Woman gets beer from her kitchen faucet

OSLO (AP) — It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.
Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.
By an improbable feat of clumsy plumbing, someone at the bar in Kristiandsund, western Norway, had accidentally hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes for Gundersen's apartment.
"We had settled down for a cozy Saturday evening, had a nice dinner, and I was just going to clean up a little," Gundersen, 50, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. "I turned on the kitchen faucet and beer came out."
However, Gundersen said the beer was flat and not tempting, even in a country where a half-liter (pint) can cost about 25 kroner ($3.75) in grocery stores.
Per Egil Myrvang, of the local beer distributor, said he helped bartenders reconnect the pipes by telephone.
"The water and beer pipes do touch each other, but you have to be really creative to connect them together," he told local newspapers.
Gundersen joked about having the pub send up free beer for her next party.
"But maybe it would be easier if they just invited me down for a beer," she said.

German state to enforce condom use in brothels during World Cup

BERLIN (AFP) - Health authorities in Germany's southern state of Bavaria have said they will put up signs in brothels during the 2006 World Cup to remind clients of a local law obliging them to use condoms.
"Clearly visible and readable" posters will be put up in brothels in Bavaria during the world's biggest football extravaganza, which Germany is hosting from June 9 to July 9, the state's health ministry said on Thursday.
The World Cup's 64 matches will be played in 12 German cities, including in Munich and Nuremberg in Bavaria.
Bavaria has a regulation in force stating that men must wear condoms when they visit prostitutes.
Although prostitution is legal in Germany, religious and women's groups have warned they fear a rise in forced prostitution during the finals, especially involving women from eastern Europe.

Tougher toilets planned for fatter Australians

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australians are getting so fat that toilet seats may have to be made stronger to bear their weight, the country's standards association said.
Standards Australia said it had begun looking into the problem and expected to recommend "an increase in the strength of toilet seats to accommodate the increasing size of humans".
The percentage of Australians who are overweight or obese has jumped around 10 percent in the past decade, to 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced recently.
Toilet seats are currently required to meet a rigidity test of 45 kilograms (99 pounds), which supports most people's weight in a seated position, Standards Australia chairman Colin Blair told national radio.