'Sex doc' busy writing books in jail

Serving a life term for dabbling in the business of erotica, orthopaedic surgeon Dr L Prakash is busy churning out books on various subjects including a four-volume book on Mahabharata in his prison cell.

Convicted for providing pornographic pictures to websites, the 52-year-old doctor reportedly is busy writing on subjects ranging from science, adventure and his pet subject -- erotica.

Prakash was arrested in December 2001 following a complaint from a youth that he was forced to commit sexual acts with women, which were filmed and later posted on websites hosted by the doctor. He was sentenced in February this year.

G Asokan of Banana Books said that he has already published four books of Prakash -- Glimpses of Vedic Wisdom , Swiss Chocolates , Maybach Maiden , and Tangled Web Beats .

Asokan came to know of Prakash through an advocate S Namonarayanan who was imprisoned in the same jail for three days for unlawful assembly where he read Prakash's books and brought this to the notice of the publishers.

Following this the publishers had a brief meeting with Prakash when he was brought to court last June and clinched the deal.

"We will bring out his six lakh worded Mahabharata in four volumes in October and plan to publish more," he said.

Namonarayanan reportedly told Asokan that the doctor was involved in writing for hours. Recently, the Madras High Court allowed the doctor to have a personal computer.

Dino sex: Mrs. T. rex you've got a lovely daughter

Teen sex, it turns out, is an issue at least as old as the dinosaurs.

Scientists have found inside the fossilized bones of three different types of dinosaurs the remains of a special type of calcium-rich bone tissue that forms just before egg-laying to enable pregnant female to produce eggshells.

All three pregnant dinosaurs -- the meat-eaters Tyrannosaurus rex and Allosaurus and the plant-eater Tenontosaurus -- were adolescents and had not yet achieved their maximum adult size, according to the scientists.

"It's nice to know when dinosaurs started having sex," University of California at Berkeley paleontologist Sarah Werning, one of the researchers, said in a phone interview.

"It's also nice to be able to compare them to living animals in terms of understanding the timing of major events in their life," Werning added.

Only dinosaurs and birds are known to have produced medullary bone, laid done in the marrow cavity shortly before egg laying. Paleontologists consider birds to be the living descendants of dinosaurs.

"It's actually really common to start reproducing before you're done growing. Most animals do that. Reptiles do that. Medium- and large-sized mammals do that. Whether our parents like it or not, humans do that," Werning said.

But birds do not reproduce before adulthood, Werning said.

"They finish growing completely. And they all do it within about a year. And then they wait months or years before starting to have sex," Werning added.

The scientists found the medullary bone while making thin slices inside the bones of various dinosaurs.

Allosaurus, a bipedal carnivore about 39 feet long, lived about 150 million years ago. Tenontosaurus, a common plant eater about 26 feet long, lived about 115 million years ago. T. rex, a ferocious bipedal predator about 43 feet long, lived at the end of the age of dinosaurs, about 65 million years ago.

The three dinosaurs were all denizens of North America.

Based on growth rings in their bones, the scientists judged that the Tenontosaurus was 8 years old and the Allosaurus was 10 -- both qualifying as early adolescents. The T. rex was 18, still not fully grown, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Werning said it is likely that starting reproduction in adolescence made a lot of sense. The life span of these types of dinosaurs was about 25 to 30 years, she said, but they did not achieve full adult stature until about age 20, and there was a lot of adult mortality in this dino-eat-dino world.

That would leave just a handful of years to reproduce and ensure species survival. "If you start reproducing earlier, you have more time and more chances to reproduce," Werning added.

Teen birth figures highlight need for better sex education

A December report that the nation’s teen birthrate rose for the first time in 15 years lends support to the argument that abstinence-only sex education programs are failing many of America’s young people.

For 2006, Western North Carolina’s teen pregnancy rate among girls 15-19 stayed about the same as it’s been since 2003, about 59.6 per 1,000 women, according to an October report.

That should be good news in light of the rising national rates, but there’s more to the story.

Until 2006, the national birthrate had been dropping since its peak in 1991. Between 2005 and 2006, it grew by 3 percent, from 40.5 per 1,000 in 2005 to 42 per 1,000 in 2006. In 1991, the peak for teen births, there were nearly 62 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19.

