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A survey of the UK public's attitudes to current ethical and moral issues has indicated there is support for reducing the legal time limit for abortions.

Of the 2,432 adults surveyed, 58% said abortions should not take place after the 20th week of pregnancy and 19% said the limit should be 12 weeks.

Only 27% thought the current 24-week limit for termination should be kept.

The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph also found 87% backed assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

A total of 9% of those questioned said the legal time limit for abortions should be less than 12 weeks; 6% said abortions should not be legal at all, while 2% said terminations should be allowed up to birth.

The survey also suggested women were more likely to support tighter controls on abortion, with one in three supporting a limit of under 12 weeks.

Legal defence

The Abortion Act 1967 governs abortions in England, Scotland and Wales.

Technically the law does not legalise abortions, but rather provided a legal defence for those carrying them out.

According to the latest available data, more than 180,000 women in England and Wales had terminations in 2003, and a further 9,100 were carried out on non-residents. Less than 2% of those were performed between 20 and 24 weeks.

Proposed federal legislation in the US will require doctors to tell women having an abortion from the 20th week of pregnancy that the foetus felt pain.

But a recent review by a University of California team in the in the Journal of the American Medical Association said foetuses can probably only do that at 29 to 30 weeks gestation.

Ill-informed

The YouGov survey found there was strong support for assisted suicide to be made legal.

A total of 87% felt people who were terminally ill should, if they wish, be able to ask for medical assistance to help them die.

And 67% thought people should be allowed to assist the suicides of close relatives without fear of prosecution.

Public views on cloning and stem cell research were less clear - 60% of those surveyed said they did not fell well enough informed to make judgements.

The survey also found:

• 48% said abortion should not be free on demand on the NHS.
• 79% said it was acceptable to use stem cells to treat life-threatening or serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
• 30% said they would be happy to allow cloning to help infertile couples but 60% were opposed to cloning human beings.
• 43% said doctors should only be allowed to modify babies' genetic make-up only to prevent the child suffering from serious genetic disorders.
• 77% said parents should not be allowed to select the sex of their own children.
• 68% said it was acceptable to use 'spare' embryos left over from fertility treatment for medical research.

A range of extra-large condoms has been launched in South Africa, to cater for "well-endowed" men. "A large number of South African men are bigger and complain about condoms being uncomfortable and too small," said Durex manager Stuart Roberts.

Aids activists say the new condom could encourage men to practise safe sex in South Africa, where some 6m are HIV positive - more than any other country.

Some South Africans are reluctant to use condoms, says activist Thandi Xolo.

Mr Xolo, from the National Association of People Living With HIV/Aids (Napwa), said both men and women fear being labelled as promiscuous if they are seen with condoms.

"This could help condoms become cool," he said. "Men will buy them to boost their ego."

Even more importantly, it will remove the excuse made by some men for not using condoms - that they are too small.

However, Mr Xolo said he was not sure how many of the millions of condoms sold each year in South Africa were being properly used.

BBC News

DC Comics has ordered a New York gallery to remove pictures which show Batman and Robin kissing and embracing. The Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts gallery was told it would face legal action unless it removed watercolours of the superhero by artist Mark Chamberlain.

"DC Comics wants me to hand over all unsold work," said Ms Cullen.

Arts website Artnet was also told to remove the series of semi-naked images of Batman and Robin from its website. DC Comics was unavailable to comment.

Homoerotic poses

The colour pictures, which depict the superheroes in a number of homoerotic poses, were put on display in the gallery in February.

Seven images from the collection were subsequently displayed on the Artnet site.

Artist Chamberlain's works have been exhibited in numerous Manhattan galleries since 1991, with collections entitled Neo-Erotic and Gender Tennis among others.

Two years ago an artwork featuring Kylie Minogue's bottom was pulled from the Royal Academy's summer show after the singer's lawyers complained.

BBC News

The plan for a virtual red light district through the creation of a .xxx net domain name has hit delays after concern from government officials.

An official from President George Bush's administration has asked for the brakes be put on the planned domain name until its impact is studied more.

The domain was given the go-ahead by Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in June.

But some are concerned that it would encourage more porn on the net.

The domain name was expected to get final approval by the net's supervisory body, Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), on Tuesday.

Net domains such as .com. and org. are overseen by Icann. It polices the companies that run the different domains and approves the expansion of the different net names that can be bought and used.

The ICM Registry, the not-for-profit group which would operate the .xxx domain name, said it would agree to a month's delay in order to explore some of the concerns which have been voiced.

Easy filter?

The .xxx domain name was approved five years after it was first proposed.

The idea is that sexually-explicit sites will move to the new domains to make it easier for people to filter and avoid them.

In a statement, the ICM Registry which originally proposed the idea said it would "help protect children from exposure to online pornography and also have a positive impact on online adult entertainment through voluntary efforts of the industry".

But some are sceptical that it will allow for more controls over sexually-explicit content.

"The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children," said Mr Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the US Commerce Department, in a letter.

There has been growing opposition to the new domain name. In June, concern was expressed by net privacy campaigners who said it could provoke censorship problems for years.

Last week, a letter from Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, chairman of Icann's Government Advisory Committee, reiterated the concern that several countries had over the decision.

It requested that Icann "allow time for additional governmental and public policy concerns to be expressed before reaching a final decision" on the registration of the domain name.

More than 10% of all online traffic and 25% of all global net searches are for adult content, according to the ICM Registry.

BBC News

Human rights workers in Mexico are objecting to an airport security scanner that shows passengers 'naked'. The scanner, at Mexico City's international airport, is designed to help the police detect guns, drugs and hidden money.

It consists of a cabin where x-ray images of passengers are taken from various angles and sent to a monitor.

But Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights wants the scanner removed.

A spokesperson told Terra Noticias Populares: “We consider the use of this machine to be violating human rights, it virtually undresses people!”

But airport communications secretary Pedro Cerisola said: “If people want to travel, that is the condition.”

Ananova.com

A pile of thousands of woollen tassels symbolising chastity has been set on fire in Swaziland to mark the end of a sex ban imposed by King Mswati III. The secret ceremony took place at the crack of dawn. Men were banned.

After the tassels were burnt, some 40,000 Swazi girls went off to get washed in a river, in a symbolic cleansing ceremony.

The ban was started by the king in 2001 to fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Some 40% of Swazi citizens are HIV positive.

However, the ban was ended a year early amid strong criticism. No official reason was given.

Just two months after imposing the ban, the king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by taking a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife, sparking unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace.

Swazi custom

Later on Tuesday, the girls are expected to take part in a special dance at the national stadium, before marching to the royal palace for a final ceremony.

As they arrived at the Queen Mother's palace on Monday, before taking off their tassels, they sang in jest: "At last, we can now have sex."

King Mswati has warned young Swazis that although the ban has ended, they should still not sleep around.

As she went to take off the tassel, she had worn for four years, Penelope Dube, 20, said: "This has made me stronger as an individual, and I have honoured Swazi custom."

New figures released by the health ministry last week show that 29% of Swazi citizens aged 15-19 are HIV positive.

For pregnant women, the figures are 42%: the highest infection rate in the world.

The BBC's Thulani Mthethwa in Swaziland says the ban was very unpopular with young Swazis.

He says that few girls in urban areas wore the tassels.

If propositioned by a man, the girls were supposed to throw the tassels outside his house and his family would have to pay a fine of a cow.

But many Swazis were unhappy that King Mswati's daughters were rarely seen wearing the tassels.

Our correspondent says that in rural areas, the tassels were common because the ban was enforced by local chiefs and some schools insisted that girls wore them to get a place.

Reed dance

The ban ends a day before the start of the annual reed ceremony.

This culminates next Monday, with a reed dance at which the king is set to choose his next bride.

