Jakarta, Indonesia |Life is about to get a little easier for Indonesians who use motorbike taxis to weave through Jakarta's notorious traffic-choked streets -- a new ride-hailing app is promising to ban smelly drivers.
UberJEK, the latest in a series of smartphone-based motorbike taxi-booking services in the metropolis, has pledged to only hire drivers who pass a "body odour test" as it goes on a recruiting drive before starting operations next year.
The website of the company features a picture of a foreigner sniffing the armpit of an Indonesian man under the caption: "Sorry, if you have an armpit odour problem, you cannot be an UberJEK rider".
Motorbike taxis, known locally as "ojeks", have been ubiquitous for years in the overcrowded city of 10 million known for its monster traffic jams, but it is all too easy for drivers to get sweaty and smelly working long hours in the tropical heat.
UberJEK founder Aris Wahyudi said he decided to include the test in the recruitment process after hearing many complaints from motorbike taxi customers.
"This test will be conducted for customers' satisfaction as there have been many complaints about drivers' foul-smelling body odour," Wahyudi said, according to reports.
UberJEK -- which is not associated with the popular US-based ride-sharing service Uber -- hopes its pledge to hire only fragrant drivers will give it an edge in a crowded market that has been flooded by motorbike taxi-hailing apps over the past year.
Other services have also taken an innovative approach, such as Ladyjek and Sister Ojek, which offer female drivers for women travellers.
Tokyo, Japan | For chocolate lovers with cash to burn, a gold-coated Kit Kat bar will hit stores in Japan later this month, but at an eye-watering 2,016 yen ($16) a finger it will only be available for the lucky few.
Unlike in the famous children's book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," the luxury chocolate bar won't be randomly scattered among regular Kit Kats in shops.
Instead, 500 of the single bars will be made and sold only in the country, according to Nestle Japan, which has produced over 200 flavours -- from strawberry to green tea and even wasabi -- since introducing the chocolate treat there in 1973.
"In Japanese convenience stores, consumers are used to having new varieties all the time," Nestle Japan spokeswoman Melanie Kohli told AFP on Thursday.
"Japan is a very unique market."
Nestle's limited edition "Sublime Gold" one-finger treat, which is covered in gold leaf and described as having a rich, bitter chocolate taste, will go on sale at chocolate boutiques in eight swank department stores from Tokyo to Sapporo in the north and Fukuoka in southern Japan.
"We have made it a luxury product," Kohli said of the gold bars, which could be a popular treat during the holiday season.
"Not like you probably remember from your childhood. It's a special occasion, to celebrate the end of the year."
Kohli added that Japan's "omiyage" culture of bringing regional gifts back for family and work colleagues after trips away was another reason for Kit Kat's success with its various flavours.
"Like you have wasabi from Shizuoka and strawberries in Kyushu," she said.
"Japan is the only place where you can have such a variety of Kit Kat flavours, something linked to that regional culture."
Wasabi, related to horseradish, is a notoriously hot Japanese condiment served with sushi and sashimi.
Kit Kat, traditionally a four-fingered chocolate bar, currently offers around 30 different flavours in Japan, including Okinawan sweet potato, Yokohama cheese cake and Kobe pudding.
Los Angeles, United States |Los Angeles International Airport officials have approved opening a special terminal for the rich and famous to wait for their flights far from the paparazzi and riffraff.
The lounge, which was given the green light , eclipses even the business class and first class areas available at major airports.
"I am very excited about this service for celebrity and VIP guests at LAX," said Deborah Flint, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports.
"We are very focused on making LAX a world-class airport and offering a wide variety of amenities," Flint said in an e-mail to AFP.
The "remote lounge" as it is called, was approved by the Los Angeles Airport Commission and marks the first such space in a United States airport.
Similar areas already exist however in London, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Dubai, Paris, Moscow, Munich, Frankfurt, Geneva, Madrid and Zurich, according to a project proposal.
Both US authorities and the Transportation Security Administration support the idea, the proposal said.
The terminal will be constructed in a hangar already in need of renovation, and requires an investment of some $3 million (2.8 million euros) by security firm Gavin de Becker, which will manage the project.
