New Chinese parents celebrated the birth yesterday of their lucky Olympics babies - children born on the day of the Olympics opening ceremony and on the lucky eighth day of the eighth month, 2008.
"We are very excited that our baby was born today, on the opening ceremony of the Olympics," said new father Wei Jixun, cradling his four-hour-old daughter in his arms as his wife Zhao Wei slept, recovering after a caesarean section. "She had been expected to arrive on August 4 but we delayed for a few days so she could be born today."
Dr Zhang Yunping, hospital director at Haidan District in Beijing, said his hospital delivered 30 babies between midnight and 1 p.m., of which 20 were by caesarean section. But his hospital refused some parents seeking to take nature in their own hands and schedule E-sections for August 8.
Meanwhile, new-born babies in China are already paying the penalty for their parents' patriotic fervour, with thousands named after the five mascots of the Beijing Olympics. Published data show about 3,500 children have been named Aoyun, meaning Olympics, while nearly 5,000 babies were named after the five Olympic mascots, the good luck dolls called Jingjing, Huanhuan, Beibei, Yinging and Nini.
Flowery sex show
It's one of the world's largest flowers, it stinks and looks very much like a giant phallus.
The Amorphophallus titanum - literally "the giant, strangely-shaped penis" - has been attracting big crowds at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium on the outskirts of Brussels.
The rare phallus-like flower that springs from the plant only survives about 72 hours and its timing is completely unpredictable,. Sometimes called "a botanical superstar", it is also known as Corpse Flower because it releases a strong smell to attract pollinators, thought to be sweat bees.
Thousands have queued to see and smell the 1.6 metre tall specimen as visitors compared the smell to rotten fish, others to rotten meat or old cheese.
Discovered in 1878 in western Sumatra, the plant was first cultivated in Europe at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, in London in 1889 but because of its appearance, Victorian women were kept from viewing it.
Red squirrels back
The red squirrel is making a comeback in one part of Britain after the successful culling of its bigger and more aggressive rival, the grey.
Red squirrel numbers on Anglesey, north Wales, had fallen to a few dozen after the grey made its way onto the island in the late 1960s. But since about 7,000 greys were removed by the Mentor Mon environmental group, the number of red squirrels has risen to nearly 200. The group began culling greys in 1998 and reintroduced the red in 2004.
It is a dramatic turnaround from the general UK trend where the native red squirrel has come in danger of extinction after the introduction of its grey cousin from the US in the late 19th century.
Libya, US trade hugs and kisses
Ambassadors from the US and Libya exchanged hugs and kisses at the UN Security Council on Thursday in an unusual public display of affection between former arch-by-enemies.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and his Libyan counterpart Giadalla Ettalhi embraced after a meeting of the council on Iraq. When asked if the show of affection meant that good relations between the two countries had reached a new high, Washington's Afghan-born envoy said his Libyan colleague had just returned from a long absence and his son had got married. Mr Khalilzad said it was a tradition to congratulate the groom's father and ask him if his pockets are empty.
"Because unlike in the US, in the Middle East it is the groom's side that pays for all the expenses of the wedding," Mr Khalilzad said.
A sausage a day...
A meat producer in Belarus has found what it says is the perfect way to motivate the ex-Soviet state's athletes at the Beijing Olympics - offer gold medallists a lifetime supply of sausage.
"We haven't yet worked out how this will be done. But once or twice a month, we will provide athletes with some of our products,"
Boris Tsiporin, director of the elatmit company, said yesterday.
"Naturally, we will take into account the athletes' tastes and choose with them the sort of goods they want."
Belarus's women's basketball team, particularly popular in the country of 10 million, will get special treatment - any medal will earn members sausages for life.