|
|
Post by Fenlander on Jun 10, 2008 9:12:39 GMT 2
Mobile ban for Singapore toilet Peeping Tom
SizeSINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore man has been banned from owning a camera phone for a year after he was found guilty of secretly filming a woman in an airport toilet, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Samuel Ong, 19, sneaked into a female toilet at Singapore's Changi Airport earlier this year and used his camera phone to snap shots of a woman from under the cubicle door. The woman caught him and reported him to the police.
Ong, who pleaded guilty, has to do 60 hours of community service, observe a curfew as part of his sentence and continue psychiatric treatment, the Straits Times reported.
His parents also had to sign a S$5,000 (1,860 pounds) bond ensuring his good behaviour.
Ong's lawyer pleaded for leniency saying that Ong was a good student and that he regretted bringing shame to his family.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenlander on Jun 10, 2008 9:17:42 GMT 2
UK to give waterless washing machine a spin
(Reuters) - A washing machine using as little as a cup of water for each washing cycle could go on sale to environmentally conscious Britons next year.
Xeros, which has been spun out of the University of Leeds to commercialise the technology, said on Monday the new machines would use less than 2 percent of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine.
Plastic chips are used to remove dirt and stains from clothes, leaving them dry and reducing energy consumption as there is no need to use a dryer after the washing cycle, Xeros said in a statement.
The firm, which recently secured investment of almost 500,000 pounds from IP Group, told Reuters the price of the new machines was "not expected to be dramatically different from (conventional) washing machines."
Washing machine usage has risen by 23 percent in the past 15 years. The average household uses almost 21 litres of water daily on clothes washing, 13 percent of daily household water consumption, according to Waterwise, a non-government organisation focused on decreasing water wastage.
A typical washing machine uses about 35 kilograms of water for every kilogram of clothes, in addition to the power needed to heat the water and dry the clothes.
There are more than two million washing machines sold in Britain annually, with a value of about 1 billion pounds, Xeros said.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenlander on Jun 11, 2008 18:34:47 GMT 2
confessional repent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
confessional repent
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian couple who were caught having sex in a church confessional box while morning Mass was being said have repented and made peace with the local bishop.
The couple, in their early 30s, were detained by police earlier this month after they had made love in the confessional box in the cathedral in northern Cesena. They were cautioned for obscene acts in public and disturbing a religious function.
Their lawyer said they had been drinking all night and realised they had gone too far.
The lawyer told the area's local newspaper on Wednesday the couple met with the local bishop on Tuesday night, asked for his forgiveness and that he had given it.
Last week the bishop celebrated a "Mass of reparation" in the cathedral where the confessional box incident took place to make up for the sacrilege.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenlander on Jun 12, 2008 8:53:04 GMT 2
NZ drivers turn to blow-up dolls to beat traffic rules
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Drivers in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland are turning to inflatable passengers to try and beat transit lane rules.
Blow-up dolls, shop mannequins and dogs dressed up as children have all been used to try and justify driving in lanes where vehicles are required to have at least three occupants.
"There were some odd people that tried these antics," North Shore city council traffic safety manager Andre Dannhauser told Reuters.
Drivers caught trying to beat the system are fined NZ$150 (57 pounds).
Enforcement officers taking pictures of offending cars in transit lanes have been treated to a wide range of excuses from caught-out motorists, Dannhauser said.
"The most common one is the imaginary passengers they claim we couldn't see because they were so small," Dannhauser said.
|
|
