World Sex Sells News

Police will launch a nationwide crackdown on prostitution, referred to as a malignant tumor on society, until October.

In recent years, police have investigated approximately 140,000 cases of prostitution annually, according to data by the Ministry of Public Security. Nearly 250,000 peope, which include prostitutes and clients, are suspected to be involved annually. The ministry said it looks into about 383 cases each day.

The three-month crackdown by the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security and the ministry started this past weekend and will continue until October, ahead of the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The two agencies will clamp down on anyone who organizes and forces women into prostitution, the ministry said on its website.

Three kinds of violators will be targeted: individuals or groups who force, tempt, permit or introduce women to prostitution; operators of entertainment venues that permit or introduce prostitution; and anyone who conducts illegal activities with minors.

The security agencies also listed three kinds of locales as high-risk: entertainment venues such as dance halls and nightclubs; service businesses such as beauty salons and massage parlors; and public places such as hotels, restaurants and rental houses, according to a statement by the ministry.

Chen Jiping, vice-director of the security committee, said: Prostitution has become a severe social issue and tangible results should be achieved with this new crackdown. Prostitution has grown in recent years, according to the ministry.

He required the police departments in the country to call upon the public in helping them in the crackdowns.

The Taiwanese Executive Yuan has stepped back from a Ministry of the Interior proposal to create red light districts with legalized prostitution due to conflicting public opinion.

It has been decided that legislation managing the sex trade needs to be mapped out before moving ahead with a study of accompanying measures.

The MOI proposed the decriminalization of the sex industry through authorizing city and county governments to set up red light districts in their respective jurisdictions during a meeting convened in recent days by the Executive Yuan's Human Rights Protection and Promotion Committee to discuss five major human rights issues.

However, the proposal stirred controversy, with women's groups divided between those supporting the rights of sex workers and those opposed to the sexual exploitation of women. Much opposition was also expressed by various city and county governments.

The ministry therefore proposed five major measures to be initiated in the near and mid term prior to proceeding with the establishment of red light districts.

Among the short-term measures proposed were the strengthening of the government's clamp down on human trafficking, as well as the enhancing of health screening and care for sex industry workers, to name a few.

The mid-term measures include mapping out a set of regulations to manage the red light districts and establishing a public consensus on the issue. The regulations will cover fines and prohibitions on activities within and outside the districts, the amount of related fines for prostitutes, pimps and customers, as well as the delegation of authority to related agencies for managing the districts, among other matters.

A public conference held by experts and scholars commissioned by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission under the Executive Yuan came to the conclusion that prostitutes and their customers should not be punished.

The experts pointed to five advantages to legalizing the sex industry. First, doing so will allow the government to better monitor and regulate the industry. It will also allow for more accurate education on related issues, and facilitate better health care for sex industry workers to reduce related risks.

Morever, it will make possible the establishment of a compensation mechanism to handle disputes in the industry, as well as enable the government to levy taxes in order to enhance public hygiene, they said.

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi insisted that he had never paid a woman for sex, as pressure mounted on the Italian Prime Minister to explain his actions amid lurid allegations that he had entertained escorts and call-girls at his home.

The comments — the first since an inquiry into alleged prostitution was launched — came as an influential Catholic magazine attacked his behaviour as indefensible and accused him of causing a moral emergency in his nation.

In an interview with Chi magazine, which he owns, an unrepentant Berlusconi said he had nothing to apologise for in his private life. I have never paid a woman.

Referring to Patrizia D'Addario, the escort girl who spent a night at Palazzo Grazioli, his Rome residence, he insisted that he was the victim of a set-up. Someone sent her with a very precise aim ... if I suspected a person of anything of the kind I would keep them a thousand miles away.

Ms D'Addario denied Berlusconi's account. She said: If he has the slightest proof to support his allegation he should hand it to the authorities.

The Prime Minister added that his estrangement from his wife, Veronica Lario, who has asked for a divorce, was a very painful wound.

His supporters fear a drop in Catholic support and yesterday Italy's most popular Catholic magazine said that Berlusconi had passed the limits of decency. Father Antonio Sciortino, the magazine's editor, said the Italian Church cannot ignore this moral emergency. One cannot pretend that nothing is happening.

Father Sciortino said Christians were bewildered by this climate of moral decadence and that Berlusconi had still not explained the contradictions in his accounts of how he knew Noemi Letizia, the aspiring model whose 18th birthday party he attended in a Naples suburb.

The Vietnamese Government should invest more capital for prostitution prevention activities and impose stiff fines on men who pay for the service, ministry officials have said.

Tran Van Quang of the Crime Investigation Police Department (PC14) under the Ministry of Public Security said a new law should impose fines on men who seek services from prostitutes.

Higher fines should be imposed on serial violators, added Quang, who spoke recently at a conference on preventing prostitution held in Ho Chi Minh City.

Quang said the fight against prostitution was becoming more difficult, partly because many prostitutes no longer need a mediator to find customers. Many of them use the internet and cellphones to call customers and work day jobs in massage parlours, hairdresser shops or fake cafes to disguise their real jobs. Others work in discos, karaoke bars and hotels.

Authorities estimate that there are a total of 40,000 prostitutes nationwide, with most of them working in Ha Noi, HCM City and neighbouring provinces. According to PC14, last year 866 prostitution cases were uncovered in 54 out of Viet Nam's 64 provinces. More than 4,000 people were apprehended and taken to rehabilitation centres.

Taiwan's government is considering allowing red-light districts on the island, a minister has said, in a controversial bid to legalize prostitution.

We are currently researching this and the cabinet's human rights committee will make a decision, Vice-Interior Minister Lin Join-sane told reporters.

According to the ministry, sex workers may be licensed to work in special zones in a move aimed at better monitoring the sex trade and preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Predictably nutters are objecting. We have to be prudent as the trend is to phase out red-light districts. Our national image is very important, said lawmaker Lee Ching-hua of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT).

Under existing laws, prostitutes face detention of three days or a fine of up to 30,000 Taiwan dollars ($888) if they are caught providing sexual services. Their clients go unpunished.

While there is no official estimate of the scale of Taiwan's sex industry, it is estimated to involve up to 800,000 people. About 30 prostitutes are licensed nationwide under laws enacted in 1957. However, the government has since stopped issuing licenses, allowing these permits to be phased out.

Partly to allay the previous American administration's concerns about trafficking, Cambodia in February 2008 outlawed prostitution. Three months later the State Department took Cambodia off its annual watch-list of human-trafficking countries. But the police read the law as entitling them to lock up all sex-workers, not help victims of trafficking.

Reports of abuses soon surfaced, at first denied by the government. But in August it halted the raids as the United Nations and NGOs expressed mounting concern. One worry was that they would endanger HIV/AIDS-prevention programmes. The prevalence of HIV in Cambodia had fallen to 0.8% of the population since the government adopted a campaign in 2001 for 100% condom use. Now, however, fearing the brothels where they worked would be raided, many sex-workers had started plying their trade on the streets or in karaoke bars, where health-care workers could not find them to distribute condoms.

Tony Lisle, of the UN's AIDS organisation, says that since the raids stopped, HIV-prevention efforts have resumed with more success. Sex-workers in bars as well as brothels are to be covered, and the police to be encouraged to teach sex-workers about condom use. But those campaigning for sex-workers' rights have objected, fearing that this might give the police a pretext to renew the raids.

Vancouver won't experience an explosion of prostitution or human trafficking during the 2010 Winter Olympics, says a study released Thursday.

Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games by Frontline Consulting for the Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group said academic studies and media reports linking mega-events with increases in prostitution and sexual exploitation were based on unsubstantiated assumptions.

Neither the 2004 Athens Olympics nor the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany experienced any increase that could be attributed to their hallmark event.

The anticipated 40,000 cases of human trafficking for sexual exploitation failed to materialize at Germany 2006. The study said traffickers may not have been motivated to invest in a short, one-time event. Women and families were among the international soccer fans, while males who attended did not have time, money or the inclination to visit prostitutes.

The report estimated up to 800 people are annually trafficked into Canada for sexual exploitation, but only five domestic trafficking convictions have ever happened in Canada.

