WASHINGTON (CNN) – Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”

Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people.”

“We should be delivering [the request] by the end of today to our congressmen and [Secretary of the Treasury Henry] Paulson asking for this $5 billion dollar bailout,” he told CNN Wednesday.

Flynt and Francis concede the industry itself is in no financial danger — DVD sales have slipped over the past year, but Web traffic has continued to grow.

But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. “People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

So far, there has been no congressional reaction to the request.
CNN

Face value: Sarah Burge, who has had more than 150 cosmetic procedures, administers Botox to her sixteen-year-old daughter, Hannah

Hannah, now 16, had her first dose while on a family holiday in Marbella, Spain, last May, with her mother’s consent. Since then the schoolgirl has had two more Botox injections at home with Miss Burge, 49, who is a trained aesthetic practitioner.

She uses the same Botox on her daughter that she uses on herself. The only concession she makes for Hannah’s age is to give her half the usual dosage given to adults.

Hannah believes the toxin – which she calls “B” – will stop her developing wrinkles in the future.

She said: ‘I wanted to have Botox for two reasons: It prevents wrinkles and everyone at my school was talking about having B. I had a couple of lines on my forehead and around my mouth, which I was unhappy about. Appearance is important to me and I don’t want to look haggard and ugly by the time I’m 25. Some of my friends told me that the earlier you start to have B, the fewer wrinkles you’ll have as an adult.’

Hannah, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, has heard of girls having Botox at 16 but believes she is the youngest to start. She now wants her mother to give her lip fillers for a fuller pout.

She said: ‘I’ve met plenty of girls my age who are having these procedures behind their parents’ backs, which I think is pretty dangerous. With (my mother’s) help, I won’t get that frozen-face look when I’m older and will never have a line or wrinkle on my face.’

Her mother, who has been married three times, regularly uses Botox herself, and has had her nose made smaller, her cheekbones made bigger, her breasts lifted, and the fat sucked from her face among other procedures.

She said: ‘I was thrilled Hannah was open and honest with me about having Botox’

Botox is the trade name for botulinum toxin, a bacteria which causes muscle paralysis lasting for up to four months.

Claude Knights, director of Kidscape, said: ‘To be using Botox at such a young age is of concern.

‘She is terribly young, this is encouraging her to value herself purely on how she looks, she is not getting a chance to develop her character.’

Fazel Fatah, president-elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said that Botox should be administered only by a professional in sterile conditions.

He said: ‘Excessive Botox can cause facial weakness or paralysis, and double vision, if injected incorrectly near the eye area.’
dailymail.co.uk

Hard to digest: A border guard looks at an X-ray of 123 condoms of cocaine found in a smuggler’s stomach

It’s certainly a discovery that’s hard to swallow.

Put end to end, the condoms would stretch out to a length of 18 feet, according to a border official.

The Nigerian cocaine courier had swallowed the condoms by coating each one with wax, so they slipped down that bit easier.

Yum.

He was dicing with death every step of the way, though. Even a slightly split condom would have led to a fatal overdose.

Border guard spokesman Michel Bachar said: “It was an exceptional find.”

The smuggler was part of a gang of four men who tried to evade security at a border checkpoint near Geneva in a French-registered car.

Another 1.3kg of cocaine was hidden in the stomachs of the other three men.
metro.co.uk