Tony Blair's make-up secret is out
The secret of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's famous all-year healthy glow has been revealed -- he spends almost twice as much on make-up as the average British woman. Figures released by Downing Street in answer to a parliamentary question showed that Blair spent more than £1,800 (US$3,150) on make-up and make-up artists over the past six years. In contrast, the average British woman spends £195 (US$345) a year on both make-up and skincare. The written answer was released quietly on the final day of the parliamentary session before MPs begin their summer break.
Download Robbie Williams legally
Robbie Williams may never win any prizes for originality with his hugely popular musical output but the chart- topping singer has signed a novel deal with a mobile phone network that could revolutionise the way fans buy his songs. The singer has signed an exclusive deal with the global telecom giant T-Mobile that will allow customers to download songs, exclusive live tracks and concert footage to their mobile phones. The 18-month deal is the biggest tie-up yet between a big artist and a phone company and will be watched with interest by others convinced that mobile music delivery will become an important factor in boosting flagging record sales over the next few years.
`Paris Plage' starts copycat trend
Paris Plage, the ephemeral beach set up on the banks of the Seine River that winds through the French capital, opened this week for the fourth season of a quirky project that has since spawned copycat beaches in cities across Europe and as far away as Tokyo. This year's version took off with a samba beat in honor of the year-long "Brazil in France" cultural and economic exchange. The now familiar blue-and-white beach chairs, flags and umbrellas are sprawled along a 3.5km stretch of sand and grass named this year after Brazil's legendary Ipanema, Maracana and Copacabana beaches.
Christmas but once a year, Santas say
Some 80 Santas from around the globe meeting at their World Congress debated establishing a second Christmas in July to ease their December workload, but finally decided that the holiday would be feted only once a year, the Danish Santa host said this week. "There was a proposal from the Japanese Santa Claus that was hotly debated, but the delegates, even if they were in favour of the idea, did not want to adopt it because it risks upsetting the children of the world," Denmark's Father Christmas said. "The Christmas date of Dece. 24 to Dec. 25 will not be changed, even though we are about to collapse from overwork. The tradition must be respected," he said.
Artwork stolen, presumed drunk
An artist has appealed for the return of an artwork that consisted of a bottle of water on a plinth, saying he feared it had been stolen and then drunk. US artist Wayne Hill, had devised the artwork, a two-liter clear plastic bottle filled with melted ice from the Antarctic, to highlight the dangers of global warming. Entitled Weapon of Mass Destruction it was on show at an arts festival in Devon, southwest England. "It looked like an ordinary bottle of water, but it was on a plinth, labelled, described and in the program of the whole festival," Hill said. "It was very, very clear what it was -- a work of art."
Coldplay singer `sexiest vegetarian'
Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin has been named one of the "World's Sexiest Vegetarians" in a poll conducted by a US animal rights group, officials said this week. The British husband of Hollywood movie siren Gwyneth Paltrow joined the winner of the American Idol television talent show, Carrie Underwood, at the top of an online poll of more than 13,000 people conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Martin, 28, and Underwood narrowly edged out other non meat-eating celebrities including X-Files star David Duchovny, Legally Blonde actress Reese Witherspoon, British singer Joss Stone, and actor Joaquin Phoenix.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist