China gave a cheer to its first Miss World yesterday, with internet chat rooms filled with praise for the 23-year-old beauty queen.
Zhang Zilin, a Beijing secretary who was born in the gritty northern industrial city of Shijiazhuang, scooped the title late on Saturday on the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan.
A blog by Ms Zhang on the web portal Sina.com had over one million hits as of yesterday, with many fans posting their congratulations.
Cypriots pray for rain
Devout Greek Cypriots converged on Orthodox churches yesterday to pray for rain to end a crippling drought that threatens to empty the Mediterranean island's reservoirs by the end of the year.
"If we all pray with deep faith the Almighty shall heed us," Cyprus Archbishop Chrysostomos II said in a circular sent out to all churches, quoting from the Gospel of St John. "There is nothing else we can do but pray, that's all we have left," said pensioner Pantelis Ioannou, 68, as he emerged from a chapel under cloudy skies in a Nicosia suburb.
Dwindling rainfall has forced authorities to drill down to precious underground water deposits which have taken thousands of years to accumulate.
Move to beat lottery cheats
China plans to issue its first comprehensive rules for the lottery industry next year, aiming to stamp out a growing tide of fraud, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
Lotteries have become hugely popular in China, where many forms of gambling are banned, helping to raise billions of dollars for public welfare and education projects. But lottery-related crimes have also been on the rise and underground schemes have become rampant across the country in recent years, bankrupting many families.
Earlier this month, a lottery ticket seller was sentenced to life in prison for taking advantage of a system flaw to illegally cash in 28 million yuan Lm1.22 million) in winning tickets.
Huge truffle fetches $330,000
One of the biggest truffles found in half a century - a 1.5 kg specimen unearthed in Italy late last month - has sold for $330,000 (Lm96,000) at an auction held simultaneously in Macau, London and Florence.
The giant fungus was presented on a silver platter by an Italian chef flanked by Chinese models to the flash of cameras ahead of the auction at Macau's Grand Lisboa Hotel.
"I can say it's very odd. Normally truffles are more round. This looks like the brain of a man... but it's nice, very nice," said Alfonso Jaccarrino, Italian chef at the Lisboa Hotel, who posed with the mushroom and prepared a four-course meal featuring white truffle dishes at the gala auction event.
The winning bid on Saturday night came from Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho, bidding by phone via his partner Angela Leong, who was on stage with the auctioneer.
Acrobatic test backfires
A test by Singapore air force of a red plume of smoke for an acrobatic display has backfired after a cloud of the dye polluted nearby farms' vegetable plots.
The air force was testing the dye on the ground, but strong winds carried the smoke away from the base, the ministry of defence said in a statement on Saturday.
Nearby farms had to destroy 200 tonnes of vegetables about 10 truck loads - since the dye is not approved for food use, the Straits Times paper said.
Texas's favourite light bulb
Texas will have a favourite state bulb - a light bulb - along with a state flower and a state song if mayors of five large Texas cities have their way.
To kick off a statewide campaign to get residents to replace old light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs, Texas mayors vowed to launch an effort to make the bulbs available, to encourage their use and to suggest that people give them as gifts for Christmas or other occasions.
Mayors said use of compact fluorescent bulbs may help reduce electric demand from power plants that emit carbon dioxide, a gas blamed for global warming.