The truth is out there: 07/11/2009

A weekly look at the world

After putting on its best face during the Beijing Olympics, China is mindful of its image during next year's Expo in Shanghai. To that end it has announced a ban on that most flagrant of sartorial faux pas – wearing your pyjamas in public. Chengdu Business Daily, which reported the news, criticised the move, claiming it infringed civil liberties and showed insecurity on the part of the government.

Twitter has shut down 33 fake accounts created by Connecticut Republicans keen to make inroads in US elections this week. State representatives from the Republican Party had created accounts in the names of Democratic politicians to send out posts mocking their own liberal tax-and-spend records, the New Haven Advocate reports.

Bedbugs are liable to mount anything within reach owing to their total blindness. But scientists have finally discovered why same-sex partnerships are not more common in the highly promiscuous cimicidae community. The shocked recipients of unwelcome attention have evolved to release a pheromone which lets their bedfellows know they are mounting the wrong mate, according to wired.com.

Google Doodle, the search engine's ever-changing homepage illustration, was in children's TV heaven this week, paying homage to the 20th anniversary of Wallace and Gromit on Wednesday and the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street yesterday. Next Tuesday will be declared Sesame Street Day in New York City and Michelle Obama will feature in a special anniversary show. The series now airs in 140 countries and has won 122 Emmy awards.

The New York Times has questioned why the Indian government is still running an airline after a succession of PR disasters that have befallen Air India. Fights, fires and unprecedented losses had already taken their toll on the company's reputation before two unconfirmed reports appeared on Thaindian News that two flights in two months have been held up by rats.

The reluctance of some parents to vaccinate their children can have a dramatic effect on their peers. Stephanie Tatel, an early years reading and interventionist specialist, claimed that her son, who has cancer, was unable to go into day care because unvaccinated children posed too much of a risk. The two-and-a-half year-old has leukaemia, making him vulnerable to classmates whose parents refuse immunisation, reported Slate.com this week.

A 70-year-old, 11lb lobster continues to await his fate at a New York restaurant where he is on the menu for $275. The lobster, which has been dubbed Larry, has his own tank at Oceana, a restaurant in the Rockefeller Centre, where he will be served with a lobster liver and roe sauce.

Protests erupted in China this week after a statue of a tiny girl with giant breasts was installed in a park in Foshan City. Parents and teachers complained to News Express that the sculpture of the 20cm girl with breasts 5m high and wide was embarrassing.

truth@independent.co.uk