All ears were listening to US President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech last week but fashion-watchers were looking closely at his wife Michelle's dress - and the verdict was not so good. Despite comparisons during the campaign to stylish 1960s first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama was derided in opinion polls for her choice of a black and neon-red dress from Narciso Rodriguez's spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection.
In an online poll by USA Today, 65 per cent of more than 10,000 readers believed the Harvard-educated corporate lawyer and future first lady "had an off day".
An online poll by People magazine mirrored those results, while a Los Angeles Times online poll found 45 per cent hated the dress.
"The normally impeccable Michelle O made a questionable choice for her husband's historic election night victory," wrote Lesley Scott, editor of fashion and lifestyle blog www.fashiontribes.com. "It's less than flattering."
Minister suggests Soviet-era treatment
Russia should revive the Soviet-era practice of compulsory treatment for alcoholics, the interior minister has said.
Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told President Dmitry Medvedev that there were 253,000 alcoholics registered with the police but that the actual number must be higher.
The Moscow Serbsky Institute for Social and Forensic Psychiatry says more than 10 per cent of Russia's population of 142 million could be alcoholics.
Russians, who love vodka, are some of the world's heaviest drinkers.
"I propose returning to the idea of compulsory treatment for alcoholism," Mr Nurgaliyev said, adding that alcohol-related crime was an acute problem.
In the 1960s, alcoholics were forced into labour camps. Soviet authorities said hard work would cure alcoholics.
The President's dog
Many Americans are eager to hear President-elect Barack Obama's views on the financial crisis and foreign policy, but they appear just as anxious to know what kind of dog he will get his daughters.
The Obama family has been barraged with suggestions about picking out a dog and last Friday, at Mr Obama's first news conference as president-elect, the seventh question was what kind of dog his family would get.
"With respect to the dog, this is a major issue. I think it's generated more interest on our website than just about anything," Mr Obama said. "We have two criteria that have to be reconciled.
One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic... Our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," he quipped.
13-year-old sperm yields twins
A Taiwan woman has given birth to healthy twins using the 13-year-old frozen sperm of a former testicular cancer patient and setting a record for the island.
The twin boys were born using the sperm taken from a man surnamed Chen, then 23, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer and told chemotherapy could make him infertile.
Chen, who is in good health at age 36 but cannot produce sperm naturally, got his wife pregnant with two of the four embryos used for artificial insemination. Last month's delivery followed a 37-week pregnancy.
"Never before had a case involving such a long period of time between the freezing of male sperm and procreation been reported in Taiwan," the island's Central News Agency reported, citing the college of medicine dean at Taipei Medical University.
Lives with three dead siblings
An elderly woman has been living with two skeletons and a badly decomposed body of her siblings in a suburb of Chicago, one of whom may have died at least 20 years ago.
The remains were found covered by sheets in various parts of the house in Evanston on Friday but no foul play was suspected.
Authorities said one of the siblings was last seen alive in the 1980s, the second in 2003 and the third in May.
The woman living in the house, described as "upwards of 90 years of age," was cooperating in the investigation and was taken to a facility for care.
Authorities, who did not release the names of the deceased, said a care worker had alerted them to the situation.