RICHMOND, Va.– It's one thing to dangle fuzzy dice from a rear-view mirror, but decorating a trailer hitch with a large pair of rubber testicles might be a bit much in Virginia.

State legislator Lionel Spruill introduced a bill last week to ban displaying replicas of human genitalia on vehicles, calling it a safety issue because it could distract other drivers.

Under his measure, displaying the ornamentation on a motor vehicle would be punishable by a maximum fine of $250.

He said the idea came from a constituent whose young daughter spotted an example of the trail hitch adornment and asked her father to explain it.

"`I didn't know what to tell her,'" Spruill said the constituent told him before Spruill vowed to stop such displays. "I said, `Sir, I'm going to be a laughingstock, but I'm going to do it,'" he said.

The Virginia General Assembly has some experience with offbeat bills. Three years ago, it drew widespread attention with an unsuccessful effort to outlaw baggy pants worn so low they expose underwear.

Spruill, 61, said the indignity of the "droopy drawers" debate wouldn't deter him.

He said he won't hesitate to bring a set of $24.95 trailer testicles with him for a legislative show-and-tell.

"I'm going to do it," Spruill told reporters. "I'm going to bring them out here and show them to you till they tell me to stop.''

Beijing

Woman and boyfriend filmed

killing of her married lover

A 19-year-old Chinese student recorded the killing and dismembering of her married lover by her boyfriend, local media reported last week.

The second-year student in the southwestern province of Yunnan, her boyfriend and another male accomplice were arrested after the killing last month, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

The victim, 39, was a married manager of a local highway and bridge building company, the newspaper said.

The woman, who was from a struggling family in the capital Beijing and met the victim as a nightclub hostess, filmed as he was killed and his body was cut into "hundreds of pieces," the newspaper said. "The dismembering was both out of hatred and aimed at making the body unrecognizable," the report said.

Canberra

Man shoots co-worker while rescuing him from crocodile

A man rescued his colleague from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia but accidentally shot the unlucky co-worker in the process, police said yesterday.

The two farmhands were collecting wild crocodile eggs on a riverbank Tuesday in the Northern Territory when a crocodile snatched one of them, Jason Green, by the arm, the Northern Territory Police said in a statement.

"The male colleague shot at the crocodile, causing it to let go of the victim's arm, but a further shot hit the victim in the upper right arm," police said.

The two men had been collecting eggs to boost the crocodile population at their farm in the northern city of Darwin. Police say Green's injuries were not life-threatening. There was no word on the crocodile's condition.

Berlin

Burglar finds corpse in flat

and calls the police

A Berlin burglar's break-in took an unexpected turn when he stumbled upon a corpse and felt compelled to call the police.

"He called to say he'd just broken into a flat and found a dead body," Berlin police said last week. "He gave the address of the place and then hung up."

Officers found the 64-year-old resident of the flat dead in his bedroom. The man had died about two weeks earlier, and authorities are not treating the death as suspicious. The burglar has not been heard from since.

Washington

Man gets 45 days for stealing

panties from laundry rooms

A man is facing a sentence of one-and-a-half months after admitting he stole 93 pounds of women's undergarments.

Garth Flaherty, 24, was charged with first-degree theft and burglary for stealing 1,613 pairs of panties, bras and other women's underwear from laundry rooms.

Under an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. He may serve 30 days of his term in community service, court officials said.

Flaherty was arrested last March after police received a report of a man hanging out in an apartment complex laundry room.

In his bedroom, police said, they found enough women's underwear to fill five garbage bags.

Australia

So nobody is watching the airline movie any more?

Two in three Australian travellers are either members of the notorious Mile High Club or would like to be, a survey has found.

Asked if they would consider a mid-air sexual encounter, almost half of 1,110 people surveyed wanted an adventure, while 12 per cent already claimed to have mile-high membership wings.

"People are obviously looking for more stimulating entertainment than a movie or a CD when travelling by plane," Totaltravel.com global marketing manager Paul Fisher said.

A flight attendant for Australia's flag carrier Qantas was fired last year after claiming to have had a tryst with actor Ralph Fiennes in a business class lavatory during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai.

Turkmenistan

Country ends eccentric leader's ban on opera and circus

Turkmenistan will end its seven-year ban on opera and the circus introduced by the Caspian nation's former eccentric leader, state media report.

Saparmurat Niyazov, who developed an elaborate personality cult during his 21-year rule, died in 2006. He banned opera, ballet and the circus, saying they are "alien" to Turkmen culture.

The new leader, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has sought to promote a softer image for the gas-rich nation bordering Iran.

State television has announced his plans to reopen an opera house, resume circus shows and build a cinema in the capital Ashgabat.

From Reuters News Agency and Associated Press