Sperm donor told to stop giving out

Electronic engineer Trent Arsenault, 36, was asked by the US government to stop giving out free donations of his semen online.

Arsenault, a San Francisco Bay-area resident, who has fathered an estimated 14 children, has been ordered by the US Food and Drug Administration to stop completely or face a up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

He and the FDA are now embroiled in what is believed to be the first legal battle of its kind, one that could test the limits of the FDA's authority to regulate private donations of sperm offered as gifts directly to prospective mothers rather than through commercial sperm banks.

Unidentified Object drops on Namibia!

A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.

The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 meters was found near a village in the north of the country about 750 kilometers from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.

Locals had heard small explosions a few days beforehand, Ludik said.

The ball has a rough surface and appears to look like "two halves welded together."

Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past 20 years, authorities found in an Internet search.

The sphere was actually discovered in mid-November, but authorities first conducted tests before announcing the find.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger.

"It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first," Hifindaka said.

France ponders breast implants safety

French health authorities are considering a drastic and unprecedented move: recommending mass surgery to rid the country of a type of breast implant that may have unclear medical dangers.

Investigators say that the type of breast implant, implanted in some 30,000 women in France, was secretly made with cheap industrial silicone which may prove to be a health risk.

The main concern in France is the risk of rupture, so far more than 1,000 out of 30,000 of such implants in France have burst, according to the French health safety agency AFSSAPS and the uncertainty over what dangers suspected industrial silicone gel could pose when it leaks inside the body.

Governments around Europe are hanging on France's decision Friday. Tens of thousands more women in Britain, Italy, Spain, and other European nations are walking around with the same type of implants made by now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese.

Chimney designed for Santa's girth

A worried six-year-old boy in London has sparked a mammoth operation test to what is believed to be the world's first chimney specifically built to accommodate Santa Clause.

Six-year-old Leo Park was concerned the house his parents was having custom built would not have a chimney big enough to fit the famously pudgy Father Christmas.

After writing a letter to the estate owner on which the house is being built, the owner Jeremy Paxton decided to commission a special project to satisfy young Leo's concerns.

Paxton built the chimney with the help of a hired mathematician, and conducted a test by lowering a stand-in Santa into the finished chimney attached to the half-built house.

A few seconds after Santa was successfully lowered into the chimney, he re-emerged, delivering a hearty: "Ho Ho Ho."

Amsterdam Dutch TV hosts dine on

Two Dutch television hosts have taken to cannibalism for the sake of ratings.

The two presenters, Dennis Strom and Valerio Zeno, were advised by a butcher on where the best cuts of meat might be on a human and a surgeon removed strips of muscle from Strom's left buttocks and Zeno's abdomen.

A chef fried the flesh, and served it to Strom and Zeno with green asparagus on the side.

Zeno described the experience as similar to eating a piece of car tire, and took time to swallow his bite on air.

Strom finished his piece faster, jokingly comparing his "meat" to Kobe beef because he says he takes good care of his body and health.

The two hosts said they got the idea from seeing the film Alive about how members of a rugby team ate human flesh to survive their plain crash in a remote location.

Both presenters said they wouldn't do it again because it would involve more surgery.

Cannibalism is actually legal in the Netherlands.

Reuters - AP - AFP

(China Daily 12/25/2011 page4)