Sideswipe

By ANA SAMWAYS

Women wishing to enter Canada to work as strippers must provide naked photos of themselves to qualify for a visa. The Canadian Embassy in Mexico says "stage photos during performances are required", according to Ottawa's CFRA radio. Immigration officers have to pore over naked pictures of hundreds of exotic dancers to keep impostors out of Canada. In a memo to fellow visa officers worldwide, officials said dancers who passed the no-clothes test might then require a police certificate or medical examination. (Source: Ananova.com)

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Western culture inflicts itself on Iraq: Home makeover reality television has found new audiences in the country, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Labour and Materials is a home makeover show using donated materials to fix bombed-out houses. "This is a big surprise," says Ahmed Hassan Kadhim, standing in his doorway grinning. "What can I say?"

"We've brought you a whole set of furniture," says host Shaima Emad Zubair. "We're trying to compensate you for what you lost."

In 15-minute episodes, broken windows are fixed, blasted walls are rebuilt and fine furniture and carpets appear in the living rooms of war-ravaged families. "The main point isn't to rebuild the house, but to show the change in the psychology of the family during the rebuilding," says Ali Hanoon, the show's director. "The rebuilding has a psychological effect on the families - their memories, their lives, are in these walls."

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Aberdeen's city council says it might try to put seagulls on the pill to curb the menace caused by the birds. A report is being drawn up looking at various options, including contraception, after a two-year trial on pigeons apparently worked in Venice. An earlier idea considered by Aberdeen involved lighting and sound systems to keep gulls off buildings, says the Press and Journal. Models of peregrine falcons have been tried in Moray, Banff and Buchan. The ruse involved realistic models that flapped their wings and made hawkish sounds. The trick worked for a while in Fraserburgh but the gulls quickly discovered the models weren't a threat.

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A reader writes: "Your recent 'joke' on 'I can see Clair-Lee ... ' reminds me of a song from the same era by John Rowles, which sounds an awful lot like 'Share your marijuana with me'."


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