It also noted that Vancouver does have a long history of street prostitution, despite laws that make it illegal to communicate for the purposes of prostitution, procuring or keeping a brothel. 

Tokyo's Yoshiwara district is home to 40 establishments known as joho kissa (information coffee shops). Included in the 500-yen price of a beverage, the shops provide a plethora of information on the sex services supplied by the neighborhood's soaplands.

On June 6, reports Nikkan Gendai, police raided one such shop, called the Kakuebi Haiso Center, and arrested its proprietor on the grounds that he was providing services outside the scope permitted by the Tokyo metropolitan ordinance.

This particular coffee shop steered customers to a pair of affiliated soaplands, Kakuebi Honten and Miuraya. The same day, police also raided two soaplands and arrested the owner and eight other people, on suspicion of violating the provision of the anti-prostitution law that bans brothels.

I was shocked, says a Yoshiwara denizen. A soapland is a place where you go to have sex with a masseuse. If the police were to enforce the law to the letter, they could slap the cuffs on every single soapland manager in the entire Yoshiwara area — because operating brothels is precisely what they do.

Police raids on soaplands are, in fact, infrequent occurrences. The cops had already issued several warnings to Kakuebi over the pimping activities of the coffee shop. It is hoped that other venues will be ok, and that this raid was a one off by a local upset of the police

Lady boy "Ray" was enraged when a late-night customer on Toronto's downtown track offered him $5 for oral sex recently.

I didn't spend two hours getting my makeup on and all dressed up for that, says Ray, who usually charges $60 for the service.

These days, Ray is getting little more than callouses from standing all night as the economic slump delivers an unexpected hit to the sex trade.

Sex workers say their incomes began plummeting last fall, with johns pleading poverty and haggling over prices, and prostitutes bidding against each other.

The vices, smoking, drinking, sex, are usually bulletproof during a recession, says economist Perry Sadorsky, who teaches at York University's Schulich School of Business. So if the sex trade is hurting, we are in the most serious depression since the 1930s. This shows the magnitude of the decline. It is deep and it is problematic.

The recession has seen the street price of oral sex, the most common service, plummet from $60 last fall to $20 today. Full service involving intercourse has dropped from $150 to $80.

Sadorsky wonders if the economic crisis is forcing more people into sex work, thereby increasing competition on the street.

An Irish video shop owner was fined €1,500 yesterday for having five standard adult hardcore movies for rent which were banned when viewed by the film censor.

Michael Bridgeman of Co Limerick, and Mungret Gate Developments, Mungret Street, Limerick, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court to three charges of having the illicit movies for supply without a film certificate or correct labelling at his video shop, Underworld, on Upper Dominick Street, Galway, on May 28th last year, contrary to Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Video Recordings Act 1989.

Judge Mary Fahy said films such as those five banned by the censor, including Teen Thrills and Let Me Taste It , can be very obscene and disturbing . They can also show gross violence which can lead to other problems in society.

Ibraham, a 35-year-old Argentinean, isn't complaining. During the first five days of his Kyiv trip, he's already slept with three girls - quite an experience, he says: My friends back home told me girls here are beautiful and that you can have one for $50-100 per hour, which is good price for such beauties . And I found it all true; there's so many girls here that you could never have back home.

Meanwhile, a bunch of middle-aged guys crowd the club's two bars - Americans, Europeans, Turks, Asians, Some are sipping their drinks while scanning the crowd; the luckier ones are struggling to make themselves understood in pantomime conversations with long-legged Ukrainian blondes.

Arena's art director Vitaliy Lytvynenko says it's all normal for a club like Arena, which is centrally located and has a lot of beautiful girls.

Ukraine may be far behind Thailand on the list of sex tourists' favorite destinations, but it's moving up. One Internet sex-site administrator says interest in Ukraine has grown along with the country's international profile. It doesn't hurt that US and EU citizens no longer need visas to come here.

According to the State Border Service's statistics, a million more foreigners entered the country during June, July and August of this year that during the same span in 2004. Only a fraction of these are here as sex tourists, of course, but the increased numbers have their effect.

