SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – Online auction site eBay on Wednesday axed an ad from a woman attempting to sell “naming rights” for her unborn baby girl for at least $750,000.

As of Wednesday, with six days of the seven-day sale period already expired, the woman, whose identity was not known, had not received any bids. In the ad for the auction, the woman offered prospective sellers an “opportunity to be part of HISTORY in the making. We are taking bids on the naming, advertising and promotional rights to my unborn BABY GIRL!!”

The successful bidder would have gotten the right to choose the child’s first name only for the first five years of her life, the eBay ad said, adding the child is due March 1.

But late Wednesday morning, eBay canceled the ad, because it also said the child and mother would be available for promotional activities for the winning bidder.

“We have ended the listing on the grounds that it is an inappropriate item and as the child’s welfare and safety may be compromised,” said eBay spokesman in Australia Daniel Feiler.

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ATHOL, Idaho (AP) – Green light. Red Light. Lights out.

In an effort to quiet down the lunchroom chatter at Athol Elementary, a stoplight has been mounted that monitors decibel levels and signals teachers to turn the lights out when kids get too noisy.

The stoplight is mounted on the lunchroom wall and goes from green to yellow, flashes, and then turns red.

The sound meter can be adjusted to go off at anywhere from 54 decibels to more than 100 decibels. For comparison, noise from a washing machine is about 75 decibels.

The move comes because of the lunchroom’s poor acoustics and tile floors. “The sound doesn’t have anything to soak into,” Principal Connie McGee said.

When the light turns red, the lunchroom stays dark and youngsters have to stay silent until the Talk Light resets and turns green again.

“The ones who continue to talk have to write 50 times: ‘I will not talk during lights out,”‘ said Renee Johnson, a lunchroom supervisor.

Not everyone is cheering. Fourth-grader Ethan Stiles recently grumbled as the light turned red just after he sat down to eat his lunch.

“It’s stupid and it stinks,” he said.

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ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) – Police found more than they bargained for when they stopped a U-Haul truck with a burned-out taillight.

Instead of furniture in the back, police on Monday found a rolling keg party with about 20 people drinking whiskey and beer. Eleven people were charged with underage drinking.

“They all kind of froze and didn’t know what to do, I guess,” officer Robert Marshall said.

The partygoers told police they rented the truck for someone’s 21st birthday party because the bars were closed. The moving party was traveling streets without a particular destination.

The truck’s driver first told police he was hauling a couch for a friend, according to police reports. But Marshall said he became suspicious after hearing scratching noises in the back of the vehicle.

The truck’s driver was charged with reckless driving because the people in the back could have been injured, police said. Officers allowed the partygoers to call for rides and no one was arrested.

AP-ES-02-10-05 0627EST

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