[SOC] pot-pourri

[soc@mailman.qth.net]

The Summit of Copenhagen has been a good deal for the prostitutes [ 2002-12-16 
12:47 ] 
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - the Summit of Copenhagen, which sealed the alliance of 
the European Union and the ten countries applying for accession, was also 
extremely favourable with the businesses of the prostitutes of the Danish 
capital, according to the Monday local press. 
"We had much more customers during the summit", affirmed Pia, a prostitute, to 
the popular newspaper Ekstra Bladet. 
"Much of them were foreigners - businessmen, politicians and journalists"
Approximately 3.500 delegated and journalists attended the Summit of Copenhagen 
which was held on December the 12 and 13. 


Malaysia considers an ad/commercial with Brad Pitt insulting for the Asian 
people [ 16/12/2002 15:12 ] 
KUALA LUMPUR (AP) -- But what do Brad Pitt and the others have more than us? 
The government of Malaysia put a crushing argument at an advertising campaign 
in which appeared the American actor, regarding it as "an insult for the Asian 
people". 
The vice-minister of Information Zainuddin Maidin denounced Monday the use of 
celebrities or Western models in Asian ads, shown "to establish a sense of 
inferiority at the Asian people", reports the Malaysian news service Bernama. 
"Why are we obliged to use their faces in our ads", asks the minister. "aren't 
people from on our country beautiful enough"? 
The government thus cancelled a campaign for Toyota cars with Brad Pitt. This 
ad campaign has been broadcasted several weeks last summer in the press and 
television in Malaysia and in several other Asian countries. 
"We cancelled these ads because they were regarded as an insult towards the 
Asian people". 
AP 

Four months of stomach pain because of a surgical spacer [ 2002-12-16 22:34 ]
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Thanks to the metal detector of an airport, a 
Canadian woman suffering from stomach pains since a surgical operation starts 
to understand the source of her pains: a 30 cm long surgical spacer. 
Alerted by the beep of the detector, the security guards of the airport of 
Regina, in the State of Saskatchewan, tried in vain to find metal on the lady 
about to fly away for Calgary, in Alberta. 
Radiographies made a few days later revealed the presence of a 30cm long and 
5cm large surgical spacer, forgotten in her stomach at the time of an operation 
at the general hospital of Regina four months earlier. 
She wants now to get compensations from the surgeon and the hospital 
authorities, reported Monday the CBC TV channel. 
The rules of the medical profession require that any surgical operation to be 
followed of a rigorous checking of the number of instruments used during the 
procedure. "the systems are never perfect and, as always, we do our best", said 
Brian Laursen, principal vice-president of the medical authorities of the town 
of Regina. "But it is inevitable, in any system, to have occasional gaps." 
The patient had to undergo another intervention to withdraw the surgical spacer.

da-di-dah ...

72!
Claude