Pakistan introduces ban on texting 'obscene' words

Pakistan's telecommunications agency has banned people from texting more than 1,600 "obscene" words.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority came up with a list of 586 Urdu words and 1,109 English words that are not allowed to be sent via text message, including seemingly inoffensive words such as "breast" and "condom", as well as "hostage", "flatulence" and "Jesus Christ".

According to the organisation, the ban has been put in place after some customers and civil rights groups in the country complained about offensive messages.