Czech castration raises worries
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A European watchdog expresses concern about the treatment of sex offenders in the Czech Republic.
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Men infected with HIV who get circumcised hoping they will be less likely to transmit the AIDS virus may have a greater-than-normal risk of infecting their partners if they resume sexual activity too soon after the operation.
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Concerns about promiscuity can misinform the debate about a new vaccine for the human papillomavirus.
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ROME (Der Spiegel) - Echoes of an old culture war have been rippling through Europe, as a bishop in Germany calls for Catholics to keep their kids away from a sex-education musical and the Vatican condemns a new gay-rights campaign in Italy. A children's musical about sex and babies, organized by the German government, has been touring the country since 2003 without noticeable friction. But now it's arrived in the city of Fulda, near Frankfurt, and the local bishop has called for a boycott. The Fairytale of Nose, Belly and Butt should be avoided by right-thinking Catholic families, according to Heinz Josef Algermissen, because in the Church's view, "explanations about sexuality belong in the home," and "can't be left to a theater troupe." The show's Web site begs to differ, saying the theory behind the project is that humans are "sexual beings from birth onward," and that children experience "smooching and touching genitals as no less fun or significant than tickling their big toe." Uproar in Italy, too This notion of human sexuality is no doubt as offensive to the Church as the idea that humans might be wired from birth to be straight or gay - which is the assumption behind an Italian ad campaign protested recently by the Vatican. The regional government of Tuscany has planned to use a photo of a newborn child wearing a hospital bracelet with the word "homosexual" as part of a publicity push to combat homophobia. "Sexual orientation," reads the tag line, which will appear on billboards throughout Tuscany, "is not a choice."  Italy's political right, along with some Catholic groups, want the campaign to be withdrawn. The Church's declared position is that homosexuality is a psychological disorder, not exactly a sin - although indulging in gay sex is a sin.
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Roma women in Ostrava tell the BBC that they were coerced into sterilisation by Czech health workers.
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One of the biggest fears for men undergoing prostate surgery is impotence, but research doesnât do much to clarify risk.
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Two prominent expertsâ public stance against the drug, Provenge, has angered some men with prostate cancer and patient advocates.
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BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell on Czech attitudes to Brussels' red tape, and the ancient practice of rhinokopia.
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PRAGUE- In case the Czech Republic is under threat, women will be drafted in the army as well since the new defence law, valid since January 1, does not differentiate between men and women.
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Russian men risk death by drinking aftershave and cleaning agents with high levels of alcohol, a study suggests.
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PITTSBURGH - A man who botched the castration of a transgendered woman will spend the next three years on probation. "I have no intention of doing this again to animals or humans," Douglas Lenhart, 49, told Allegheny County Judge John Zottola on Monday. "I'm completely out of this.
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But these apparently insignificant arguments provide a key insight into the different streams of opinion in the Czech Republic, a country whose attitude to EU membership is complex and sometimes contradictory.
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Vlastimil Kucera is not a typical Czech in one respect: He s quite familiar with the European constitution.
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Plans for more "chemical castrations" will be among measures to crackdown on child sex offenders.
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As large round fish tanks crop up along the pavements of the Czech Republic this week animal campaigners are calling for an end to the Christmas traditional practice of slaughtering millions of carp in public.
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A play performed in Czech prisons has inmates laughing bitterly over some accused who they believe were treated leniently
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ARSAW, Poland, NOV. 11, 2004 .- A representative of the Catholic Church in Poland reported the undue interference of U.N. organizations trying to impose the liberalization of abortion in his country.