And statistics aside, posts in the Ukrainian sections of Web sites dedicated to sex tourism speak for themselves. I am now hooked up on these women, confesses a participant on the Web forum international - sexguide.com after his summer trip to Kyiv: The only problem is how to find excuses to spend every vacation in Ukraine.

Experienced sex tourists, like William, a 34-year-old Australian of Asian extraction and a member of the forum, rank the quality and prices of Ukraine's intimate services lower than those of Southeast Asia. But even though William's sex experience in Ukraine was not the best- the girls spoke little English, he said, the sex was mechanical, and there was some prejudice toward Asians: I have only visited Ukraine once, and the women are possibly the best-looking Caucasians in the world.

A 50-year-old American who has lived in Kyiv for three years and wished to remain anonymous says he contributes to the forum to help travelers get a true picture of the Ukrainian sex scene. There is such a concentration of prime stunning and beautiful talent here, all ready and willing, that you can meet most anywhere, from club and bar pick-up to prostitutes, for a night or week of pleasure, that massage parlors are just not on my radar screen, the ex-pat told the Web community.

The same ex-pat told that Ukraine is not yet a major destination for sex tourists because it's expensive to get here, sex providers don't usually speak good English, and the tourist infrastructure is still primitive.

As the credit crunch keeps away sight-seers and business travellers, the owners of Amsterdam's brothels, escort agencies and sex shops all grumble that those visitors who still do indulge in the pleasures of the flesh are increasingly tight-fisted.

Eva, a 25-year-old prostitute in the city's red-light district, gestures angrily in the direction of a rival who has slashed her rates as the economic crisis emboldens sex tourists to haggle.

Some of the girls are now doing it for 30 euros (£26 1,500 Baht). My price is still 50 euros (£44 2,400 Baht), but the men are playing us off against each other. Some want to pay only 20 euros (£17 1,000 Baht), she told AFP.

Eva is not the only one complaining.

Twenty-six-year-old Oxana, who shares Eva's window, says her income has halved in six months while her window rent went up 25% in January.

On a "good day", she sees six clients but sometimes only one -- at 50 euros per visitor not enough to cover her half of the 150 euro daily rent: But I can't do it for 20 or 30 euros like some of the others. That is not money.

Despite the fact that prostitution is illegal, China’s sex trade has become big business. For a country that often views the topic of sex as taboo, the sex trade in China is both prevalent and an open secret. It seems to have become so commercialized that it has even become part of the corporate scene.

The link between sex and business seems to be somewhat of an open secret. It exists, but few seem willing to discuss it openly, particularly when sex is used as part of business negotiations.

The number of women employed in China’s sex trade industry is estimated in the millions. In Beijing alone, there are 90,000 prostitutes and over 5,000 sex shops, which have opened up over the past decade. Research suggests that 50% of Beijing’s prostitutes still do not insist clients use condoms. Although China’s statistics on HIV/AIDS cases are hazy, the health risks are certainly alarming.

The common lingo for establishments where such services are available are well known to both locals and foreigners. Barbershop, massage parlour, KTV (karaoke bars) ; all are code words for places to go for a happy ending . A patron no longer needs to only look for the unscrupulous, rent-by-the-hour hotels, as these establishments are packaged much more professionally these days. Moreover, the extent of business travelers’ expectations for visits to sex trade workers has long since prompted mainstream hotels to incorporate the sex industry into their services (albeit in a hush-hush sort of way).

It is not printed in any hotel amenities publications, and it will never be found as part of the handy guest guide sitting on the desk in suites; but a solo male traveler may get a surreptitious knock on the door in the middle of the night by a young woman offering an in-room massage. Or for those less brazen hotels, they may opt for a more subtle midnight phone call. These tactics are so widely known that they are written about in guide books. Even the most upscale bars and clubs are frequented regularly by a steady stream of prostitutes looking for business.

The link between the sex trade industry and businesses is so pervasive that when it is required to entertain clients, that often includes bringing clients to establishments offering sexual services. And it is not as if only shady businesses or small companies would ever consider participating in such activities, because even large corporations that are household names do so as well. None will admit to doing so of course, but consider it part of the open secret.