Celebrities, business executives and other well-heeled individuals can expect to pay $1,500 to $1,800 to access the space, according to US media.
Brussels, Belgium | When Belgian police requested social media silence during a series of anti-terrorism raids, they might have expected a catty response from the Internet.
In fact people politely complied but with a surreal twist, as thousands tweeted pictures of their feline friends when the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown went viral.
It began when Defence Minister Steven Vandeput tweeted: "Police are asking the public not to report their movements on social media, please support & rt #BrusselsLockdown."
Frustrated and anxious after the city spent a second day on its top state of alert as authorities intensified their hunt for a key Paris attacks suspect, Belgian twitter users responded bizarrely.
Instead of taking pictures of what they could see or describing police operations, they posted pictures of cats.
"I think in one hour I've seen more #lolcats than I've seen in the rest of my life," said social media specialist Mateusz Kukulka, or @Mateusz.
He said he believed the first to have the idea was a cameraman for the Dutch television channel NOS, Hugo Janssen, or @Hoguhugo, who tweeted: "Instead of tweets about police activity in Brussels, here's a picture of our cat Mozart".
As the theme caught on, some posted photos of cats looking suspicious, others of cats looking scared.
Others in the country of famed surrealist Rene Magritte took a truly surreal tack: user @jaycelight posted a picture of two Star Wars stormtroopers riding hover scooters shaped like cats.
As more and more users joined in, there was soon international support too:
"Absolutely loving the #BrusselsLockdown hashtag! Amazing. Belgium is awesome. <3," tweeted @SvenjaLiv from Ireland.
Afterwards Belgian authorities thanked the Internet.
"The federal prosecutor and the police services must thank the press and social media users for taking into account the needs of the ongoing operation," prosecutors' office spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told a press conference as he announced 16 arrests.
Tokyo, Japan |More than 600 babies in Japan wriggled to the finish line on their hands and knees in the world's largest crawling competition .
Japanese publisher Benesse organised the one-day event at a shopping mall in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, inviting infants aged between six months and one year and four months to participate in the three-metre (10-foot) race.
Some vigorous babies crawled determinedly towards the finish line and their waiting parents, while others refused to participate, sitting stationary on the starting line and crying loudly.
"About a month ago she could not crawl well over a long distance, but I am so glad to see her grow," said Hitomi Nanba, mother of Saho, who took part in the race.
The competition, involving 601 babies, was logged as a new Guinness World Record, replacing the previous record of 451 infants at a similar race in China last year.
The winner was awarded a headset digital camera, which allows parents to take pictures and videos of their children with their hands free.
Vienna, Austria A three-dimensional model magnifying a grain of salt by a billion times went on show in Vienna on Monday, aiming to make it into the Guinness Book of Records.
Made of 38,880 red and white plastic balls representing atoms of sodium and chloride and 10 kilometres (six miles) of sticks, it aims to be the world's biggest model of a crystal molecule.
"Crystals are very important to our daily lives," said Austrian scientist Robert Krickl, who painstakingly put together the three-metre-(nine-foot)-high model in Vienna's neo-gothic City Hall.
"Crystals are not only glittering stones and gem stones... We can't phone without them, we can't watch TV without them, we can't have clocks without them, we can't live without them," he said.
Sydney, Australia |A Facebook user calling himself "Phuc Dat Bich" said his viral postings about discrimination by the social network due to his name were a hoax.
The prankster, now styling himself equally perplexingly as "Joe Carr", garnered worldwide media attention and public support after saying Facebook repeatedly shut down his page due to his Vietnamese name.
He said his posts, the first of which dates back to January, had "made a fool out of the media and brought out the best in the people who reached out to me."
The user, who says he is Australian, had even posted a picture of his passport to prove he was not lying, with hundreds of people leaving supportive comments and more than 45,000 now following his public posts.
"Facebook needs to understand that it is utterly impossible to legitimise a place where there will always be pranksters and tricksters," he added.
In a development that will no doubt delight the joker, media organisations had obtained at least two confirmations of his true identity Wednesday night -- but with two different names.
