Berli

Berlin - All of a sudden, someone breaks out in a rash, the eyes burn, the nose starts to run and the skin itches - a cat is on the prowl.

Allergies to pets are widespread. But if an allergy occurs, people do not always have to get rid of their pets, said Sabine Merz of Germany's federal veterinarian association in Bonn.

People, who already have a pet and have experienced some kind of allergic reaction to it, can try changing their daily routine. And for people with serious allergies, there are alternatives as some animals rarely trigger reactions.

Tokyo - Japanese smokers bent on

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.