World in brief

Almost a balloon, but not quiteA Nebraska girl was treated for sexually transmitted diseases on Wednesday after she put a condom in her mouth, Omaha news channel KETV reported. Danayjha King, 6, found the condom on her school playground and, thinking it was a balloon, tried to blow it up. It is unclear if the condom was used or not, but the incident prompted a thorough wash of her hands and mouth by the school nurse, as well as a trip to the doctor, who gave her a precautionary vaccine. At least some good did come of the incident: her father did sit her down for the “don’t you put it in your mouth” talk.Facebook or salary: your callA Washington man may soon lose his job because he won’t lose certain Facebook habits. Jason Cook works for a national restaurant chain. The company obliges employees to sign an agreement that requires them to refrain from posting anything negative about the company on their Facebook accounts, and Cook refuses to sign it. Cook told Q13 Fox, a CNN affiliate, that his manager has informed him it was going to come down to choosing between signing the agreement or losing his job.

Tax that ass up

The city of Bonn, Germany is now collecting taxes from prostitutes using automated pay stations similar to parking meters. According to The New York Times, Bonn isn’t the first city in Germany, where prostitution is legal, to charge this tax. It sets a sex worker back six euros, or $8.39 CND, to be able to walk the streets for a night. The meters, built by German engineering company Siemens, were implemented Aug. 28, and collected $376 over its first three nights in operation. In addition to the pay stations, wooden garages have also been built in the city for customers to park so they can have sex in their cars. Franz-Reinhard Habbel, a spokesperson for the German Association of Cities and Municipalities, said he expected other cities to copy the idea in order to tackle their combined $11 billion U.S. in debt. He called the tax a “relatively simple” source of income.

Los mayor’s Spanish alter ego

While New Yorkers were holed up in their apartments waiting for Hurricane Irene to hit, Rachel Figueroa-Levin had an idea. Feeding off of a news conference prior to the storm during which Mayor Michael Bloomberg made many pronunciation mistakes in Spanish, she created @ElBloombito, a Twitter account for the mayor’s Spanish alter-ego, Miguel Bloombito. Figueroa-Levin started tweeting things like “Muchos trees esta falling downo. No stando under los trees. Que splat!” The account soon went viral, and now has almost 21,000 followers. Bloomberg took it all in stride, using the “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” excuse when asked about his rusty Spanish.