In other words, in Western North Carolina, we’ve held steady for three years just shy of the national peak.

Rep. Fisher’s bill

It’s a shame a bill sponsored by Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, that would have required school districts to provide comprehensive sex education classes for students in seventh grade and above failed to make it out of the education committee during the 2007 General Assembly session.

It would have relieved school systems of the obligation to hold public hearings before installing a comprehensive sex education curriculum and of asking parents to consent or refuse to allow their children to participate, though it would have allowed parents to take their children out of sex education classes.

Fisher’s bill can’t be brought up during the short session this year because it failed to pass either the House or the Senate, but Fisher said earlier this week that it’s still being talked about in the Democratic Women’s Caucus and that she intends to introduce it again in 2009.

If the statistical trend continues in the wrong direction, as many experts fear it will, the bill may have a better chance in a couple of years.

More diseases

In addition to an increase in the number of teen births, some key sexually transmitted disease rates are on the rise including syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia.

It’s part of the same phenomenon, said Dr. Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health.

The December report offers a state-by-state breakdown of birthrates. Many of those with the highest birth- rates teach abstinence instead of comprehensive sex education, according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

As Fisher pointed out when her bill was being considered, despite an abstinence-until-marriage curriculum, research shows that the majority of young people do not wait until they are married to have sex. Sixty-three percent of high school seniors in the state report having had sex, she said.

A study ordered by Congress and released in April found that students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. They also reported having similar numbers of sexual partners and first having sex at about the same age as other students — about 14.9 years.

In other words, abstinence-only programs don’t work if the goal is to prevent teen pregnancy and disease transmission by preventing teen sex. As a result, teens are having sex without accurate, factual information about the potential consequences of their behavior.

Better to inform

Withholding age-appropriate information about sex from curious young people trying to make sense of their emotions and developing bodies leaves them vulnerable to making uninformed decisions that can alter their lives forever, sometimes tragically.

Many abstinence-only proponents believe it should be up to parents to provide guidance about sex to their teen-agers. While that’s true, for whatever reason, many parents don’t. That leaves many vulnerable young people whose futures are on the line.

If they make bad choices without fully understanding the consequences, not only they, but the larger community, will suffer. Teen-age mothers often don’t complete high school and babies born to them are more likely to be neglected and abused, often perpetuating or setting in motion a cycle of poverty and dependence on services paid for by taxpayers.

Fisher’s bill could help empower young people with age-appropriate information to which they have a right. Here’s hoping it becomes law the next time it’s introduced.

Meanwhile, if you have a teen and you haven’t talked with him or her about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control methods and the financial, emotional and other obligations that accompany parenthood, now, as the New Year begins, would be a good time to have that discussion. If you din’t know where to start, ask a librarian for books and Internet resources that offer guidance.

It may be one of the most important conversations you ever have with your child.

Man accused of stealing sex dolls

Calling it a "drunken, stupid thing," a DeForest man admitted breaking into a town of Burke sex shop last month and stealing several blow-up sex dolls, among them a $270 model that talks.

Jose A. Sandoval, 26, led detectives to spots where he had stashed the dolls and other items he allegedly took from Naughty Novelties, 6011 Highway 51, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Dane County Circuit Court.

Sandoval was charged with burglary for allegedly taking such things as sex dolls, thong underwear and lotion in the Nov. 10 break-in, according to the complaint. Naughty Novelties co-owner Roger Hellenbrand told police, however, that none of the money in the store had been touched.

According to the complaint:

Using surveillance video from the shop, Dane County Sheriff's Office detectives were able to see a large man get out of a distinctive-looking General Motors car, smash through a front door, grab items from the shop and drive off.

About 10 days later, a sheriff's detective noticed a car with similar distinctive features, which included a missing hubcap and a taped-up front passenger window, parked behind the Truckers Inn, 6162 Highway 51, not far from Naughty Novelties.

When detectives stopped the car a short time later, the driver, identified as Sandoval, at first denied committing the burglary. Then he began to cry. Asked where the stolen items were, he said, "hidden away."

Sandoval took detectives to the cab and sleeping compartment of an abandoned semi-trailer truck behind the Truckers Inn and a marshy area next to the motel's parking lot.

