Bremen, Germany - They have many thousands of sea miles behind them and borne the brunt of many a storm.

But eventually even the best of sails has to be discarded. That's when designer Jan-Marc Stuehrmann of Bremen, Germany steps in to give the old material new life as a purse. He buys huge amounts of old sail material from sail makers and hands it over to prisoners in jails across Bremen and the surrounding area where it is transformed into trendy, one-of-a-kind shoulder bags.

London - People who can't abide the smell of parking garages could soon find relief in Britain.

A company there is planning to lure customers with the smell of freshly-baked bread or the sweet scent of roses. A survey recently showed that most people are deterred by foul-smelling stairwells in parking garages, said NCP, which operates in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds. So now, it aims to charm its customers with special aromas.

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.

Dusseldorf, Germany - Light, red wines from temperate areas are currently in vogue, according to organizers of a Dusseldorf wine trade show.

Vineyards in cool regions produce fine, aromatic red wines with a maximum of 13 per cent alcohol per volume. In cooler climates, sugar is slower to accumulate in the grape leading to a low alcohol content.

Stockholm - Many teenagers in Stockholm experience restrictions in their lives due to cultural traditions that violate Swedish law, Swedish researchers said in a new survey.

Almost one in four girls or 23 per cent, said they were expected to be virgins until marriage and were not allowed to have a boyfriend, the University of Stockholm study said.