With her ample bosom, skimpy sari and mischievous grin, Savita Bhabhi, India's first and only online cartoon porn star, might not look like a threat to national security. But the country's Government has made the fictional housewife seductress the first target of new laws, passed after last year's terror attacks on Mumbai, that allow the authorities to block dangerous websites.

The Savita Bhabhi site, which features a series of daily cartoon strips based on the "sexual adventures of a hot Indian bhabhi" (sister-in-law), was created by Puneet Agarwal, 38, a British entrepreneur of Indian descent. Before being blocked in India it was attracting 60 million visitors a month, about 70 per cent of them from India.

The decision to block the site has bemused many onlookers. Despite featuring the adventures of a "regular Indian woman who just can't get enough sex" and being managed by an outfit that calls itself the Indian Porn Empire, the venture appeared to owe as much to Benny Hill as to Hustler. One typically titillating storyline involved a travelling lingerie salesman ringing Savita's doorbell and the escapades that followed. ("Can you help me please . . . The hook is stuck.") Some pundits argued that Savita's adventures drew on a rich tradition of Indian erotica, from the Kama Sutra, which dates back perhaps two millennia, to a long-established tradition in Indian popular culture of flirtation between a man and his elder brother's wife. But above all, as Tehelka, a news weekly, observed, the strip appeared to "poke fun at the coy Indian attitude towards sexuality".

With dramatic tales of secret police, spies and attempts at escape, it can be difficult to get a clear picture of everyday life in the former East Germany. But a new exhibition of photography from the 1980s reveals the ordinary lives behind the Iron Curtain.

Situated on Pariser Platz, the bustling Berlin square in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the Academy of Arts overlooks what was once the dividing line between East and West. It is apt then, that from July 10 to October 11 this should be the location for an exhibition of photographs taken in the former East Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 But while it is the breaching of the Iron Curtain that is often the subject for such exhibitions, this display does not concern itself with dramatic historical developments. Instead it finds the people behind the politics and presents snapshots of East Germany as it really was. Mounted against a bright white background, these black and white and sepia photographs powerfully expose the rebellious undercurrents in stories of ordinary individuals from 20 years ago.

"Faire mouche" in French means to hit the bull's eye, hit the nail right on the head; "die Fliege machen" or "eine Fliege machen" in German means to clear off, get lost: though both translate literally as "do (the) fly". But sparing the life of this pesky insect is regarded as an act of kindness in Spain, Sweden, Latvia and France. The following is a selection of some choice European expressions that hit the nail - and not the fly - on the head.

If you look like you wouldn't hurt a fly, it's because you're of an unequivocally gentle character, unable to harm the tiniest thing. Big, impulsive hands - whether they belong to the president of the USA or not - are unwelcome, no matter who you are in Europe, from France: faire de mal à une mouche, Germany: er könnte keiner Flige etwas zu Leide tun, Spain: No haría daño ni a una mosca, Sweden: ej göra en fluga förnär, to Latvia: neizdarīs mušai pāri. Yet one of the most famous morals from Aesop's fable is: beware a wolf in sheep's clothing. Is Obama sending an indirect message as he meets fellow G8 leaders in Italy? L'habit ne fait pas le moine - the cowl does not a monk make, as the French and English aphorisms go - you can't judge someone on their appearance. The French also surmise that the fiendishly cunning are like un loup à l'apparence de brebis (a wolf that looks like a lamb), echoing the Spanish saying: es un lobo con piel de cordero (a wolf with lamb's skin).

To mark the 150th anniversary of London's Big Ben first chiming on Saturday, July 11, the message "Happy Birthday Big Ben, 1859 - 2009" is being projected onto the tower, one the most popular buildings in the English capital.

AFP - Big Ben, one of London's most familiar landmarks, celebrates the 150th anniversary of its first chiming on Saturday.
  
The Great Bell, housed in Saint Stephen's Tower which adjoins Britain's House of Commons, first struck the hour on July 11, 1859, and has been interrupted only occasionally for maintenance and bad weather ever since.
  
To mark the anniversary, the message "Happy Birthday Big Ben, 150 years, 1859 - 2009" will be projected on the tower.
  
These days, the name Big Ben is frequently used to describe the tower, one of the British capital's most photographed sites, but the nickname was first given to the bell alone.
  

A controversial service which planned to publish millions of mobile phone numbers in an online directory has been suspended after being deluged with people trying to remove their details from the system.

The 118 800 service, which had been due to launch this week, had caused concerns about privacy after it emerged it was set to make available details of 15m mobile phone numbers it had bought from market researchers and list brokers.

Consumers who wanted their numbers removed from the site were told they needed to log on and apply to be ex-directory.

Problems began late last week as phone users flooded the site to do so.

Visitors to the site are now told the service was unavailable online and by phone while "major developments" are undertaken "to improve the experience for our customers".