================================================= Expat Worlds Monthly Digest ================================================= January, 2003 Vol. 5, Issue 1 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== (Compliment from the Expat World Newsletter) -=Around The World With Expat World=- ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=Premium Cash Card=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Traveller's Tales=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=FillOutAForm=- ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== AROUND THE WORLD WITH EXPAT WORLD FRANCE -- If you're visiting Paris, try renting a "Smart Car." You can zip around easily, squeeze into tiny parking places and even visit Versailles or go on other day trips. The cost can be less than 20 euros per day. See www.Easycar.com or www.easycar.com/eng/default.asp FINLAND -- The Finland Supreme Court has ruled that taxi drivers must pay royalty fees if they play music in their cars while a paying customer is in the back seat, even if it's just the radio. Under the ruling, a cab driver must pay 22 euros (US $22) annually for playing music while transporting a fare. CHINA -- Cat meat has found its way back into the Guangdong, China cusine after a lapse of a few years. The Yangcheng Evening news estimated that 10,000 cats are consumed daily in the southern provinces. Culinary experts told the newspaper that the tradition of eating cat meat had resurfaced in the past two years -- probably owing to the poor economy and lower prices for feline meat. LITHUANIA -- In Lithuania women prisoners compete in a beauty contest. The winner of "Miss Captivity" pageant did not give her real name after accepting the crown at the Panevezys Penal Labor Colony, 90 miles north of Vilnius, in mid-November. She hopes to launch a modeling career after her release. BRAZIL -- A shopping mall in Sao Paulo is offering five minutes in an oxygen mask to any customers who spends more than the equivalent of US $10. The Paulista mall has built an all white lounge area in the main corridor with a big chair where customers can sit down, breath oxygen and listen to chill-out music. It is said to leave the shoppers invigorated. People can choose their "flavor" of oxygen from pure to orange, lemon or eucalyptus. CAMBODIA -- Thirteen-year-old nailed for partying too hard. A Cambodian mother took drastic measures to stop her 13-year-old daughter from going out every night to party -- she nailed her foot to the floor. The mother told the police that she was angry with her daughter who was going out for the last week partying. When she was sleeping, she drove a 6cm nail through her right foot into the floor. USA -- Guess the legislature in North Carolina is a little short of important things to legislate for recently the North Carolina senate passed a funeral home regulation bill that included a prohibition against cussing in the vacinity of a corpse. Also in the USA, Two men were arrested for selling marijuana from a neighborhood ice cream truck, after drawing the attention of police because the only customers in line were adults. FRANCE -- Vineyard owners in southern France began to sell powdered wine extract to pharmaceutical houses in the US, to make wine pills that provide health benefits without the hangover. UNITED KINGDOM -- Worldspace, a media company (and the first satellite radio company) broadcasts audio, data and multimedia channels directly to portable receivers and personal computer adapters. Coverage includes Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe. For more information, visit the WorldSpace website at www.worldspace.com./ Listeners can obtain a pass code for their receivers by purchasing a subscription to NPR programming on WorldSpace. Special holiday rates are available. For those who already own a WS receiver and general inquiries, +44 20 7494 8222 (9-5 PM GMT outside hours leave a message) or email ukservice@worldspace.com. For those who do not already own WS receiver, +44 23 9231 3093 (9-5:30 PM GMT) or email sales@nevada.co.uk/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= PREMIUM CASH CARD $39* Subscribe to our Cash Cards Premium Service and we will provide you with our Cash Card, a  Stored Value ATM/POS Card. Your funds will be available at over 500,000+ ATM's worldwide, and in the local currency. Use your V-Cash card for online purchases, and offline at 1000's of (POS) Point Of Sale merchants worldwide.  *39.00 Annual Service Fee + $50 onetime setup and delivery fee ( $89.00 Total) Get the details at www.expatworld.net and select "Specials" from the top menu! ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ TRIVIA Everyone has seen the movie 'Casablanca' and has heard the song 'Marakesh Express'. Where are these two cities located? A: Portugal B: Morocco C: Mallorca D: Netherlands (Answer below) ----- NEWS STORY Chinese men buy just three condoms a year Men in AIDS-threatened China buy roughly three condoms a year, and the ones they purchase are highly likely to have defects, state media reported today. Annual sales of condoms in China now stand at two billion a year, the China Youth Daily said, citing data from the State Family Planning Commission. With a male population of about 650 million, this means each Chinese man buys three condoms on average annually, and if he is lucky only one of them will have flaws. The paper said that between 30 and 44 per cent of all condoms on sale in China fail to meet industry standards. With 1.3 billion people, China is still the world's most populous nation, and its population is expected to reach 1.6 billion by the year 2050. ----- TRAVELLER'S TALES COLD COMFORT: Criminals in New Delhi are refusing to work because of a freak cold spell. The incidence of crime has dropped more than 20% in several districts since the Indian capital was hit by cold weather. It's a good thing too, as many policemen are also losing their enthusiasm for work. Police chiefs doing spot checks found officers in one station fast asleep when they should have been out patrolling, The Times of India reported. "It was too cold outside," they told their boss. ----- I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it. --George Carlin ----- It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth. --John Locke ----- While he was rooting around in the basement, a man found a magic lamp. When he rubbed it, a genie emerged in a huge cloud of pink smoke. "I am the all-powerful genie. I shall grant you one wish." The man thought about this, and decided that if there was one thing he couldn't get enough of, it was wine. "I wish I could pee wine. That's my wish." "Granted." And the genie disappeared. Later that day, the man's wife came home to find her husband naked, holding a glass. "Why only one glass?" asked her wife. "You're drinking out of the bottle tonight." ----- TRIVIA ANSWER Everyone has seen the movie 'Casablanca' and has heard the song 'Marakesh Express'. Where are these two cities located? The correct answer: B (Morocco) ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ FillOutAForm FillOutAForm 2.3 enables you to fill out a scanned form on your computer and print it. Includes simple formula capability for tax forms. Jan 30, 2003 Download it for FREE at: http://jdmcox.com/FillOutAForm.exe ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.15 ISSUE 1) Table of Content: - Become a Blueblood - Monaco – A Retirement Home for Fat Cats - The Offshore Digest - The US Speaks With Forked Tongue - Italy – Could be a Tax Haven for Those Who Know the Ropes - Panama on the Dangerous Road to Curtailing Privacy in the Name of Profit Making - Secrecy Switzerland Refuses to Loosen Its Bank Secrecy Laws - From the University of Life - How to Become an Honorary Consul -- 101 - Around the World With Expat World - International Snips and clips - GW Got it Right - and that's not GW Bush! - The Truth in the War against Drugs in the USA - The Coming War With Iraq - Crapper Rapper - The 20th Century World Hostility Scoreboard YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. Go to our website: www.expatworld.net to sign up. ********************************************************************* EXPAT WORLD - the newsletter of international living FREE Trial Subscription at http://www.expatworld.net/ URL - http://www.expatworld.net Email - office@expatworld.net ---------- End of Expat World Digest -------------------------------- To unsubscribe, write to unsubscribe-digest@expatworld.net