MUM’S GONE TO
ICELAND
Iceland Working mums take
note: Icelandic women have
it sussed. Pl Plans to shorten parental
leave (where le leave is shared between
both parents) in the
Scandinavian
country from nine mon months to eight
have been universally rejec rejected in the
country meaning me
working mum mums
now have six
months off
on 80%
of their pay
in their baby’s
first year,
with a
WHEN IT COMES TO
MATERNITY PAY, ICELANDIC furt further
WOMEN AREN’T DUMMIES
th three
months
le leave which
can be ttaken by the
father
or the mother.
Ninety
per cent of
fathers
take paternity
leave in Ic Iceland, where shared
childcare is typical. typ This means that
working Icela Icelanders now have one
of the world’s worl most liberal maternity
packages. ges The new plans to cut
parental leave were criticised by
midwives, who said the welfare
of infants would be compromised.
THIS ANTI-AGEING SERUM
USER IS IN FACT 68!
(NB: THIS IS A LIE)
BABY SOFT SKIN.
LITERALLY
Dubai How far would you go
to turn back the effect of
ageing on your skin? Over in Dubai,
they’re using a new anti-ageing
product made from newborn baby
placenta. British therapist Mona
Mirza offers the treatment, which
costs £170 per session in her salon,
and claims that human placenta
serum is absorbed quickly into the
skin, boosting its collagen production.
Young Emiratis have been flocking
to the salon, although scientists say
there is no evidence that it will make
any difference. The serum is made by
a US manufacturer, apparently from
afterbirth donated by Russian mothers.
����WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK
ELSEW HER E
SPERM DROUGHT
IN TASMANIA
Australia This January,
it isn’t just our bank
accounts running on empty.
Tasmania’s sperm banks are in
the red too. Reserves are getting
dangerously low, according to
Tasmanian health minister Lara
Giddings, and for the first time in its
35-year history, Tasmania’s IVF facility
is placing women on a waiting list as
the state now only has four sperm
donors. Giddings has issued a call for
men in the state to step forward to
help couples in the community who
are struggling to have children. The
news has even gone out on Twitter
and it is hoped that 2010 will bring
a bumper crop of donors to the
bank. It’s thought that travellers from
mainland Australia, where sperm
banks are also low in supplies, have
been raiding the island’s resources,
contributing to the problem.
A�WORLD-NEWS�
BRIEFING�IN�ONE�
COMPACT�PAGE
“COME ON BOYS,
TASMANIA’S
THIS WAY!’
KARIGURASHI NO ARRIETTY.
THE WORLD’S SMALLEST
ONE-WOMAN CRIME SPREE
CARTOON CAUSES
CRIME WAVE?
Japan The announcement
of a new Studio Ghibli film
usually causes delight rather than
panic. The influential multimilliondollar
animation studio behind the
likes of 2003 Oscar-winner Spirited
Away and the 2004 film Howl’s
Moving Castle, is a national treasure
known as the Japanese Disney, but
its new project has met with some
problems. Called Karigurashi No
Arrietty (Arrietty Borrows
Everything), and inspired by The
Borrowers by English author Mary
Norton, it follows the tale of Arrietty,
who borrows things to survive.
Harmless enough. Except strict
Japanese parents are concerned
about the film’s message and how it
might influence their daughters, in
particular worrying that its lack of
morals may turn them to petty crime
in imitation of its heroine. The film is
“MEH, I NEVER
LIKED THAT
WALL ANYWAY”
WOMEN DRIVERS
NEED SPACE
China A shopping centre
in China has recently
opened a car park offering female
drivers larger than normal parking
spaces. The Wanxiang Tiancheng
shopping centre in Shijiazhuang
city has a women-only car park
with spaces one metre wider than
normal parking spaces as well as
new signs and security monitoring
equipment to suit women’s needs.
The official line from the shopping
centre bosses is that women have
a “different” sense of distance and
a strong sense of colour and that
these additions would appeal. Not
sexist or patronising at all, then.
KEEPING IT REAL
Germany In Germany,
anyone can be a model.
Following through on its pledge to
keep size-zero girls off its pages (after
thousands of complaints from its
readers about jutting hip bones and
unrealistic role models), this January
German Germany’s Brigitte
magazi magazine has unveiled
its first issue using
amate amateur models. The
glossy
fashion pages
incl include pictures of a
445-year-old artist,
a 21-year-old
economics
student and a
28-year-old
restaurateur.
They’ve had
the benefit
oof make-up
aartists and
photographers,
p
but b the airbrush
has ha been put
away aw and wrinkles
and an curves are
defiantly de on display
– something so that has
had German Ge fashion
design designer Karl Lagerfeld
up in arms, a decrying
that nnobody wants to
see a
“round” model.
THE WORLD’S FIRST SIZE
14 SUPERMODEL, CRYSTAL
RENN. WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE?
due out in Japan in the summer. WORDS��LAURA�DIXON���PHOTOGRAPHY��GETTY�IMAGES��CORBIS
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