Monday, 14 April 2008

Cambodian charity refuses Bruni photo profits

Radio Australia

A doctor in charge of a children's medical care group in Cambodia has turned down a donation of $US91,000 because the money was raised from the sale of a nude photo of the French president's wife, Carla Bruni.

Swiss pediatrician Beat Richner, head of the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital Association, says he refused the money raised at the New York auction last week because Cambodians "disapprove of exploiting female flesh for money".

The photograph of Italian ex-model Carla Bruni was taken in 1993. She married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February this year.

Dr Richner told French publication Le Matin Dimanche that his decision was made out of respect for his patients and their mothers, and said accepting the money would have been perceived as an insult.

He also criticised the photographer for using his hospitals to gain publicity.

The money will now instead be donated to a Swiss research institute developing the recycling of used water into fresh drinking water in poor countries.

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