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P/SUNNY
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, ...
Tonkatsu is comfort food, gourmand grub — not a gourmet delicacy. So what are those hearty, unpretentious deep-fried breaded pork cutlets doing in an elegant little bar-style restaurant above one of Ginza’s temples to high-end consumption? Katsuzen has come a long way from its ...
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
It is a tricky deal being an authorized biographer. Charles Moore’s big advantage over those who have previously tackled Margaret Thatcher is that he has been provided with material denied to them. Of the arrangement that he was offered by his subject, he writes: ...
Unbelievable energy. Splendid self confidence. Never-wavering faith in his abilities or his teammates. Those are ingredients to success for Draelon Burns, the Yokohama B-Corsairs’ super substitute. Burns buried a remarkable three buzzer-beating shots to close out the three final quarters, and his team needed ...
In a country of almost 1.4 billion people, life for Chinese is an unending struggle for resources. And it doesn’t get easier in death. Prices for graves are skyrocketing, driven by decades of unbridled development and scarce city land. The government’s answer to this conundrum: sea burials. Officials across China ...
In the annals of bizarre bureaucratic desk jobs, the Chinese government may have all others beat. Officials in charge of ...
The United States has given back to Mongolia the remains of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus skeleton stolen from the Gobi Desert ...
A six-story-high rubber duck is making a big splash in Hong Kong. Crowds watched the inflatable duck being pulled by tugboat across Victoria Harbor in front of Hong Kong’s signature skyscraper skyline. Tourist Zhang Wenjin from Shanghai says it’s a big surprise. “This is ...
Unamused Chinese censors have been hard at work trying to stop people sniggering over the new Beijing headquarters of the People’s Daily newspaper, which bear a resemblance to a giant penis. Photos of the imposing tower, which is still under construction, had Internet users ...
New Zealand officials Wednesday released a list of 77 baby names proposed by parents that were rejected because they were too bizarre or offensive, including “Lucifer” and “Mafia No Fear.” The list shows one child was set to be called “Anal” before the Department ...
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has announced a renewed push for the death penalty, as well as life sentences for rape, saying that “draconian” penalties were needed to tackle violent crime, local media reported Wednesday. O’Neill said the impoverished Pacific nation would ...
The Swiss luxury hotel chain Kempinski is dropping plans to open a huge pyramid-shaped hotel that has stood half-built for decades in North Korea amid tensions on the peninsula. “Kempinski Hotels confirms that KEY International had initial discussions to operate a hotel in Pyongyang. ...
Wrists bent and fingers curled, the immaculately dressed dancers perform a series of gestures that, according to ancient custom, carry the wishes of the Khmer kings to the heavens. Sporting golden head-dresses, the dancers slowly stretch back their wrists and — standing on one ...
India’s remote northeast is home to an ancient tribe whose high regard for women makes it a striking anomaly in the male-dominated country. But the region has become a staging ground for an unlikely battle in which men are trying to end a matrilineal ...
Supermarkets across New Zealand stocked up with Marmite for the first time in more than a year Wednesday, as a shortage of the breakfast spread caused by the Christchurch earthquake came to an end. In a crisis dubbed “Marmageddon,” the country’s only Marmite factory ...
One young contender created the world’s largest sequin mosaic using 325,000 of the sparkly discs. Two other youths achieved 123 consecutive badminton passes in one minute. And 1,450 participants broke the record for the most people arm wrestling. Such are the skills that Guinness ...
A Chinese city is searching for a foreign traveler to become a “modern Marco Polo,” with a €40,000 ($52,000) salary on offer to the winner, a tourism official said Wednesday. The eastern city of Hangzhou, renowned for its canals and bridges, was described as ...
Stacked up in Liu Yi’s studio, dozens of China’s most sensitive subjects stare out from thick black-and-white oil paintings, from victims of Tiananmen Square to Tibetans who have set themselves on fire. Liu, 50, is a rare example of a member of China’s Han ...
Australia has resurrected its hugely popular Best Jobs in the World campaign, offering candidates the chance to become a “Chief Funster,” “Taste Master” or “Outback Adventurer.” The marketing push announced Tuesday is targeting the youth demographic, which contributes 12 billion Australian dollars ($12.2 billion) ...