

China's trade watchdog, the State Administration of Commerce and Industry, had banned the ad and ordered provincial offices to investigate, the paper said.

The advertisements were no longer on television, but Internet sales were still available, the paper said.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Food poisoning in China?!? That could never happen.


Mice enrolled as Olympic food tasters
Thu Nov 16, 12:23 PM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - White mice will be recruited as food tasters at the 2008 Olympics as part of a massive security operation to shield athletes from food poisoning, a common hazard in China, state media reported.

Round the clock guards will be on duty in Olympic kitchens, food storage areas will be under video surveillance and food transport vehicles will be fitted will global positioning systems and secure food compartments, Xinhua news agency said.

Mice are being drafted in because they show up food contamination faster than traditional laboratory testing techniques, allowing officials more time to detect and destroy affected products, according to health officials quoted by Xinhua news agency.

All food as well as ingredients such as salt, pepper and spices will be fed to mice 24 hours before they are scheduled to be served in restaurants at the athletes village.

Mice show up adverse reactions within 17 hours whereas lab tests would take longer, said Zhao Xinsheng of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau.

The early warning system would reduce the risk of illness for more than 10,000 competitors staying at the athletes village during the 2008 Games.

Food poisoning is rife in China due to low standards in food production and distribution as well as poor hygiene in handling and preparation.

[Escaped Lunatic]

I thought that USania had the patent on this idea.


Hong Kong government paid dead man 25,000 dollars
Thu Nov 16, 7:10 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Bungling bureaucrats paid a Hong Kong man more than 25,000 dollars in welfare handouts, even though he was dead.

For more than six years after his death in December 1990, the man was sent disability payments by the social welfare department.

This and thousands of other cases of negligence and overpayment by the department -- costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year -- were listed in the report, discovered by the city's ombudsman in a survey conducted in October last year.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Hmmnn... and
Not really a combination I'd ever spend a lot of time thinking about.


Mao's home province puts sex on the Internet
2 hours, 28 minutes ago

BEIJING (Reuters) - A school in Mao Zedong's home province, slower than most to adopt reforms that have now swept the country, has launched its first sex education Web site to stop children feeling embarrassed by the subject.
ADVERTISEMENT

The service was set up by the No. 15 Middle School in the provincial capital Changsha at the weekend, the China Daily said.

"The service provides students with a safe, discrete and convenient tool for navigating their way through a subject that has long been fraught with taboos," the newspaper said, saying the Hunan school was following in the footsteps of schools in bigger, more liberal cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Li Bian, deputy director of the
AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth, said the country had been waiting far too long.

"The level of sex education at middle schools, as well as at colleges and universities, has shown few signs of improvement, even though the country has stressed the need for education for years," he was quoted as saying.

Under Mao, sex became officially a matter of doing one's reproductive duty for the state.

Hunan was slower than most provinces in adopting the reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in the years that followed Mao's death in 1976.

[Non-Dave]

So that was the line the boys used? "Hey babe, do your reproductive duty for the state..."

I really can't see that one working anywhere else but China!

...but cheers to the school. Anything to improve the level of education and remove the taboo of talking about something this important deserves a pat on the back.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Drat! I had my entire pension investing in Ants-R-Us


China ant-breeding project has sting in the tail
Fri Nov 24, 6:24 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A company in northeast China raised $379 million from gullible members of the public by promising big profits from a project to breed ants, Xinhua news agency said Friday.

The Donghua Ecological Breeding Company, in Liaoning province, offered returns of 35 to 60 percent on investment in the bogus project, Xinhua said. The state agency cited the Public Security Ministry which had detailed the case as an example of how fraudsters were becoming more imaginative.

The report did not explain why the public would want to invest in ants but, in the southern region of Guangxi, black ants are sold by the bagful to be steeped in tea or soaked in liquor as a natural remedy for ailments such as arthritis.

The number of economic crimes in China had risen by nearly 10 percent so far this year, the ministry said, warning that the trend could lead to social instability.

It said it had recovered 13 billion yuan ($1.65 billion) in losses from more than 60,000 cases of fraud, pyramid selling and illegal fund-raising.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Singapore. Now famous for more than caning.


