Seeking for a special someone in Shanghai

SHANGHAI - The odds favored the men as thousands gathered to look for love in Shanghai at the eastern Chinese city's largest-ever matchmaking party, paying for the privilege of searching for their other half.

Census data shows a rise in the percentage of older single women over the last decade, while the percentage of older single men has fallen, according to the China Daily — which experts said might be due to increasingly choosy women unwilling to settle for men with inferior education and living standards.

Organizers said there were three women for every two men, with 6,000 tickets sold to single women and 4,000 to men.

"These days, girls are much more self-sufficient and independent," said Zhou Juemin, president of the Shanghai Matchmaking Association, which organized the two-day event at the weekend.

"Also, there's a lot of work pressure in society nowadays, so many girls are busy with their jobs and perhaps tend to consider career advancement above marriage — so some of them are no longer young."

Long queues of singles waited for their turn for five-minute chats with the opposite sex in the ultimate blind-date event.

"If your standard of living is lower than mine in every aspect, but if we can relate well to each other, I wouldn't mind — because if we relate well, there would be good chemistry," said 27-year-old Zue Tianwei.

"Then the issues of social order would no longer be a problem. I guess it depends on how strong my feelings are."

Many men, for their part, said they were willing to shrug off traditional thinking that once made marrying a woman of higher educational and living standards unacceptable.

"Regarding girls who have a higher education level or standard of living, I wouldn't mind pursuing them because this is a two-way thing," said Li Jianxun, a 27-year-old native of central China who has lived in Shanghai for two years.

"As long as the feelings are mutual, it is still possible to interact and get to know each other."

Hopefuls from nearby provinces travelled to Shanghai to take part, among them some who had already married and divorced.

A few, bolder than others, held up signs to distinguish themselves from the crowd. One said, "I wanted to fall in love early, but it's already late."

Around 3,000 parents also tagged along, with organizers allocating a special corner for them to advertise information on their unmarried children. Some kept an eye out for suitable future in-laws.

Qi Xiong, who helped his son by taking pictures to keep track of potential matches, said he still felt that men should not look for wives with higher social status than themselves.

"Generally speaking, if you are a girl and your education level or income is too high, we're more likely to oppose it," he said, noting that a simple university degree was sufficient.

"A huge difference in education levels would make it difficult to communicate. If both parties begin at the same starting line, and want to achieve success in the future, they can work at it together." — Reuters

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Belgian chocolate and Croatian love meet in sweets shop

Rakovica, Croatia, Nov 17, 2011 (AFP) -Christine Scholtes Covic went to Croatia's Lika region drawn by its stunning scenery and ended up with a husband and a new career combining Belgian chocolate with nature's bounty.

"Chocolate is the food of gods, something really noble," said the Belgian native at her tiny production facility in a village nestled among the green hills and valleys of central Croatia.

The 37-year-old had found a new home in the Lika region, famous for its well-preserved forests, mountains and crystal clear rivers and lakes, and there turned her passions for nature and chocolate into a business making truffles and bonbons.

"I always loved to cook but pastries were my speciality. As a six-year-old I was making my own birthday cakes.

"My grandmother had a restaurant so I'm like an Obelix who fell into the magic potion," she said with a grin, referring to the character from the French comic book series Asterix as she explained her "chocolate addiction".

Years later she obtained a diploma in France in bakery and pastry from the Institut National de la Boulangerie et Patisserie, and opened a small pastry shop back in Belgium.


But after discovering the beauty of Lika and its Plitvice Lake national park with 16
rcascading lakes and spectacular waterfalls, she fell in love with the place and


This photo of Lika-Senj is
 courtesy of TripAdvisor

a local man and moved to Croatia in 2009.


"I was looking for a house and got a husband with it," said the short-hair brunette, smiling warmly.

When the chocolate "addict" first spoke of setting up a luxury chocolate shop in the Lika area, picturesque but hard-hit by Croatia's 1990s independence war and with over 20 percent unemployment, the locals were surprised, even sceptical.

But she eventually won over the people in the town of Rakovica.

"It was a great idea but it was something completely new for me," said Ankica Baric, a local woman who helps out in the shop.

"When Christine asked me what I know about chocolate I replied that I only knew how to eat it," she added, bursting into laughter.


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Paris store drops carols for rock n' roll

This photo of Galeries Lafayette is courtesy of TripAdvisor


PARIS - Live rock and roll is replacing recorded Christmas carols in the windows of Galeries Lafayette as the Parisian department store seeks to drum up curiosity, and client numbers, for this year's gift-buying season.

True to tradition, the shop is putting on a dazzling show for shoppers and tourists alike in the countdown to Christmas, but this year it is seeking to strike a chord with music-mad teenagers as much as fairytale fans young and old.

With a debt crisis forcing much of Europe into austerity, consumption has dropped in recent weeks, making crowd-pullers all the more important, even for upmarket stores that can count on a large tourist contingent in the heart of the French capital.

