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NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Forget avocado, evening primrose oil or other exotic ingredients, the latest facial to hit New York is a mask made with bird excrement. The Geisha Facial, available at Shizuka New York for $180, about $100 more than the shop's other facials, contains nightingale excrement. The Japanese powder, also known as uguisu no fun, is rich in the amino acid guanine, said to brighten and cleanse skin. In the 18th century geishas and kabuki actors used the powder to clean heavy white makeup off their faces. "I'm always trying to bring Japanese culture and tradition to...

-- SNIP -- Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., quit last fall over sexually explicit Internet communications with male pages who had worked on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., resigned in 1995 amid allegations he had made unwanted sexual advances to 17 female employees and colleagues and altered his personal diaries to obstruct an ethics investigation. On Saturday, Craig said he would pursue legal options to clear his name. He has retained Billy Martin, a Washington lawyer who represented Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his dogfighting case, to pursue his legal options. Washington lawyer Stan Brand will represent Craig...

A Chinese woman survived a fall from a sixth-floor balcony after she landed on a large pile of excrement dug up by workers clearing a septic tank, state media said. The unnamed woman was stretching to hang washing when she lost her balance and fell from the balcony at her home in the southern city of Nanjing yesterday, the semi-official China News Service quoted a local newspaper as saying. The woman suffered only minor injuries after the 20cm heap cushioned her fall, the agency said. Workers had been dredging the tank after complaints by local residents, it said. DPA

What a mess: A Feb. 9 front-page article about the Pentagon inspector general's report regarding the office of former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith incorrectly attributed quotations to that report. References to Feith's office producing "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" and that the office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda" were from a report issued by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in Oct. 2004. Similarly, the quotes stating that Feith's office drew on "both reliable and unreliable reporting" to produce a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq "that was much stronger than that assessed...

Carter defends Mideast book as accurate By CHARLES ODUM, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago Former President Jimmy Carter said Saturday that the storm of criticism he has faced for his recent book has not weakened his resolve for fair treatment of Israelis and Palestinians. "I have been called a liar," Carter said at a town hall meeting on the second day of a three-day symposium on his presidency at the University of Georgia. "I have been called an anti-Semite," he said. "I have been called a bigot. I have been called a plagiarist. I have been called a coward....

I watched yesterday's hearings, Condoleezza Rice, last week, a couple weeks ago, whenever it was, Alberto Gonzales, and I came away with two conclusions. Number 1, the Democrats on the judiciary committee over there, Patrick Leahy and the boys, seem more interested in defending the rights of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists than they do defending this country. And I watch Condoleezza Rice, and I'm listening to their guys go on and on and on, Barbara Boxer and John Kerry questioning her, and I don't hear one bit of news, not a shred of evidence from these people what they would...

Great moments in dealing with human waste spot the human story. In Crete, at Knossos, an elaborate sewerage was built, perhaps the first in human history. The ancient Israelites, in wartime, carried spears with shovels on the blunt end, to bury their feces so that the Lord would not walk on defiled ground. Romans placed public toilets at street side, with toilet holes separated by mere inches: citizens and denizens, male and female, would hitch up their togas and go, talking to their neighbors all the while. And one reason we shake with the right hand is that — before...

OTTAWA -- Here's a scoop that has Canadian Alliance MP Chuck Strahl holding his nose. A contemporary art gallery in Ottawa, supported by federal tax dollars, is staging a multimedia, interactive exhibition dedicated to excrement. The five-week show, which opens at an Ottawa art gallery next Thursday, is called Scatalogue: 30 years of crap in contemporary art. The Saw Gallery received a two-year, $72,000 operating grant from the Canada Council for the Arts last year, but no council funding was earmarked specifically for Scatalogue. A media release for the "living, interactive archive" says the exhibition is "a critique of the...