Tokyo - Japanese smokers bent on

Sydney - Female circumcision is called female genital mutilation (FGM) in Australia and it's a crime.

Those performing it face a possible seven-year prison term and those who don't report it risk a stiff fine.

In Sydney's outer suburb of Auburn, there's a specialist FGM clinic that has been in operation for over 10 years and sees around 40 women a year.

The typical patient is in her 20s, is about to wed, and was operated on by a village midwife in an African or Middle Eastern country when she was young.

Hamburg - Many people yearn for a firm body, particularly in warm weather when everyone flocks to beaches and outdoor swimming pools and expose all their flabby parts.

A look at internet forums shows that emancipation from this yearning prevails, and men apparently worry about their figures only slightly less than women. It seems that the term "firm" is in fact subjective. For some, it means muscles so well defined they could have been carved by a knife; for others it means no flab at all.

Amman - Jordan and Iraq on Wednesday decided to step up coordination to tackle a possible outbreak of swine flu, confirmed cases of which have surfaced in several countries around the world.

Jordanian Health Minister Nayef Hayel met with his Iraqi counterpart Saleh al-Hasnawi to discuss what both countries should do in the face of an outbreak.

"The two ministers underlined the importance of exchanging information at the highest level over latest developments relating to the disease," an official statement said.

Wellington - New Zealand has 13 confirmed cases of swine flu and 104 suspected cases, health officials said Thursday as the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to the second-highest level.

Health Minister Tony Ryall told a news conference that New Zealand was working under a policy of "contain and mitigate" - trying to contain the virus by monitoring the 10,000 people who arrive at airports from North America each week, and isolating suspected patients and treating them with Tamiflu antiviral medicine.

Washington - US President Barack Obama said late Wednesday that there were no plans to close the country's border with Mexico despite a growing swine flu outbreak, but assured the public that his government was doing all it could to contain the threat.

Obama said closing the border was "akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out," as there were already nearly 100 cases confirmed in the United States, including one death.