LONDON, Jan. 17 - A hotel in London's Hyde Park is being sued by a New York couple who allege they were bitten by bed bugs while staying there last year.The Daily Mail reported New York lawyer Sidney Bluming and his wife, Cynthia, are suing the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group over the alleged attack, which left them covered in itchy swollen bites.The couple's suit, that is seeking millions of dollars from the hotel group, also alleges the Blumings were then forced to fumigate their home and dispose of numerous belongings due to the attack.People associate bed bugs with more of a lower end class of hotel. Clearly, that is not the case here, said Michael Weinstein, the couple ' s lawyer. The Mandarin is as premier and luxurious as any hotel could make themselves out to be.The hotel chain, that is facing charges ranging from fraud to negligence, has confirmed that an incident of infestation did indeed occur in May 2006 at the time of the Blumings' visit.BEIJING, Jan. 16 In the run-up to hosting the 2008 Olympics, Beijing officials say it's 5,580 public toilets down, and 1,000 to go in its modernization campaign.Since March 2005, city workers have been laboring at ensuring public facilities have flushable toilets, ventilation and are clean. Their goal is to ensure there is a public toilet available within a five-minute walk anywhere in the city, and so far, about 1,000 in suburban areas aren't up to par, the China's Xinhua news service reported.To help cope with the Olympics crush, city officials will also ask that some 3,000 commercial buildings open their washrooms to the public, the report said.City health officials have also mounted a campaign asking residents to stop the common practice of spitting and nose-clearing on sidewalks.Copyright 2007 by UPI
