FOR a country that goes to such great lengths to segregate unrelated men and women, it took Saudi Arabia a long time to hit on the idea of women-only hotels.
The kingdom's first hotel exclusively for females opened last week, offering plush lodgin
gs with a full range of health and beauty facilities for ladies to pamper themselves away from the accusing eyes of a male-dominated society.
New rules allow women to stay in standard mixed-gender hotels without a male family member in tow, but bureaucracy and conservative family values mean few have been able to make use of them.
The Luthan Hotel & Spa is owned by a group of 20 Saudi princesses and businesswomen, but it was left to seven princes headed by Sultan bin Salman, a son of Riyadh's powerful governor, to officially inaugurate it.
JAPANA Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Corporation that were mislaid in storage nearly five decades ago.
Disney said the art – character sketches, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches – was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed to the opening of the film Sleeping Beauty. The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and travelled to 16 other stores throughout Japan.
Although most of the art is from Sleeping Beauty, the collection also includes rare set-ups (character and background combinations) from two Oscar-winning Silly Symphony cartoons: Flowers And Trees (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon and the first film to win the Academy Award for animated short film, and the landmark short 'Three Little Pigs' (1933).
"The Flowers And Trees set-up is an extremely important piece," said Lella Smith, creative director of the Disney Animation Research Library in Burbank, California, which preserves the studio's artwork.
GERMANYThe owner of Hamburg's oldest brothel, in the heart of Germany's most famous red light district, has decided to close it down and retire after a sharp fall in business.
"It's time to go," Waltraud Mehrer said. "It's a pity, but business just isn't what it used to be. We used to have 10 girls working here. Now we only have four."
Mehrer, a glamorous blonde 59-year-old dressed in a dark suit who has been running the port city's renowned 'Hotel Luxor' for 22 years, is selling up to a private investor.
She blamed her decision on the changing face of Hamburg's nightlife in the notorious St Pauli district and the Reeperbahn, its garish main street which is home to countless bars, strip clubs and discos.
The clubs have also brought CCTV cameras and police patrols, a deterrent for customers but welcomed by some anti-prostitution groups who worry about the welfare of the women at work.
In its heyday in the 1960s when the booming harbour provided a steady stream of custom and the Beatles briefly played in a club nearby, the Luxor, also known as the Mehrer hotel, enjoyed an international reputation.
SRI LANKAWhile Sri Lanka has long wrestled with a human-elephant conflict that kills dozens of animals and people annually, elephant deaths are up sharply – and it's clear why.
In what the military says is a bid to protect villages in the far north as the government and its Tiger foes wage a new phase of a 25-year civil war, farmers have been given shotguns and a civil defence force semi-automatic weapons for protection.
But the plan has backfired. The recipients are turning them increasingly on pachyderms who stray onto their crops or damage their homes in search of food – with elephant deaths up 13% in 2007.
"They are shooting my animals," park warden JA Weerasingha said.
OH, REALLYBeijing organisers are refitting the toilets at three main Olympic venues after complaints from foreign athletes.
Most toilets in China are still of the squat variety, even in otherwise state-of-the-art venues like the Water Cube aquatics centre.
Yao Hui, a senior official for the management of Olympic venues, said: "Toilet alteration projects at the Bird's Nest (National Stadium), the Water Cube and National Indoor Stadium are ongoing."
MOVERS & SHAKERSMARIAH CAREY
Mariah Carey has admitted she has a "ditzy" image and lacks self-esteem.
"It's a dichotomy, I understand," the 37-year-old Grammy winner, right, has revealed. "I understand that people think I am a ditzy moron."
The singer – who was treated for exhaustion in 2001 after a public meltdown – added:
"I've always had really low self esteem, and I still do. What's weird about that is being on stage and the adoration that you feel from your real fans. It's hard for a partner to compete – just imagine."
KENICHI HORIE
A Japanese sailor has set out from Hawaii for Japan, hoping to complete the 4,400-mile journey using only the power of the waves beneath his boat.
The 69-year-old Kenichi Horie's Suntory Mermaid II, has two wings in front which convert the energy from waves into a movement similar to a dolphin's kicks, making it the world's first boat to be powered by the vertical motion of waves.
MARADONA
Diego Maradona has criticised a ban on international matches at high altitude on Monday after playing a charity game in Bolivia's national stadium at 3,600 metres above sea level.
Bolivian president Evo Morales also took part in the match in front of a 30,000 crowd at the Hernando Siles stadium, which can no longer be used for World Cup qualifying games under Fifa rules.
"I, at the age of 47, and president Morales have shown Fifa that you can run on this pitch," said Maradona, captain of Argentina's 1986 World Cup-winning team.
COMING UPBhutan is taking a tentative step into the modern world tomorrow with its first-ever parliamentary elections.
Its neighbour Tibet may be writhing in protest under Chinese rule but Buddhist Bhutan, with just 600,000 people, is making history.
Its fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, not only surrendered power but also imposed democracy against the will of many of his subjects, before abdicating in favour of his son in 2006.
The full article contains 1058 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