Phuc Dat Bich has something of a false ring in Vietnamese, as all three names are given names, not surnames, meaning the moniker would be highly unusual.
Phuc, Dat and Bich are all typical given names in the language, however.
It was not clear from the passport photo the hoaxer posted which were his given names and which his surname, as in Vietnam the order is usually surname, middle name, first name.
The user behind the Phuc Dat Bich Facebook page did not immediately respond to comment when contacted by AFP.
Berlin, Germany | A German court barred a condom manufacturer from advertising its product with the promise that a pack of seven contraceptives "equals up to 21 orgasms", calling the claim misleading.
The slogan could give consumers the wrong impression that condoms should be used more than once, ruled the court in the western city of Duesseldorf, upholding an injunction against condom maker Einhorn (Unicorn).
The company had argued the slogan was obviously light-hearted as it stood alongside advice about "calories burnt in 30 minutes of sex" and a small-print warning that the product "may contain traces of fairy dust".
But the court was not amused, noting that among youths especially, "there is a continuing strong need for clarity on the correct use of condoms and a high risk of misleading them with ambiguous statements".
Because the package also contained serious information, such as about half of proceeds going to charity, consumers may not realise the comment on the "sensitive issue of multiple orgasms" is humorous, the court ruled.
Singapore, Singapore | Singapore has drastically cut its blacklist of banned books and publications, finally allowing citizens to read an erotic novel first published in the 18th century, but a host of adult magazines remain proscribed.
It is no longer a crime to own a copy of the historic English text "Fanny Hill" or some anti-colonial and communist publications dating back to Singapore's troubled early years as a republic in the 1960s.
Long ridiculed as a nanny state that controls what its people can read and watch, Singapore has cut an archaic list of prohibited books and publications from 257 to just 17, most of them adult magazines.
The "de-gazetting" of 240 titles took effect.
The Media Development Authority, a regulatory body that also oversees film, broadcasting and Internet standards, said Thursday that it "routinely reviews prior classification decisions, in order to ensure that they keep pace with societal norms".
"For the 17 publications which are still prohibited, the decision to retain the prohibition was based on the fact that the contents of these publications remain contrary to public interest," a spokesman added.
The banned titles include those published by the Jehovah's Witnesses sect whose members refuse to undergo military service, which is mandatory for all Singaporean men when they turn 18.
The rest are adult titles like Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Playgirl, Mayfair, Knave and Cheri.
Commercial importation of pornographic publications is punishable by fines or jail terms.
Mark Cenite, a media law expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said the delisting move "is more of a housecleaning exercise than a policy shift or significant liberalisation".
"Many of the titles are no longer in print, or no longer in demand," he said.
"High speed Internet access is everywhere in Singapore, and the authorities exercise a light hand in regulation of online content, blocking only a symbolic list of 100 sites. So this list of publications was also mostly a symbolic ban, and a historical artifact," he told AFP.
But Neil Humphreys, a commentator for Yahoo! Singapore, ridiculed the remaining prohibition list.
"Fanny Hill is an erotic novel set in London. Fanny Hill was published in 1748," he wrote. "So, about 250 years from now, we can look forward to Playboy being taken off the banned list."
Playboy announced in October that it will stop publishing nude photos in its iconic magazine for men from March 2016, in the face of rampant online pornography.
Paris, France -Bucking the fashion show stereotype of tall, willowy models, Paris Fashion Week was treated Friday to a parade of women of restricted growth sashaying along the runway to great public applause.
The only criteria for becoming one of the atypical models showing off the New York Creative Business House's tailor-made collection, was that you had to be under 1.30 metres (four feet four inches) tall.
The innovative show was co-created by the French "Donnons-leur une chance" (Give them a chance) non-profit association and by Creative Business House.
"The Dwarf Fashion Show", as it's been dubbed, was in its third edition after debuting at last year's Paris Fashion week and a show last winter in New York.
Asian fashionistas will be able to enjoy the show next year when it is due to hit the Tokyo catwalks.
"It's to change people's ideas of us, and because I like fashion I wanted to be on the catwalk," French model Emma told AFP.
"And it could give designers ideas of how to make clothes for us," she added.
