News From Elsewhere

Image copyright Qianjiang Evening Post

A Chinese restaurant has come under fire for offering discounts to women depending on their bra size, it's reported.

According to the Qianjiang Evening Post, local people complained to the council after seeing posters advertising discounts for the Trendy Shrimp restaurant at a mall in Hangzhou, the main city of coastal Zhejiang province.

The company's adverts showed a line-up of cartoon women in their underwear with the slogan "The whole city is looking for BREASTS". It listed discounts for women depending on their cup size, with greater offers available to women with bigger busts.

One representative complaint said the posters were "vulgar advertising" and "discriminatory towards women".

The posters first appeared on 1 August and have since been removed, but Trendy Shrimp general manager Lan Shenggang defended their sales strategy. "Once the promotion started, customer numbers rose by about 20%," he said, adding that "some of the girls we met were very proud - they had nothing to hide".

Image copyright Riyadh Airports/Twitter

A Saudi Arabian airport has launched a new service that takes female domestic workers arriving from abroad straight to their employers' houses - apparently to save them from having to go there themselves.

The Riyadh Airports Company, which represents Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport, posted an image on its official Twitter account of the inside of a plane opening straight into a family home.

Image copyright ARIRANG-MEARI

Computer game enthusiasts in North Korea now have access to a 3D football simulator that appears to resemble the world famous "FIFA" series of games.

Soccer Fierce Battle is one of a series of new computer games that has been recently released in the communist country, the NK News website reports.

Image copyright EPA

Two Iranian footballers have been both praised and condemned in their home country after turning out for their Greek club side against Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv.

While the Europa League third qualifying round match between Panionios of Athens and Maccabi will probably not last long in the memories of either set of fans, the appearance on the pitch of Iranians Masoud Shojaei and Ehsan Hajsafi in the Greek capital has not gone unnoticed back home.

Image copyright Moira Brown

Canadian officials are concerned over the "catastrophic" number of right whale carcases discovered in the Gulf of St Lawrence this summer.

The Department of Fisheries says that ten examples of the endangered species have been found in the sea area between Newfoundland and Quebec, which is also the outlet of the North American Great Lakes, CTV News reports.

Image copyright AFP

Members of Parliament on the Solomon Islands have been roundly criticised for failing to show up for work after not enough MPs were available to hold a debate this week.

According to Radio New Zealand International, Monday's session of parliament was abandoned as no quorum was reached to make discussions valid.

Image copyright Getty Images

An increase in divorce petitions in one part of Indonesia is being blamed on the love of pigeon racing, it's been reported.

An official at the Purbalingga Religious Court in the country's Central Java province says that their office received 90 petitions for divorce in July, a huge increase on June's figure of just 13, the Jakarta Post reports.

Image copyright Estonian EU Presidency

Authorities have reported "no major incidents" after the first three days of a driverless bus service in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

A pair of vehicles are operating on a route through the city as part of the Baltic state's presidency of the European Union, and have so far managed not to collide with any other road users, national broadcaster ERR reports.

Image copyright La Republicca

An Italian priest has upped the ante in his annual blessing of his local port and beach by taking to the waters with a statue of the Virgin Mary atop a pedalo.

Usually priest Don Mario Calogiuri takes the word of God to the beach at San Foca on Italy's southern tip, and blesses revellers from "between the deckchairs and umbrellas" in a swimsuit, La Repubblica reports.

Image copyright Waitemata Police

Auckland police officers have arrested a man for an alleged aggravated assault which took place next to where they were playing an off-duty game of netball, it's been reported.

Five of the seven players on their team work for Waitemata Police in Auckland's North Shore, and they temporarily abandoned their match against Shore Rovers to arrest a 31-year-old man, who is now accused of assaulting a worker at the netball courts, the New Zealand Herald reports.