China's economic boom may have generated a clutch of super-wealthy Chinese, but it has not guaranteed all of them love.
Last Sunday, a group of 21 single billionaires and 22 single women attended a match-making ball with tickets costing $14,650 a head. The billionaires were members of Golden Bachelors, a match-making agency that helps wealthy Chinese singles find their potential better half.
"It's very hard for billionaires to meet women they want to marry because they have been so career-oriented during the earlier stages of their lives," Golden Bachelor media director Xiao Pu said. The ladies hoping to meet the billionaire of their dreams dressed in exquisite ball gowns, sang, danced and even cooked their way into the lonely men's hearts during a talent show at the ball. (Reuters)
Commander blocks pregnancy loophole
The US military commander in northern Iraq has defended a new policy imposing strict penalties, including possible jail time, for troops who become pregnant or get other soldiers pregnant.
"In this 22,000-soldier task force, I need every soldier I've got, especially since we are facing a drawdown of forces during our mission," Major General Tony Cucolo, who commands US soldiers in northern Iraq, said in a statement.
Major General Cucolo's new directive lays out a long list of activities that could result in court-martial or criminal charges, from gambling to stealing historical artefacts. Yet the clause regarding pregnancy has garnered the most attention.
Major General Cucolo's command includes 1,682 female soldiers.
Christmas statue torched again
Arsonists set fire early yesterday to a giant straw statue of the Swedish Yule goat, a forerunner to Santa Claus in Sweden, defying security measures for a third year in a row.
Police in Gavle, north of Stockholm, said attackers had torched the goat, which stood about 12 metres high in the town square, in the early morning hours.
Burning the goat has been a popular and illegal tradition in Gavle since the 1960s when an advertising executive came up with the idea to endow the city with a giant replica of the goat, a Christmas decoration common in Swedish homes.
Police have tried to stop arsonists by posting guards near the straw goat, coating it with flame retardant and training security cameras on it.
However, vandals' assaults have become more elaborate: in recent years the goat has been run over, dragged into a river and attacked by arsonists dressed as Santa Claus and the Ginger Bread Man.
Indonesian tribe turns to Korea
For members of an Indonesian tribe visiting Seoul for the first time, the winter cold was beyond belief, the high-tech gadgets seemed to come from another world yet the language was eerily similar.
South Korea had been a distant country for the 60,000 members of the Cia-Cia tribe until earlier this year when a Korean woman with a love for her country's writing system convinced them to adapt the Korean script.
The tribe, looking to preserve a fading language that had been passed down orally, agreed and since then the tribe has won its way into the hearts of South Koreans, who have rewarded it with teachers, text books and aid.
Snoopy is top dog
The Peanuts comic strip character Snoopy was named the top dog in pop culture by the American Kennel Club as part of its 125th anniversary celebration. Nearly 76,000 online voters chose their favourites from a list of pop culture dogs drawn from TV, film, literature, sports and art.
Snoopy was the pensive dog that seemed to be smarter than his human master in the comic strip created by the late Charles Schulz, who died in 2000.
Second place went to Texas A&M University's mascot Reveille, followed by Scooby Doo, the TV cartoon character.
Doll hospital treats owners' blues
The sign Doll Hospital, 1830 on a doorway in a Portuguese tiled façade is a unique place with a nostalgic melancholy in Lisbon's centre.
Inside, dozens of limbless dolls and torn teddy bears await repair. But the repair shop - one of the oldest in Europe - claims that it fixes more than broken toys. Instead, it seeks to cure toy owners' blues.
"We work with feelings more than strictly with the objects," said Manuela Cutileiro, who runs the hospital.
The hospital now repairs toys from priceless porcelain heirloom dolls to modest teddies whose value is purely sentimental.