Among the items that were found was a Linn Thomas talking love doll, priced at $269.99, which is shaped to resemble the porn star of the same name. According to one review by an Internet retailer, the 5-foot-3-inch doll vibrates and blurts out recorded encouragements to its user.

Binge drinking linked to high number of sex partners

Washington, December 4: Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a link between clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence in young adults and having a high number of sex partners.

They also found links between conduct disorder diagnosis and high numbers of sexual partners as well as between problem drinking and more partners. However, of the three, alcohol dependence had the most influence on number of sex partners. "Some participants in the study reported 50 or 100 partners, and research shows - and common sense tells you - that the more sex partners you have, the more likely you'll encounter someone with an STD. Chances also increase for unintended pregnancies and other health complications," said first author Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, Ph.D., research instructor in the Department of Psychiatry.

Of those in this study who were alcohol dependent, 45 percent reported having 10 or more sexual partners. In addition, 37 per cent of those with a conduct disorder diagnosis had at least 10 partners. The study focused specifically on the number of partners, and it defines high risk using a larger number than typically seen in the psychiatric literature.

"To my knowledge, most research in young adults has used a standard of 'up to six' sex partners when examining risk. But the average number of partners for the people in this study was 9.26, so instead of using 'six or more' partners as our standard for high risk, we increased that number to 10," Cavazos-Rehg said.

Researchers gathered data through personal interviews with 601 people between 18 and 25 years old. All were unmarried and related to alcohol-dependent individuals who participated in the national Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), an ongoing project involving interviews and DNA samples from more than 10,000 people.

The COGA database includes individuals from inpatient and outpatient alcohol treatment centers and their families. Families in the COGA study usually have multiple members with alcohol dependence.

"We categorized these subjects according to three levels of alcohol involvement - non-dependent, problem drinking and alcohol dependent - and demonstrated how a stepwise increase from non-dependence to problematic alcohol use to alcohol dependence is associated with a higher number of sexual partners," Cavazos-Rehg said.

"We found that 22 percent of the non-dependent people had 10 or more partners, compared to 31 per cent of problem drinkers and 45 percent of those who were alcohol dependent. We also found a risk for a high number of sexual partners among those with conduct disorder, independent of their level of alcohol involvement. And those with both alcohol dependence and conduct disorder were at greatest risk of having a high number of sex partners," she added.

She suggests when young people are treated for alcohol problems - from inpatient treatment for alcohol dependence to emergency care following an alcohol-related car accident- it might be a good idea to screen them for STDs or HIV infection and to discuss safe sex practices. Personnel at STD clinics also might want to ask patients about their alcohol use and provide referrals to alcohol-related treatment centers.

"Perhaps clinicians can work together to treat both problems. A better understanding of alcohol dependence and conduct disorder could become part of a comprehensive strategy for reducing the transmission of STDs and unintended pregnancies," she said.

The study is published in the December issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Online sex racket busted in India

After drugs and rock 'n' roll, sex has caught the eye of the police in Pune.

The Crime Branch last week unearthed a major Internet-based sex racket of countrywide proportions involving models -turned-television actresses - three were arrested.

The action followed last month's arrest of two Mumbai-based models and a tout from the film industry, and the detention earlier in the year of over 150 young people in a rave party that had set off a chain of narcotics seizures, all of which the police said were signs of lifestyle crimes coming to booming Pune, some 170 km from Mumbai.

The latest arrests came after a complaint against a website, chamadi.com, by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha city chief Sandeep Khardekar. The police said models from various cities across the country had posted their cellular phone numbers to offer "escort" services to "discerning gentlemen".

The website invites successful men who were pressed for time, and could not manage long-term relationships, to try its services.

A trap was laid on Tuesday and models-turned-actresses Swati Tiwari, Renu Mirza and Pooja Sonugar from the Hindi serial Meri Doli Tere Angana arrested along with middlemen Ramprasad Thapa of Pune and Balaji Shinde of Mumbai.

The website, which was still up and offering services, admitted it was into escort services but denied the arrested people were connected with it. The police said Tiwari and Mirza were from Mumbai while Sonugar was from Kolkata.