Two more Steve Crow-run companies - Vixen Direct and Erotica Expos - have gone into liquidation.

New Zealand liquidators at MeltzerMasonHeath have confirmed that the firm has been appointed following the shareholders decision to liquidate the companies.

Both companies are owned by CVC Group and their sole director is Steve Crow.

Last week NBR announced Steve Crow’s company Eden Media, formerly Vixen TV and Vixen Media, also owned by CVC Group Limited, was forced in to liquidation at the High Court at Auckland.

The application was made by printers PMP Maxum.

Update: Biking On

11th July 2009.

A porn entrepreneur has vowed to go ahead with his annual "Boobs on Bikes" parade of topless women in Auckland, despite financial woes and the opposition of the city's mayor.

Two of Crow's companies have gone into liquidation at his request after earlier shows in the capital Wellington and the southern city of Christchurch lost money.

Divine intervention might be the last hope for Cardinal George Pell's fight against a new Sydney brothel.

Pell has attacked Sydney City Council's consideration of a brothel opposite historic St Benedict's on Broadway, the city's oldest consecrated Catholic church.

It is not acceptable that a brothel is established so close to St Benedicts and Notre Dame University, Pell said.

The Catholic Church's concerns are contained in one of 20 submissions opposing the brothel,

After learning of the Cardinal's outrage the council suddenly asked the developers to withdraw their application but a spokesman conceded the DA would go ahead if the company ignores the request. The council agreed that there was a very strong possibility the developers would end up appealing against any refusal in the Land and Environment Court.

But Cardinal Pell said the application should never have been accepted. He said. Parking is limited and children who come to this church often arrive by foot.

The proposed brothel would trade as The Lehtorb (brothel spelt backwards) at 139 Broadway, Ultimo, with six rooms, as many workers, a manager, receptionist and cleaner. It would trade between noon and 3am seven days a week.

Parish priest Father Michael de Stoop said most of his parishioners entered St Benedict's through a side entrance, within full view of the brothel's proposed front door.

Italian authorities seized a collection of Big Teaze vibrating “duckies” from a local department store following customer complaint that the items were not properly labeled adults-only.

Big Teaze President Tony Levine told XBIZ the Paris vibrating duck and several other items were taken off display in the Coin Street Calzioni women’s lingerie department, and he and his team were alerted by its Italian distributor.

We were somewhat surprised as Europeans tend to be perceived as more open-minded, Levine said: However, I think we more astonished at the fact that it was Paris. We might expect this type of mischief from Red Devil Duckie, but come on now, Paris?

According to Italian news sources, the display of adult items was in violation of a new erotic sales regulation, which among other things prohibits the sale of adult products within 200 meters of a school, place of worship or similar location.

Upon responding to the customer’s initial complaint, authorities found the department store was located close to a church.

Despite police reports of indecent acts taking place inside the Fox Theatre, the city decided not to rescind the business licence of Vancouver’s last pornography cinema.

Some local whingers had complained the theatre was attracting prostitution and drug use to the area, and city hall staff recommended that its business licence be pulled.

Plainclothes police officers visited the theatre a number of times this year and reported seeing sex acts being committed between male patrons and indecent acts by others, along with persons illegally smoking inside the theatre.

A hearing to lift the licence began in late March, when the three presiding councillors heard from police about the indecent acts and smoking. The hearing was then adjourned with owner Lisa Huang promising to tighten up procedures, do regular inspections and report any incidents in a log book. However, two police officers visited the theatre April 10 and reported that nothing much had changed.

City solicitor Tom Zworski said city staff wanted the business licence revoked because of the detrimental impact the theatre had on the neighbourhood, due to the clients it attracted and because of what took place inside.

However, the lawyer representing the theatre said none of the incidents reported was egregious enough for the theatre to be put to death. Councillors Heather Deal and Kerry Jang agreed. Committee chairwoman Coun. Suzanne Anton expressed misgivings about the way the theatre was being run in view of what the police found April 10, but she agreed with Deal that restrictions should be imposed.

