Thomas Beatie, who was born a woman but after surgery and hormone treatment lives as a man, has given birth to a girl at an Oregon hospital, People magazine reported yesterday.

Mr Beatie, 34, who kept female reproductive organs when he legally became a man 10 years ago, confirmed the birth to the magazine.

The baby, conceived through artificial insemination using donor sperm and Mr Beatie's own eggs, was born on June 29 and Mr Beatie and the baby are "healthy and doing well," People reported.

"The only thing different about me is that I can't breast-feed my baby. But a lot of mothers don't," People quoted Mr Beatie as saying. He has had his breasts surgically removed.

Mr Beatie's wife, Nancy, 46, whom he married five years ago, was unable to conceive because of a prior hysterectomy. Otherwise, he has said, "I wouldn't be doing this." His spouse has two grown daughters by a previous marriage.

Sex-bias claim over men's gloves rejected

A US trade court has rejected an importer's claim that differing tariff rates for men's gloves amounted to unconstitutional sex discrimination, in a case closely watched by the fashion industry.

The US Court of International Trade dismissed a challenge to the tariffs by Totes-Isotoner Corp. The court said the importer had failed to show the government intended to discriminate by gender when it set tariffs for men's gloves that were higher than for gloves "for other persons".

"The tariff provisions at issue do not require that the imported goods be actually sold to or used by people of one sex or some age category," the ruling said.

It said the company must allege the differing tariffs disadvantage one sex as a whole, or disproportionately.

The case has been considered a test case for the fashion industry and other importers had been expected to press similar complaints if the Totes-Isotoner case was successful.

10-year-old truck driver fined

A 10-year-old boy was given a fine for driving a large delivery truck on a public road in the Netherlands, police yesterday.

"Two officers on patrol saw the truck driving on a parallel road, and noticed that the driver clearly wasn't 18," a police spokesman said. "They pulled the truck over to check the identity of the driver, and discovered it was a 10-year-old boy."

It transpired the child was driving the truck, "a large one", on a public road in the southern town of Honselersdijk, with his father shouting instructions from the road.

"The fine was issued to the boy officially, but since he is under-aged his father will probably pay it," said the police spokesman.

Proper toilets for Olympics

Beijing's notoriously foul-smelling and poorly tended public toilets will feature some rarely seen luxuries during the Olympics - toilet paper and soap, state media reported yesterday.

The city has made a special effort to clean up and adequately stock more than 4,000 public toilets as part of a campaign to make bathroom breaks a "pleasant experience" during next month's Games, the China Daily said.

"Beijing is working hard to make every public toilet a pleasant experience for the millions who visit the city for the Games," Yu Debin, deputy director of the Beijing tourism bureau, was quoted as saying.

Ceramic male organ tradition kept alive

Husband and wife Francisco and Casilda Figueiredo are among the last exponents of a traditional Portuguese handicraft - making ornamental ceramic male organs.

For more than three decades, the couple have carefully shaped thousands of ceramic male organs, moulding them into upright shapes and painting them in life-like colours for export to Germany, France and North America.

The tradition is said to have started in Caldas da Rainha when King Dom Luis, who ruled from 1861 to 1889, suggested that local potters make something more interesting. A renowned caricaturist, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, gave the initial inspiration, prompting Caldas da Rainha to expand on its tradition as a pottery centre.

The couple produce ceramic mugs with a male organ sticking out of the bottom or the side, bottles shaped like a male organ and ceramic soccer figures with the male organ popping out from under a flag.

Apology for offensive French fries invitation

Canada's US embassy has apologised for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.

The dish - known as poutine - is often looked down on as a kind of staple fast food in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where some nationalists are quick to take offence at what they see as unfair treatment by the country's English-speaking majority.

The e-mailed invitation to a Canada Day party on July 1 showed Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608, holding a plate of poutine.