Seven middle-aged Spanish mothers who posed for a tongue-in-cheek nude calendar – a fundraiser for their children's tiny, rural school – are now saddled with debt and 5,000 unwanted copies.
One of the photos shows the women with Christmas tinsel
as their only garb. Other poses include a shotgun-toting mother wearing only a fox pelt and kneeling on a table, and another shows a woman covering her body with a red umbrella on a picnic table.
The Yorkshire women immortalised in the hit British film Calendar Girls made more than a million pounds and worldwide headlines when they published a nude calendar to raise money for leukaemia research.
Their Spanish counterparts admit being rank amateurs in publishing and advertising, and because of a miscue with a distributor they missed out on the Christmas shopping rush. Now, sales of the calendar, retailing for roughly £4 each, have dried up and they owe a printer nearly £8,000.
"The sad part for us is figuring out what to do with them, because it is not something you can recycle," said Rosa Garin, 36, one of the models in Serradilla del Arroyo, a village of 400 people in northern Salamanca province.
SOUTH KOREAIt was a Black Day for love in South Korea on Monday with lonely hearts trying to ease their pain by diving head first into bowls of noodles.
South Korea celebrates Valentine's Day, but Black Day, on April 14, is a South Korean original. It is marked by people who have not found love dressing in dark colours and commiserating over meals of black food, with the dish of choice being Chinese-style noodles topped with a thick sauce of black bean paste.
"I had a miserable time on Valentine's Day, and now I'm crying over a bowl of black noodles," said a young women who asked only to be identified by her family name Na out of embarrassment.
"Things better be different next year."
URUGUAYMore than a thousand barbecue fanatics in Uruguay grilled 26,400 lbs of beef, setting a new Guinness world record while promoting the country's top export.
Army personnel set up a grill nearly one mile long and firefighters lit six tons of charcoal to kick off the gargantuan cookout to beat the existing Mexican record by four tons. Some 1,250 people grilled the beef drawing 20,000 spectators. "I'm very proud to be Uruguayan. We have the best beef and now we have the world's biggest barbecue," said one of the volunteers, sporting a chef's hat.
SERBIASerbia's civil servants must get over their grumpiness, answer queries with a smile and stop wearing shorts to work, according to a new code of conduct.
The code says civil servants "must act professionally and kindly," "provide true and timely information" and "respect citizens' personality and dignity". They must keep citizens' business confidential and behave with dignity in public.
Although it does not set a dress code, it rules out "disproportionately short skirts, tops with revealing décolletage or narrow straps, short or see-through blouses and short pants".
Serbia has some 250,000 civil servants, a bloated number from when it was the centre of much larger socialist Yugoslavia.
SOUTH AFRICATwo 19th century rhino horns stolen from a South African museum could be deadly if sold as a popular aphrodisiac, because they are drenched in poison.
The 'priceless' horns were snatched from a display at the historic mammal gallery in Cape Town, according to Jatti Bredekamp, chief executive of Iziko Museums.
"Before the mid-20th century, taxidermy mounts were prepared by being soaked in arsenic and preserved from insect infestation through regular applications of DDT, both highly toxic poisons," said Bredekamp, adding that horns had probably been stolen to sell in Asia, where ground rhino horns are a prized aphrodisiac.
OH, REALLYAustralian police are searching for a burglary suspect who escaped custody by stealing a police car – despite being handcuffed.
Police say the 29-year-old man had been detained in Brisbane on suspicion of breaking and entering.
Two officers handcuffed him and left him in the back of the unmarked police car while they examined a bag outside.
The suspect then climbed into the driver's seat and drove away.
Police say the keys had been left in the car.
The vehicle was found an hour later but the suspect was nowhere to be seen.
MOVERS & SHAKERSTORI SPELLING
Even in Hollywood where celebrity bashing is standard practice, Tori Spelling has endured more than her share of mockery. But among one set of fans, the former Beverly Hills 90210 star is adored.
"I'm a huge fan of gays," Spelling said. "They love me, I love them. They consider me kind of a gay icon."
Spelling began acting as a child on shows such as The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, produced by her father Aaron.
CATE BLANCHETT
Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett has given birth to her third child in Sydney. Blanchett, 38, and her playwright husband Andrew Upton welcomed Ignatius Martin Upton into the world, said a spokesman for the Sydney Theatre Company, of which the couple are artistic directors.
MARILYN MONROE
A 15-minute film of Marilyn Monroe engaging in a sex act with an unidentified man will be kept from public view by a New York businessman who has bought it for $1.5m (£750,000), the broker of the deal said.
Memorabilia collector Keya Morgan said he arranged the sale of the silent, black-and-white film from the son of a dead FBI informant to a businessman who wants to protect Monroe's privacy.
CIRO D'ESPOSITO
Ballot stuffing took on a new meaning in Italy's parliamentary election last weekend when a man ate his ballot paper in protest at the country's politicians. Police in Naples charged 41-year-old businessman Ciro D'Esposito with destroying election materials. He said he was protesting "against the system".
COMING UPThe Olympic torch will continue its controversial tour of the world this week.
Malaysia has vowed to keep a run tomorrow through downtown Kuala Lumpur free from security threats.
The Olympic Council Malaysia are not expecting any trouble but police are "fully aware of the challenges that this torch has faced in other situations, and they have been organising themselves to face any of these challenges".
On Tuesday the flame arrives in Jakarta before heading to Australia, where police have received tough powers to search torch relay protesters for weapons.
The full article contains 1092 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