Swingers swap sex partners in prudish Singapore
By Wee Sui Lee Fri Nov 24, 6:23 AM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Every two months, dozens of couples meet in a pub in Singapore, have drinks, mingle, and then decide whether they want to sleep with one another.

In Sydney or Seattle nobody would bat an eyelid, but the couples are part of a thriving underground swinging scene that is an anomaly for a country where oral sex is illegal and Playboy magazine is banned.

There are at least 10 swingers clubs in Singapore, most of them private, some of them online. With more than 6,000 members, the Web-based United SG Swingers is one of the biggest.

"There are a lot more people that are open to the idea. It's so widespread now," said a 42-year-old Singaporean company executive who only wanted to be identified as Jack.

"Swinging is all about sex. It's satisfying the urge to have casual sex and doing it with somebody you're comfortable with," said Jack, who has been swinging for 10 years.

For all their enthusiasm, few swingers tell family and friends about their lifestyle, although the practice is not illegal in Singapore.

"In Singapore, most people will perceive us as perverts," said a 39-year-old publisher who has been swinging for five years. "Look at our government policies, they say: 'Let's open up.' But our policies have always remained very conservative."

Wealthy Singapore, which has consistently ranked near the bottom in a global survey of sexually active nations, has been struggling to shake off its reputation for prudishness.

Friday, it opened Sexpo 2006, the country's second sex exhibition, featuring an array of toys and seminars.

SINGAPORE SWING

At United SG Swingers, people share erotic photographs, exchange personal ads and correspond about the next gathering. It is a close-knit community in which couples recommend good sex partners and criticize those who aren't.

A police spokesman confirmed that swinging is not illegal as long as it is done behind closed doors, is consensual and no money changes hands.

This year, the organizers of United SG Swingers started holding "on premise" parties, where couples can engage in group sex in houses and hotel rooms across Singapore.

At these parties, the bedrooms have a strict clothes-off rule and the "hard swingers" can engage in partner swapping. The "soft swingers" are couples who stand around and watch, or have sex with their own partners in full view of others.

Couples who swing say that seeing their own partners in action keeps their passion burning.

"It's like looking at cake and wanting to eat it," said the main organizer of United SG Swingers, 37-year-old IT specialist Josh, as his 32-year-old wife nodded in agreement.

But some swingers disapprove of these parties, saying they can degenerate into orgies.

"You can't establish pure friendships when there's a large group," said Ishak. "Genuine swingers would want to establish trust -- you can't trust a person just by meeting them one time and then think they can do it with your wife."

A 34-year-old Australian who attends swinging parties told Reuters that Singapore's scene is just evolving.

"It's very innocuous here, it's not like other countries," he said. "Compared to Australia and Europe, it's more discreet and less lively. Singaporeans are pretty reserved in a lot of ways."

[Escaped Lunatic]

Isn't politics grand?


Dogs, bullhorns and cow share Taipei poll limelight
By Ralph Jennings Mon Nov 27, 4:37 AM ET

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A stable of dark horse candidates, including one who claims the capital of Taiwan owes him a cow and a septuagenarian who once used tear gas in parliament, has brought colour to Taipei's mayoral elections.

None of the oddball outsiders is expecting much success in the December 9 poll, for which only two candidates are considered serious contenders. But they have points to make and could take votes away from leading candidates.

Among the pack is Li Ao, a 71-year-old independent who has spoken publicly about how he lost some of his sexual prowess after a 2003 cancer operation. He made headlines last month when he sprayed tear gas during a session of parliament.

"I have no chance of winning the election," Li said. "My main motive is to raise my voice."

Then there is Ko Szu-hai, famous for interrupting television interviews with other people to accuse the city of exterminating stray dogs. He also says the city once confiscated a cow that he owned and never returned it.

Candidate Clara Chou, meanwhile, has not given up her campaign to become mayor even though her party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, expelled her for going against the party line of support for President Chen Shui-bian.

Without party backing or money for ads, Chou has campaigned by shouting through a bull's horn at railway stations, parks and major intersections -- a tactic that ended with her forcible expulsion by police from one site on Monday.

"It's been really tough," her assistant, Chen Chiong-hua, acknowledged.

The outsiders are competing with Hao Lung-bin, the candidate of the mainstream Kuomintang party, who is tipped in a TV station poll to win the race, as well as the Democratic Progressive Party's Frank Hsieh, who is expected to finish second.