Strip for a prize

Dublin, May 15 (Reuters): Ireland will play host to the world’s biggest ever strip poker contest if bookmaker Paddy Power gets its way.

The idea was originally floated as an April Fool’s joke but generated so much interest that Dublin-based Paddy Power has decided to look seriously at organising a contest it hopes will find a place in the Guinness Book of Records. “We got almost 100 requests to take part,” the company’s spokesman, also called Paddy Power, said.

Mobile love ends marriage

Kuala Lumpur (Reuters): A Malaysian man slapped his wife on their wedding night and stormed out of their home after she received a text message from an unknown admirer who professed his undying love for her. “Though you are married, I still love you,” was the message that flashed on the screen of the 19-year-old woman’s mobile phone just as the couple were about to enter their room at 2 am on Sunday. Her husband, 25, refused to believe the woman’s statement that she did not know who the sender was, hit her, tossed away the phone and walked out of the house.

BBC sorry for mystery

London (Reuters): The BBC has apologised after putting a mystery man, possibly a taxi driver, on the air in a live interview, mistaking him for a computer expert who was waiting at the reception desk. The man’s mouth opened in horror as the camera cut to him in the BBC studio, where he had been seated on a stool by a floor manager, a microphone clipped to his lapel.