Lifestyle News

Flashy Indian brides struggle with high gold prices

An Indian woman looking into a jewellery shop display window in New Delhi on November 2009.
AFP - Monday, November 23

NEW DELHI (AFP) - - For Indian brides buying jewellery, the bigger the better is the general rule, but record gold prices during this year's wedding season are forcing many to compromise. More »

  • A copy of Darwin's book the

    Rare Charles Darwin book in toilet in Britain

    AFP - Monday, November 23

    LONDON (AFP) - - A first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal "On the Origin of Species" will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain, an auction house said Sunday.

  • Lebanese women sit on a bench in front of a poster announcing the opening of a Christian Dior shop in downtown Beirut on November 5. Brimming with style, Beirut is regaining its reputation as a shoppers' paradise, with luxury labels such as Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton among a slew of shops opening in the city's renovated souks.

    Beirut sets out to woo back shoppers

    AFP - Monday, November 23

    BEIRUT (AFP) - - Brimming with style, Beirut is regaining its reputation as a shoppers' paradise, with luxury labels such as Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton among a slew of shops opening in the city's renovated souks.

  • A sign on display at the Nations Gunshow in Chantilly, Virginia. Recession-stoked fears of rising crime and tougher gun laws under a Democratic government are sending US gun sales sky high, and big crowds at the Chantilly Gun Show this weekend proved it once again.

    Pistols, Tasers, assault rifles sell fast at US show

    AFP - Monday, November 23

    CHANTILLY, Virginia (AFP) - - Recession-stoked fears of rising crime and tougher gun laws under a Democratic government are sending US gun sales sky high, and big crowds at the Chantilly Gun Show this weekend proved it once again.

  • A Pakistani man is seen looking at Buddha sculptures at a museum in Peshawar. Archaeologists warn that the Taliban are destroying Pakistan's ancient Gandhara heritage and rich Buddhist legacy as pilgrimage and foreign research dries up in the country's northwest.

    Taliban suffocate Pakistan Buddhist heritage

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    TAXILA, Pakistan (AFP) - - Archaeologists warn that the Taliban are destroying Pakistan's ancient Gandhara heritage and rich Buddhist legacy as pilgrimage and foreign research dries up in the country's northwest.

  • Hair is displayed for sale in Justino Delgado's natural hair store in Madrid. With the economic crisis, more and more Spanish women are selling their hair to make ends meet, delighting Delgado, who exports it for wigs and extensions

    Crisis forcing hard-up Spaniards to sell their hair

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    MADRID (AFP) - - Cash-strapped Spaniards are pulling their hair out over the economic crisis -- literally.

  • A father and child stop to look at the Christmas display at Macy's department store in New York. US retailers are taking desperate measures to spark holiday sales in the face of what promises to be another troubled year-end shopping season.

    Desperate retailers seek holiday season rescue

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - - US retailers are taking desperate measures to spark holiday sales in the face of what promises to be another troubled year-end shopping season.

  • Tourists love to watch herds of elephants trekking across Botswana's famed Okavango Delta, but nearby farmers watch in dismay when the animals trample their crops, leaving them little to eat.

    Botswana tries spicy solution to keep elephants at bay

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    GABORONE (AFP) - - Tourists love to watch herds of elephants trekking across Botswana's famed Okavango Delta, but nearby farmers watch in dismay when the animals trample their crops, leaving them little to eat.

  • The logo of social networking website 'Facebook' is displayed on a computer screen in London inr 2007. Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach.

    Smiling on Facebook costs Canadian her insurance

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    MONTREAL (AFP) - - Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach.

  • French designer Celine Boulud holds a chihuahua named Edgar at her boutique for dogs

    French designer wolfs down US doggy rags

    AFP - Sunday, November 22

    LYON, France (AFP) - - France may well be the world's fashion capital, but when it comes to suiting up pooches, America does it best.

  • A poker player collects his chips. Poland's parliament on Friday adopted a law that confines gambling to casinos and phases out the slot machines currently in many Polish cafes, clubs, shops and service stations.