King Mswati now has 12 wives and a fiancee.

His late father, King Sobhuza II, who led the country to independence in 1968, had more than 70 wives when he died in 1982.

BBC News

Dutch police have arrested a couple for having sex on the bonnet of their patrol car.

The couple, from Groningen, said they hadn't noticed the two policemen sitting in the car.

One of the officers got out of the car and told the couple to stop what they were doing and leave.

The 25-year-old man was arrested after he refused and insulted the policeman, reports Het Laatste Nieuws.

His 33-year-old lover was also arrested after she tried to stop the car from taking her boyfriend away.

A police spokesman said: "The law doesn't say you can't make love on the bonnet of a police car.

"But the policemen have to be available for duty. If the two lovers had left when they were told, nothing would have happened."

Ananova

A German man pretended his car had broken down to dupe local residents into letting him use their phones to call sex hotlines.

At least four women have complained to police in Bad Urach after the man, said to be in his early 40s, used their phones.

They thought he was calling out breakdown services when he was actually calling premium rate kinky sex lines for up to 20 minutes at a time.

One victim, who asked not to be named, told police: "It was raining and I felt bad that his car had broken down and so let him in to call the breakdown services.

"But after 15 minutes he still hadn't come off the phone and when I went to look he was red in the face and was obviously excited about something."

She added the man then hung up, ran out of her house and sped away in his car.

"When I pressed redial someone called Jasmine answered and asked what she could do for me and on my next phone bill I found he's run up almost £40 on the call," she said.

Ananova

A Russian book publisher claims the original version of Gulliver's Travels was a pornographic novel.

Neonilla Samukhina says it featuries Gulliver in steamy encounters with 6ins tall Lilliputians or working as a sex toy for 60ft giants.

Ms Samukhina, from St Petersburg, is to market the 'original version' after buying the manuscript.

The Erotic Adventures of Lemuel Gulliver is to go on sale in Moscow book stores this weekend.

Ms Samukhina refused to name the seller, but said the family had bought the manuscript from the Ford family, who were descendants of a close friend of author Jonathan Swift.

"They had tried in the past to get it published but had never been believed that it was genuine, and I was sceptical, but historians have authenticated the age of the material and even style of writing," she said.

A foreword to the book includes a complaint allegedly written by Swift himself about the removal of the erotic passages, which were supposedly a fundamental part of his original novel.

The book has Gulliver describing how Lilliput women give him and themselves sexual pleasure - and how his semen was discovered to have healing properties on Lilliput.

Hermann Real, director of the Ehrenpreis Center for Swift Studies based in Germany and one of the world's leading experts on the writer, dismissed the new work as "an elaborate hoax, mainly devised to promote sales".

And Joseph McMinn, professor of Anglo-Irish literature at the University of Ulster, added: "Every few years somebody comes up with news about unknown manuscripts of famous writers found but very often those things are not real."

Ananova

Taxi drivers are to hand out free condoms to late-night passengers as part of a sexual health project. Some 60,000 condoms will be available from Thursday as part of the Safe Ride Home scheme in East Sussex.

Supported by boxer Chris Eubank, it will be operated by Brighton-based Radio Cabs after 2200 BST on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Those who request contraceptives will get a leaflet with advice on preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

'Take risks'

Former WBO super-middleweight champion Eubank, who lives in Hove, said: "I think this will encourage the young people of Brighton to have fun, but also behave responsibly.

"This thought provoking initiative is a simple, hard-hitting way of tackling a very serious issue."

A spokesman for the contraceptive manufacturer Trojan, which is providing the condoms for the scheme, said young people often found themselves on a night out without any condoms, leading them to take risks.

By making them available on the way home means there should not be any excuses, he added.

Chris Nutely, co-owner of Radio Cabs, said: "We look after thousands of passengers every week, mostly young people out socialising at night.

"If we can help make a difference then we're more than happy to help."

According to Trojan, one in nine people are believed to carry an STI.

BBC News