January 01, 2009	Thursday	Muharram 03, 1430

ROME, Dec 31: Men in Naples will have to make do without sex if they insist on going out to play with fireworks this New Year’s Eve.

That’s the tough love message from Se Spari, Niente Sesso (No Sex for Fireworks), a group that claims to have signed up hundreds of women supporters in recent days.

“Setting off illegal fireworks isn’t celebrating — it’s dangerous,” said founder Carolina Staiano, a Naples area housewife, quoted in the La Stampa newspaper.

“If your man doesn’t understand, take action and make him go sleep on the sofa... (Refusing to make love) is an argument that men are particularly sensitive to.”

Motivating Staiano is a family tragedy: “Before I was born, my father was partially paralysed by handling unauthorised fireworks. For all his life, he suffered from epileptic fits.”

Reframing her message, provincial officials in Naples were to send out text messages to mobile phones Wednesday saying: “Make love, not explosions.”

Fireworks, often homemade, and gunfire were blamed for one death and 473 injuries on Dec 31 last year — even after police seized 146 tonnes of illegal pyrotechnics in the weeks leading up to the holiday.—AFP