Weird World: prostitutes make good geriatric nurses

About 30 prostitutes, aged 20 to 40, are to take up a two-year training course for auxiliary nurses in North Rhine Westphalia, reports the Telegraph. The scheme, funded by the church and the EU, is aimed at easing a chronic shortfall in nurses as well as offering an alternative to prostitutes. One trainee, Angelika, who is in her late 30s and worked in Bochum as a prostitute for six years, said she had found the transition very smooth: "I'm feeling good," she said. Rita Kühn, of the protestant church's welfare programme, said: "They are in general very good at dealing with people, in addition to which they don't get squeamish and have absolutely no fear about touching or being touched."