Uganda seeking miniskirt ban

The minister said wearing a miniskirt was akin to going naked

Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents.

Nsaba Buturo told journalists in Kampala that wearing a miniskirt was like walking naked in the streets.

“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.

journalists found the minister’s comments extremely funny.

Wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law, Mr Buturo said.

And he railed against the dangers facing those inadvertently distracted by short skirts.

“If you find a naked person you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving,” he said.

“These days you hardly know who is a mother from a daughter, they are all naked.”

Vice list

According to the minister, indecent dressing is just one of many vices facing Ugandan society.

“Theft and embezzlement of public funds, sub-standard service delivery, greed, infidelity, prostitution, homosexuality [and] sectarianism…” he said.

Earlier this year, Kampala’s Makerere University decided to impose a dress code for women at the institution, our reporter says.

The miniskirt and tight trousers ban has yet to be implemented, but our correspondent sought the opinions of women on campus about the minister’s opinions.

“If one wants to wear a miniskirt, it’s ok. If another wants to put on a long skirt, then that’s ok,” one woman said.

But others had more sympathy with Mr Buturo.

“I think skimpy things are not good. We are keeping the dignity of Africa as ladies and we have to cover ourselves up,” one woman, called Sharon, told.

No assault charge for Batman Bale

Christian Bale attended a police station by appointment

Batman star Christian Bale will not face charges over an alleged assault on his mother and sister during a row, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

The actor, 34, was arrested in London last month and questioned over claims he had lashed out at his family members while staying at the Dorchester Hotel.

Mr Bale, who was in the UK to promote The Dark Knight, denied the charges.

A spokesman for the CPS said there was “insufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of conviction”.

“The police have been advised that no further action should be taken against Mr Bale.”

The actor’s publicist, Jennifer Allen, said in a statement that he was “relieved that this issue has been resolved and hopes to put the matter firmly behind him”.

She added: “Mr Bale considers this to be a deeply personal matter and would ask that the media respect both his and his family’s privacy.”

The star had earlier appealed for privacy when asked about the incident at a press conference in Barcelona last month.

Child star

Mr Bale’s sister Sharon, 40, shouted “it’s a family matter” at reporters who visited her home in Corfe Mullen, near Wimborne, Dorset.

And a man who answered the door at the home of his mother Jenny, 61, in Bournemouth, said she did not want to comment.

Mr Bale rose to fame as the child star of Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun.

He went on to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, and had leading roles in Shaft and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

In 2005, he took on the role of the Caped Crusader in Batman Begins, and reprised the role in The Dark Knight.