"The well-heeled form the main clientele of models operating through such websites. The charges range from Rs 15,000 to Rs 1 lakh for a night," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Kumbhare said.

Despite the police action, chamadi.com continued to operate. It featured the name of its chairman, Sameer, and gave a contact number. While a woman on the other end of the line declined to disclose her name, only saying the escort service was currently being offered in Mumbai, a man soon responded saying he was Sameer Nayar and said he had no qualms about running the service.

"I operate several such websites, with services across the globe. In many western countries, the flesh trade is legal. If it is illegal here, it is the problem of the government, not mine. They should amend the law," Nayar said. "The need for sex is universal, therefore I am operating this portal and have no hesitation in admitting it."

Nayar's website said it offered escort service in various cities. Pune was introduced as a "cultural city. that carries a rich historical legacy characterised with glorious rule of Marathas. Pune contributed significantly to the freedom movement and produced heroes like Tilak, Sane Guruji and Chapekar brothers. Today this city is home to numerous prestigious educational institutions and hence is also known as the Oxford of the East."

Expressing surprise on the website still being operational, Kumbhare said they were busy with Diwali duty, but would soon shut down the website and arrest the "main accused".

A senior police official who declined to be named as there was a possibility of further investigations, said the high-profile models on the website were sought by many students from affluent families who came to Pune from other states. Pune is known as an important educational centre, besides being an information technology hub that ensures it houses many well-paid professionals.

Malaysian police break up gay sex party

Kuala Lumpur - Police in Malaysia, where sodomy is a crime, broke up a gay sex party and arrested 37 men, including a Briton and a Chinese national, a senior official said this week.

Police, acting on a public tip-off, raided a fitness center in northern Penang island Sunday while a sex party was in progress and arrested the 37 men, aged between 20 and 45, said local police chief Azam Abdul Hamid.

Apart from the two foreigners, all of the men are ethnic Chinese Malaysians including three who work at the center, he said.

Police found used condoms strewn all over the floor, seven tubes of lubrication jelly, 20 gay magazines, four pornographic VCDs and six boxes of new condoms, he said.

"Based on our information, the center was regularly used for these gay activities," Azam told The Associated Press. "This is against our culture, our way of life."

Investigations are ongoing but he said the operator of the premises could lose his business license if he is found to have abused it, and the men, who have been released, could be charged with committing unnatural sex acts.

Homosexuality is not specified as a crime in predominantly Muslim Malaysia but it is covered under a law prohibiting sodomy, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and whipping.

Azam said police are also surveilling other centers suspected to be involved in gay activities under an ongoing operation to check vice activities in Penang island, a major tourist and

Dubai: Luxury lures women into sexual slavery

Men and women interact in a bar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. Dubai has transformed itself from a trading village to the Persian Gulf's financial and tourist hub with lower taxes and a more vibrant nightlife than other Gulf states. Bars heave with men drinking $10 beers and women in short skirts.


Fei Fei, a 22-year-old from China's Guangdong province, has a souvenir of her eight months in Dubai: burns on her back and arms from cigarette butts crushed against her skin when she refused to work as a prostitute.

She eventually submitted when a criminal gang threatened to send nude photos of her to family members. That indignity, she said, would have been worse than selling her body.

"They take pictures of me naked in shower," Fei Fei said in broken English as she pulled up her shirt to reveal the dark red circular marks. Soon afterward, she adopted the English name "Lucy," and sold sex in Dubai bars for 500 dirhams (USD $130) a trick to claw back her freedom.

Fei Fei's story symbolizes the dark side of Dubai, better known for its skyscrapers, sail-shaped hotel and man-made islands built in the shape of palm trees. The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is the second-largest member, is on a US State Department watch-list for failing to take "meaningful steps" to end trafficking of women for prostitution and other workers trapped in conditions of slavery.

Porn site previews and reviews

There are an estimated 10,000 victims of human trafficking in Dubai, according to the department's 2007 report. UAE officials say the figure overestimates the problem and that they have begun to take action, passing the first anti -trafficking law in the Middle East.

Flush With Cash

Dubai has transformed itself from a trading village to the Persian Gulf's financial and tourist hub with lower taxes and a more vibrant nightlife than other Gulf states. Bars heave with men drinking $10 beers and women in short skirts.