    Poland restricts gambling outside casinos

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    WARSAW (AFP) - - Poland's parliament on Friday adopted a law that confines gambling to casinos and phases out the slot machines currently in many Polish cafes, clubs, shops and service stations.

  • A view of the Marigny theater in Paris on the first of four auction days led by Christie's of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Berge collection, which profit will fund campaigns against HIV-AIDS. A humble if eye-pleasing umbrella stand once owned by YSL fetched an amazing 134,000 dollars Friday at the close of a sale of the last belongings of the late couturier and his partner Pierre Berge.

    Auction record for umbrella stand as YSL mystique inflates prices

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    PARIS (AFP) - - A humble if eye-pleasing umbrella stand once owned by Yves Saint Laurent fetched an amazing 90,000 euros (134,000 dollars) Friday at the close of a sale of the last belongings of the late couturier and his partner Pierre Berge.

  • A person holds a sign as she joins Sexual Minorities Uganda to protest against a proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda on November 19 in front of the Ugandan Mission to the United Nations in New York. The bill has baffled legal experts who read it as the product of an over-zealous Evangelical community that is clueless about both Uganda's constitution and international law.

    Uganda's gays: from advocates to outlaws

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    KAMPALA (AFP) - - If Ugandas recently tabled Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law, Frank Mugisha and other individuals found campaigning for gay rights will face the choice of going to jail or leaving the country.

  • No reply this Christmas as US blocks Santa mail

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - - No matter if children are naughty or nice, they won't get a reply from Santa this year, as the US Postal Service has blocked mail to a tiny Alaska town that answered Christmas letters for decades.

  • People play games during a PlayDate night at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia in October 2009.

    US singles on PlayDate search for soul mate

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    ARLINGTON, Virginia (AFP) - - Forget singles bars and the mad dash through the speed-dating circuit.

  • South African women walk on a dirt road in South Africa's Eastern Cape. Women in Africa have yet to receive the financial recognition they deserve for the time and effort put into domestic and reproductive work, a UN report has concluded.

    African women remain undervalued: UN report

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    BANJUL (AFP) - - Women in Africa have yet to receive the financial recognition they deserve for the time and effort put into domestic and reproductive work, a UN report launched Friday concluded.

  • A South African prostitute waits for a client on a Johannesburg street corner. Cape Town has set up a vice squad tasked with

    Prostitutes fear S.Africa's World Cup clean-up

    AFP - Saturday, November 21

    JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - - Jabulisile works the streets in Hillbrow, a rough area normally avoided by tourists, but just a stone's throw from one of the World Cup stadiums that she hopes will bring in visitors looking for sex.

  • Bystanders watch as soldiers prepare to sacrifice a buffalo during a Hindu festival in Kathmandu. The legendary French movie star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has written to Nepal's president urging him to stop a mass animal sacrifice from going ahead next week.

    Bardot urges end to animal sacrifice in Nepal

    AFP - Friday, November 20

    KATHMANDU (AFP) - - The legendary French movie star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has written to Nepal's president urging him to stop a mass animal sacrifice from going ahead next week.

  • File photo shows Israelis from the Ethiopian community with photographs of their relatives during a demonstration against the government's decision to close down the operation to bring Jewish Ethiopians to Israel. There are more than 120,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and many feel they are still treated like second-class citizens.

    Ethiopian Jews in Israel still await Promised Land

    AFP - Friday, November 20

    JERUSALEM (AFP) - - The ancient hymns brought tears to the eyes of Solomon Ayeli, as well as memories of his native Ethiopia which he left two decades ago for Israel -- a country he loves but where he often feels rejected.

  • The Canadian-US border in Stanstead, Canada. Stanstead and Derby Line, Vermont on the US side have always functioned as one village sharing not only city services but family and neighbors, but now , new border crossing measures by the US Department of Homeland Security have split the town in two, requiring residents to show their passports

    'Passport please': new fences for a border town

    AFP - Friday, November 20

    STANSTEAD, Canada (AFP) - - Canadians in Stanstead and Americans across the border in Derby Line, Vermont once lived in harmony as one community, mostly ignoring the imaginary line that separates them.

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