Chanira Bajracharya, 15, has been the Kumari or "living goddess" of Patan, an ancient town in Nepal, for nine years, blessing devotees at the temple and riding in decorated chariots during Hindu and Buddhist festivals. Now, with her time as living goddess drawing to a close. Ms Bajracharya is contemplating a career in banking if she makes grades good enough to study commerce or accounting.
Last week she became the first living goddess ever to take the school leaving certificate examination, which was administered to her in her temple, housed in her home.
Living goddesses are not allowed to mingle freely with outsiders and lessons are given privately in the temple. Young Buddhist girls from Kathmandu's Newar community are chosen as "living goddesses" and live austerely in temples in three cities in Kathmandu valley. They are considered to be incarnations of the Hindu goddess for power, Kali. (Reuters)
Dwarfs are a big hit in China
China's imperial days may be long gone, but a popular attraction lives on at a theme park that opened in September in Yunnan province.
The Dwarf Empire - part of a butterfly park - has quickly become the site's main draw thanks to the popularity of dwarf performances that would likely evoke howls of protest in the West as an exploitative freak show.
In fact the more than 100 dwarves - known in China as "xiao ai ren", or "little small people" - who range in height from 79 centimetres to 1.3 metres, dismiss suggestions the park demeans them. Several call it a haven in a country where their kind often face harassment and mistreatment and rarely get to mix with like-sized comrades.
"Before coming here, most of us faced discrimination. But here, we are equal and respected. We have our dignity," said Ou Jielin, 24, who sold clothing in the southern province of Guangdong before coming to work at the park. (AFP)
Australian man mauled in rare wombat attack
An Australian wombat, a marsupial that usually uses its backside as its best defence, came off second best after viciously mauling a man in a rare attack on a human.
The 59-year-old man from rural Victoria killed the wombat with an axe after it mauled him. The man suffered a number of cuts and bite marks and was treated by a couple of paramedics and taken to hospital.
The bare nosed wombat weighs from 20 to 40 kilograms and is about one metre in length. They have very short legs and a large muscular body but are not known for attacking humans.
"I really think it's been a hand-raised wombat that has been released and doesn't like people as it's very common for wombats in captivity to not like people," said Brigitte Stevens, director of Wombat Awareness a Rescue Unit in South Australia. (Reuters)
US and India, worst behaved parents
More than 35 per cent of adults worldwide have witnessed a parent become physically or verbally abusive towards a coach or official at a children's sporting event, according to a joint Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The survey of 23,000 adults in 22 countries by market research company Ipsos showed that irate, screaming, over-enthusiastic parents are not only found in Hollywood films and on TV.
People living in the US (60 per cent) were most likely to witness unsavoury behaviour by a parent followed closely by residents of India (59 per cent), Italy (55 per cent), Argentina (54 per cent), Canada (53 per cent) and Australia (50 per cent).
But people in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Japan and France were the least likely to see parents behaving badly while their children played sports. (Reuters)
Wartime bomb closes Berlin airport
Berlin's main international airport was shut down yesterday after building workers discovered a Second World War bomb.
The bomb's weight was estimated at a quarter of a ton.
Police said no planes were allowed to land at or take off from Tegel airport until experts defused the bomb. Police blocked all access roads.
The closure forced the cancel-lation or diversion of dozens of flights.
Tegel airport handled 14.2 million passengers last year. The capital's second hub, Schoenefeld, handled 6.6 million passengers. (PA)
Family of 6,000 gathers in Taiwan
Around 6,000 members of the same family have gathered in Taiwan for a traditional festival to honour their ancestors.
The Yeh family travelled from as far afield as the US, Australia and Brazil to Taiwan's northern county of Taoyuan for the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, the Apple Daily said.
The crowd thronged a square in front of the family tomb and surrounding roads, burning nearly 10 tonnes of ritual paper money and setting off hundreds of firecrackers in honour of the dead. (AFP)