Huang was told that staff had to check inside the theatre every half hour and to keep a log of what was observed. She was told she must meet with the local Business Improvement Association to discuss local business concerns, and to meet with the city’s chief licensing inspector. Anton told Huang that if things didn’t change and another hearing was held, she faced the likelihood of being denied a business licence.

A German court has said it would not ban a brothel set up in an apartment in a posh district in western Berlin on moral grounds after judges inspected the premises and found they were discreet.

In the first ruling of its kind, the German capital's administrative court said that it would not decide on moral or social grounds because the law authorising prostitution was not based on these considerations.

Judges visited the Salon Prestige club, just off the city's main shopping street Kurfrstendamm, and said its existence was only noticeable by an inconspicuous name plate. Opening hours were limited and the club didn't serve alcohol

The court looked into the matter after a local town councillor complained that brothels should not be opened in residential areas.

Moscow police decline to estimate how many prostitutes work in the city but media reports and rights groups say it houses more than 100 000 - roughly 10 times higher than estimates for London and New York.

Police often turn a blind eye to prostitution or ask girls for either a bribe up to 6 000 roubles or free oral sex, several prostitutes said.

Moscow police declined to comment on bribe-taking but said the fine for women selling sex is 2 000 roubles, and much higher for pimps who organise them.

With the jobless rate currently at an eight-year high and salaries shrinking across the board, prostitutes are also cutting prices.

Pay levels for Moscow's prostitutes vary widely, but many say they can eke out a decent living, earning at least $2 000 a month dealing with several men a night. A small elite charges thousands of dollars per session. Marina, 26, who offers sex through her own website, said she is now offering an all-night special at 6 000 roubles, a 30% discount on pre-crisis prices.

But with some of Moscow's wealthiest men still in the market, elite prostitutes appear to be surviving the crisis unscathed.

The 2009 Feminist Porn Awards ceremony was held in Toronto. The awards are an annual event hosted by Canadian adult retailer Good For Her.

Award Winners:

• Hottest Kink Movie: Perversions of Lesbian Lust Vol. 1 by Madison Young
• Steamiest Trans Scene: Crash Pad Series 2- Unlocked by Shine Louise Houston
• Sexiest Straight Movie: Intense Desires by Eli Cross
• Hottest Mature Couple's Movie: Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless by Tony Comstock
• Most Sensual Softcore & Golden Beaver Award for Canadian Content: Man of My Dreams Mimi Balfour
• Steamiest Educational Series: Red Hot Touch Series by New World Sex Education
• Sexiest Dyke Movie: One Night Stand (Pour Une Nuit) by Emilie Jouvet
• Most Deliciously Diverse Cast: Roulette | Courtney Trouble
• Heartthrob of the Year (female): Dylan Ryan, for work in Strap-on Motel
• Heartthrob of the Year (male): Tyler Knight, for work in Chemistry 4 and Intense Desires
• Indie Porn Pioneer: Madison Young
• Movie of the Year: Champion | Shine Louise Houston

The scale of the Thai resort of Phuket's sex industry has been revealed in a survey by Public Health officials. It concludes there are more than 6229 female workers and 998 male workers in the trade.

The numbers are the totals of people who openly admit to earning their living from prostitution.

The figures came on the same day as a seminar on prostitution was held in Bangkok. British ambassador Quinton Quayle expressed concern about prostitution across national boundaries. He said Thailand was a part of the problem because many women and men went abroad or were taken abroad to engage in prostitution.

On Phuket, Public Health officials check bars in Patong and other entertainment centres, including Phuket City, twice a year, asking the owners of establishments how many workers are involved.

The survey is not complete in terms of total numbers because some bars refuse entry to Public Health and decline to have staff involved in surveys, Vice Governor Tree was told.

The overt nature of the international tourist sex trade is matched by a large-scale yet far less open industry involving Thais.

Taiwan Legislator Cheng Li-wen has announced a plan to push for revising the existing rules to decriminalize the sex trade for adults in order to eradicate sexual discrimination and protect workers' rights.

Cheng, a female lawmaker of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), said her plan has won endorsement from more than 10 colleagues of the same party, meaning the proposal of changing the rules has passed the threshold for becoming a bill that would be discussed on the parliament floor.