Rock legend Iggy Pop, bare-chested as always, has helped Galeries Lafayette get the show on the road, posing for photo fliers in red Santa hat and matching shoes in addition to his signature electric guitar.

The goal of reaching out to teenagers rather than toddlers is clear.

The opening weeks include nightly live shows in the window by a variety of major-label rock and folk bands, one from Mali, another from Australia and most of the others from France itself.

And apart from the live shows, furry creatures and fairytale puppets will give way this year to life-size mannequins in black leather to rag dolls draped in glamour garb -- all hand-made, hand-painted and more hard-edged than the customary annual display of smurfs, snowmen and abundant lovable puppets.

Galeries Lafayette, which first started doing its Christmas window shows after World War Two, says that this year's show was inspired by the increasingly close relationship between rock and fashion.

There are other good reasons.

French household spending dropped 1.3 percent in September versus the same month a year earlier and spending on clothing fell 7.3 percent, according to France's statistics office.

"Shoppers are so stretched at the moment that actually getting them into the stores is the first challenge," said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Kantar Retail, an industry consultancy.

"Converting that shopper into a purchase is the next challenge." - Reuters



Part motorcycle, part toilet

TOKYO - Enter the Neo. Part motorcycle and part toilet, it runs on eco-friendly biogas produced from sewage -- and recently completed a journey of more than 1,000 km (600 miles) across Japan.

The three-wheeled vehicle, developed by Japanese toilet maker Toto, features a toilet for a seat and has a giant roll of toilet paper mounted on the back that flutters in the breeze as the bike cruises along.

But there are no plans to put the bike on sale. Toto intends to put it on display.

The biogas used as fuel for the Neo is produced from a combination of household sewage and livestock waste, broken down and fermented, company spokesman Kenji Fujita said.

"Although the seat of the bike is indeed a toilet, it is not for actual use. The fuel is eco-friendly biogas, stored in the tanks on the back," he said.

"It's a surprisingly nice way to travel."

The 380 kg (837 lb) motorcycle can run for a total of 300 km and reach speeds of up to 70 km an hour (45 mph).

Ichie Tanaka, one of six people who rode the Neo across Japan during the three-week, 1,400 km (870 miles) tour to promote biofuels, said she was relieved the journey was over.

"At first when I saw the bike, I was taken aback. But after riding it, I found it quite interesting," the 28-year-old said.

"It doesn't hurt at all and is actually quite comfortable to sit on." - Reuters










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German woman gets cold cash instead of cold cuts

BERLIN - A butcher shop employee in the German town of Braunschweig inadvertently handed a customer a bag containing more than 2,000 euros ($2,835) in cold cash rather than the cold cuts she usually gets.


The 79-year-old pensioner paid five euros for her package of cold cuts and veal steaks. She said she was surprised to find more than she bargained for when she opened the package at home.


"I was completely flabbergasted," the pensioner told Bild newspaper. She called the butcher shop but it had already closed. So she called the police, who later returned it.


The owner of the butcher shop had packed the day's take in a paper bag and placed it, as he usually does, next to the cash register. The employee mistook it for the customer's cold cuts and unwittingly handed her the package.


The honest pensioner got a 100 euro reward from the butcher -- and a free basket of sausages. - Reuters








Stolen wedding album returned 17 years later




LONDON - A wedding album which went missing when a caravan was stolen in Northern Ireland 17 years ago has mysteriously reappeared at the home of its owners.


Nigel and Gillian Stewart had long given up hope of seeing their wedding photographs, which were inside the caravan when it was stolen. But on Tuesday, the album was left at the gate to their home in a plastic bag, the BBC reported.


"I thought I was seeing things," the BBC quoted Gillian as saying this week. "I was absolutely stunned. Speechless."


The couple recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and the album's reappearance at their home in Gilford, County Down, has been a revelation for their children.


"It's lovely for the children — they only know their dad with grey hair," Gillian joked.


She said she was extremely grateful to whomever gave the photographs back and wonders all over again who it was that stole the caravan, but added that she bore no grudges.


"You needn't be a bit afraid to come forward to me, because I bear no grudges. The past is the past, the future's the future," she said.


"I would just love whoever it was to come forward, so I could thank them in person." — Reuters
















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Boy declared dead wakes up in mortuary

Nov 07, 2011
By Indo Asian News Service, IANS


Lucknow (IANS) -  The Uttar Pradesh government Monday suspended a doctor in a case of medical negligence in which a teenager declared dead by him regained consciousness in a mortuary in Muzaffarnagar district. 


Radhey, 17, woke up in the mortuary at the Muzaffarnagar district hospital Sunday, nearly 10 hours after the doctor, Pradeep Mittal, declared him dead, an official said. 


The victim was brought to hospital from a forested area where he was found in an unconscious state Saturday, police said. 


Mittal declared Radhey dead Sunday morning and directed the ward boys to shift 'the body' to the mortuary. 