That's attracted rich Saudis, US oil workers flush with cash after stints in Iraq, and bankers who are paid as much as 40 percent more than those in London or New York.

Affluence has increased the demand for laborers and housemaids, and the development of laws to protect them from exploitation hasn't kept pace, the International Labor Organization said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Women from Asia and Africa often sign contracts to work as maids, waitresses, hairdressers and secretaries, only to have employers confiscate their passports and force them to work as prostitutes, the US report said. Others work excessive hours under the threat of mental, physical or sexual abuse until they can pay off recruitment costs.

"Once they are there, they find that their contract is not valid," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission. "They get stranded."

Fear of Rape

Anne Valdez, 25, from Quezon City near Manila, lasted four months as a housemaid before she ran away.

Valdez said she traveled to the UAE because wages were higher there than at home. She was brought over by a UAE- based labor agency after signing a contract to work for $200 a month. Her employers paid Valdez $160 and made her work 19 hours a day.

"I couldn't leave the house the whole time," Valdez said in a Dubai coffee shop. "I even couldn't call my family. I was scared I would be raped."

Valdez considers herself lucky. She spent 10 months hiding with relatives, avoiding police and working part-time jobs at hotels to help support herself. She said supervisors often made sexual advances, though they never assaulted her or forced her into prostitution.

Valdez returned to the Philippines with no job and no savings to support her 1-year-old son, after taking advantage of a government amnesty that allowed illegal workers to leave.

Making an Effort

Worldwide, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, the State Department said. Kuwait and Qatar are ranked on the same watch-list for cases of involuntary servitude, not sexual exploitation as in the UAE Saudi Arabia is on a worse tier ranking than the UAE

In July, the UAE formed a committee of senior officials to combat human trafficking, and it has opened a shelter for abused women. In the past year it has closed 40 hotels and clubs that allowed prostitution, said Anwar Gargash, minister of state for Federal National Council Affairs in Dubai.

"We are committed to tackling this problem on several levels through the rigorous prosecution of criminals, preventative measures and, most importantly, protection of victims of this crime," Gargash said.

Any crackdown on such crimes comes too late for Emily Ivy from Edo State in southern Nigeria.

The 22-year-old was forced into prostitution by her step-sister, who lured her to Dubai with the promise of a job in a beauty salon. She was told to pay $15,000 to get her identification back and continues to work the bars to send money to her widowed mother.

"I came to work in a beauty parlor for my sister," Ivy said. "Three months later, I was told to go to the bars to sell my body. I don't want to do it anymore. I am tired."

She has applied for a job as an air stewardess.

Fei Fei's journey to Dubai also ended badly. Once she had plans to study English at a language school in the city, but after paying her pimp 6,000 dirhams (USD $1,600) a month, she managed to save enough money to return to China.

"I want to change my job," she said before departing.

Viagra Pumps Up Thai Political Race

Vote-buying is an old practice in Thai politics, but one candidate for December's Thai election has reportedly come up with a new tactic - handing out Viagra instead of cash.

The allegation, made Thursday by a campaign worker against a rival party, comes as rules about handing out favors to voters have become stricter than ever, barring even the distribution of free T-shirts and soft drinks.

Sayan Nopcha, a campaigner for the People's Power Party in Pathum Thai province just north of Bangkok, said the drug used to treat sexual dysfunction in men was being distributed to elderly male voters at social functions.

Viagra is supposed to be used only on a doctor's advice, but is generally available over the counter in Thailand.

``The politician is giving out Viagra to gain popularity and votes,'' said Sayan, a local government official whose older brother is the PPP candidate. ``I think this is a very bad way of vote-buying.''

He would not identify the candidate who allegedly handed out the pills.

Under a tough new law, both the supplier and recipient of vote-buying can face criminal charges. Candidates can be disqualified and their party disbanded, as was the case with the old law, while voters who accept money or gifts can now face from one to 10 years in prison.

More than 4,200 candidates from 41 parties are competing for 480 seats in the lower house of parliament in the Dec. 23 polls - the first to be held after a bloodless military coup ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September last year.