The proposal aims to delete Article 80 of the existing Social Order Maintenance Law, under which prostitutes are punished. Prostitutes face detention of three days or a fine of up to NT$30,000 if they are caught providing sex services. They are also required to attend training courses to learn vocational skills for a period of six to 12 months if they were convicted three times in the same year.

Cheng said scrapping the rule will legalize the legitimate rights of sex workers who provide the service between two mutually consenting adults.

Since prostitution is illegal under the current rules, sex workers are often abused. When this happens, they dare not turn to police for help, she said. Cheng said at least 5,000 sex workers are victimized by the backward rules each year, affecting the livelihood of a same number of families.

All of the 18 people representing the women's groups, housewives, sex workers, and scholars, unanimously agreed that the sex trade should not be penalized, when they attended a series of four-day public hearings on the issue held by the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) last November, pointed out Cheng.

Update: Official Promises

12th May 2009. See article from chinapost.com.tw

An organization representing sex workers once again protested for the legalization of prostitution yesterday at the Ministry of the Interior, resulting in an official promising to announce the ministry's stance by the 18th.

Four months since its last appeal, the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COWAS) returned to the ministry in demand of an official timeline.

An official from the ministry met with the collective and said that the ministry is ready to publish its directives on the issue by the 18th.

SThe Swedish Tax Authority, Skatteverket, is going after online strippers for back taxes and lost revenue owed the government, according to Swedish English language news site The Local.

We had to do something. We want all these girls to be compliant with the system, said Dag Hardyson of the agency.

Skatteverket estimates the market take for live webcam sites is close to 40 million kronor ($4.8 million), which comes to 20 million kronor ($2.4 million) in unpaid taxes.

Hardyson told Swedish news outlets that Skatteverket uncovered some 200 Web strippers not reporting earnings. Officials also claim between 300 and 500 women in Sweden, most under 25 make living through online sex cams, with no tax records for any of them. Hardyson and his online division of the tax agency scoured porn sites to find the tax-evading Swedish Web cam girls.

Webcam operations are legal in Sweden, but law requires services to register for a corporate taxation certificate and also maintain records of expenses and income.

According to Sweden's Sveriges Radio, only one adult business audited by Skatteverket has submitted an income declaration.

Beate Uhse, the German sex empire that is now largely in Dutch hands, says a publicity campaign is needed to attract more foreign tourists to Amsterdam's Red Light District'.

The company, that sells sex toys, lingerie, clothing and pornography, claims Project 1012 has severely damaged its business. Project 1012, named after the postal code of the Red Light District, is an attempt by the Amsterdam authorities to curb prostitution in the area. It involves the closing of dozens of window brothels.

Beate Uhse owns ten shops in Amsterdam, most of which are located in the sex district. CEO Serge van der Hooft said that the area has been a major tourist attraction: But these days many foreign tourists seem to think that the Red Light District is no more.

The Dutch government does not plan to raise the minimum prostitution age from 18 to 21, the Telegraaf has reported.

Reliable sources have told the paper that justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin has decided that there would be too much opposition to an increase and it would drive younger prostitutes into the illegal circuit.

Meanwhile, the AD reports that the recession is beginning to have an affect on Amsterdam's red light district, with prostitutes reporting a sharp fall in clients and demands for cheaper prices.

A manufacturer in France is using an image of Pope Benedict to market its condoms .

The unholy rubbers are packaged in a wrapper that show the Pontiff raising his hands in the air above the phrase I Said No! . Sources indicate the item is selling well.

German sex shop chain Beate Uhse has said its customers were keeping busy between the sheets despite a global economic crisis as the company jumped back into profit in 2008.

Consumers have not given up some of life's small pleasures like erotica even in these tough economic times, managing director Serge van der Hooft said in the company's results statement.

Although 2008 sales drooped 5.6% to €253-million, Beate Uhse posted a net profit of €2.3 million, compared with a loss of more than €13 million in 2007.

Mail order sales, which represent more than half the total, grew slightly last year, while the company closed 28 loss-making shops. More closures are expected this year in Belgium and the Netherlands, the statement said.