'When police officials along with the hospital staff were about to begin the formalities of the post-mortem, the youth regained consciousness,' Chief Medical Officer Anand Swaroop told reporters in Muzaffarnagar, some 300 km from Lucknow. 


'When the state health authorities came to know about the incident, an inquiry was ordered. On the recommendations of a panel constituted to probe the incident, Pradeep Mittal was Monday placed under suspension,' he added. 


Radhey, who hails from Agra, worked as a labourer in a village in Muzaffarnagar, police said. 


'We have been told that the youth has been suffering from seizures,' police inspector Pawan Chaudhary told reporters.










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Seaweed skirts, salmon tops in Berlin fashion food show

 BERLIN - Move over Lady Gaga and your meat dress. A Berlin museum is coupling haute couture with haute cuisine, spotlighting models draped in octopus tunics, seaweed miniskirts and chocolate dresses.

One work entitled "Russian Lardo" features a trouser suit sewn from lean bacon, a delicate black scarf made of squid ink pasta and a resplendent headdress woven from frisee lettuce, red chillies and Daikon cress. Another shows a male model in a salmon tank top and lettuce-leaf trousers.

"Most of the food was not simply thrown away," Kugler said of the photo shoots.
"The octopus is cooked three to four hours until it's tender and the pasta can be boiled. Then everyone sits down and has a feast."

Trettl and Kirchberger have pursued an on-again, off-again collaboration for about four years but the exhibition marks the first major presentation of their work to a broader audience.

They have published a book featuring many of the photographs in the show, complete with recipes and a foreword by the original high-fashion rebel, Vivienne Westwood.

"I would love to try them, but I hope someone else will prepare them," the British designer said of the cooking tips using ingredients from the clothing.

She compared the portraits to those of 16th century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo who incorporated images of fruits and vegetables in his works.

In other head-turners, Trettl turned a mass of "calf net" -- fatty membrane from a calf's stomach -- into an elegant headscarf, paired with a prominent necklace made of quail eggs, and fashioned a sexy body suit from liquid dark chocolate, set against jewellery made of silver sugar pearls.

"Of course the chocolate had to simply be washed off when they were done, there was no salvaging it," Kugler said.

"You only have about two minutes to photograph it, with a crew of 20 people. After that, it starts drying up and flaking off. It is a unique work of art comprised of the food and the model, the material and the form."

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Hospital pays up after 12 years for baby mix-up

MOSCOW - A Russian court ordered a maternity hospital to pay two families about $100,000 apiece on Mondayfor mixing up their newly born daughters 12 years ago.


The twist of fate was uncovered by a genetic test for alimony proceedings that showed the astounded parents of one of the children that the girl they had brought up since birth was not in fact their biological daughter.


"You cannot imagine our feelings," the parents of the two girls were quoted as saying by Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. "The lawyers for the defendant insisted right to the end that there had been no loss for us."


The mix-up is thought to have occurred partly because the girls' mothers had similar surnames beginning with four identical letters and gave birth at the same ward just 15 minutes apart.


Local media said the two daughters will stay with their current families but that their parents are trying to find a way to move closer so that the girls can visit their biological parents.


As the local maternity hospital does not have the funds to pay the parents, the local authority will have to foot the bill, local media said. - Reuters


Elite Polish cops sacked for protecting Paris Hilton


WARSAW - Protecting Paris Hilton on the side could put you in danger of losing your real job.


Three Polish police commandos will lose their posts in an elite anti-terrorist unit for serving as bodyguards for the controversial celebrity during a recent visit to Poland.


"If the policemen who protected Hilton do not leave on their own by the end of the week, they will be disciplinary fired," Dariusz Biel, the head of the regional police where the three serve, was quoted as saying this week.


Members of the anti-terrorist unit usually conceal their faces and must seek permission for any outside work.


The three commandos, who appeared in various photos on gossip sites with the blond hotel heiress, were also said to have carried their police weapons when they served as Hilton's bodyguards during her appearance at an opening of a shopping mall in Katowice, in southern Poland. - Reuters




Swedish rally driver not fast enough for son's birth


STOCKHOLM - Swedish rally driver Per-Gunner Andersson is known for his speed behind the wheel, but he wasn't fast enough this weekend when his wife had to give birth in their car on the way to hospital.


"It was a little strange," Andersson, 31, told the online edition of tabloid Expressen on Monday.


His wife went into labor in the middle of the night on Friday and the couple rushed to the hospital in their BMW. But after half-an-hour they realized they would not make it in time and called an ambulance to meet them on the shoulder of the highway.


"I was pretty calm but when the baby comes out you do want a little assistance," Andersson said.


The ambulance arrived just in time and their son Alvin was born a minute later without any complications.


"He was healthy and fine," he said.


Andersson, a junior world rally champion in 2004 and 2007, placed seventh in the 2011 Rally of Sweden.


Given his son's start in life, Andersson joked that he may also be a future rally driver.


"He seems to have it in his genes." - AFP

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