Billionaire Virgin Airlines chairman, Sir Richard Branson, has promised to dress in drag and serve passengers as a female flight attendant aboard an Air Asia X flight after losing a bet with Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of the low-cost airline.
According to reports, the two businessmen bet each other on which of their Formula One teams would finish higher in this year's constructors' championship.
Neither Sir Richard's Virgin Racing or Mr Fernandes' Lotus F1 team scored a single point in 2010. Mr Fernandes won the bet by virtue of better finishing positions.
Fernandes confirmed Branson's wager defeat on his Twitter account, saying that he would be working a flight steward shift on February 21 on an Air Asia X's flight between London Stansted and Kuala Lumpur.
The bet stipulated that Sir Richard wear heels, make-up and a red dress and also conduct lavatory cleaning duties.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may be alone in jail in London, but in the traditional Neapolitan Christmas creches he is in good company -- with Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Assange, who is depicted holding his trusty lap top, was created by Gennaro Di Virgilio, who each year chooses at least one contemporary character to sculpt and place near the scenes of the traditional story of Jesus' birth in a manger.
"I included him to poke a little fun at the world and have a good time," said Di Virgilio, 29, whose family has been making nativity statuettes and ornate creches since 1830.
In recent decades, artists and craftsmen who make Neapolitan creches have used them to portray the signs of the times.
"In a sense, Assange is the man of the year," said Di Virgilio, whose tiny shop is one of many on a narrow Naples street named Via San Gregorio Armeno that specialized in Christmas statues, creches and trinkets all year.
There is only one copy of the Assange statuette, which costs 130 euros. Di Virgilio says he will make others on request.
There are, however, multiple copies of statuettes of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Italians can place in the manger with the Holy Family, the wise men, the ox and the sheep.
This year, the southern city's garbage crisis has become a recurring theme among the artists and craftsmen along the street, which is barely three meters wide.
And so it came to pass that the Madonna, St. Joseph and even the baby Jesus wear face masks to protect themselves from the stench of the uncollected garbage in Naples.
A small dog jumped out of its cage and bit a passenger and a flight attendant on a Phoenix-bound US Airways plane. forcing the captain to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh.
The dog's owner opened the cage despite being told not to, said Valerie Wunder, a spokeswoman for US Airways.
The captain of Flight 522 from Newark to Phoenix, carrying 122 passengers, decided to divert the plane because he "wanted to make sure everybody was OK," Wunder said, adding she did not know whether charges would be filed against the dog's owner.
A musician who went into a central London sandwich store to buy something to eat has had a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth 1.2 million pounds ($1.9 million) stolen, police said on Monday.
British Transport Police have launched a public appeal to get the rare instrument back and the musician's insurer, Lark Insurance Broking Group, has offered a 15,000-pound reward for information leading to its recovery.
Detective Inspector Andy Rose said the theft took place on the evening of Monday, November 29, outside Euston train station.
After going to a Pret A Manger cafe, the violinist noticed her violin case had been taken and called the police.
Inside the case was a 1696 Antonio Stradivarius antique violin as well as a Peccatte bow, valued at 62,000 pounds, and another bow made by the School of Bazin valued at more than 5,000 pounds.
"These items hold enormous sentimental and professional value for the victim," Rose said in a statement.
"But although they are extremely valuable, it would be very difficult to sell them on as they are so rare and distinctive that they will be easily recognized as stolen property.
"It's possible the instrument will be offered for sale within the antique or musical trade and we ask anyone who has any knowledge of the violin's whereabouts to come forward so it can be returned to its rightful owner."
The police did not name the classical musician, but British media reported that the violin's owner was 32-year-old Korean-born Min-Jin Kym. British Transport Police were not immediately available to comment on the identity of the victim.
Star English batsman Kevin Pietersen continues to rack up centuries.
Only days after scoring 227 against the Aussies in Adelaide, Pietersen has made one off drive he probably wishes he had not.
The 30-year-old has been clocked driving at 121 kilometres per hour while going for a spin in a Lamborghini organised for him by Shane Warne.
He was pulled over by Victorian police this afternoon while driving the $475,000 car on the Geelong ringroad, which is a 100kph zone.
One of cricket's excitement machines, Pietersen was fined $239 and lost three demerit points.
While his team-mates were training at the MCG in preparation for a three-day game against Victoria starting tomorrow, the South Africa-born Pietersen opted to indulge his passion for fast cars.
He decided to go for a drive along the Great Ocean Road in the car arranged for him by his buddy Warne, an ambassador for the sports car manufacturer.
Aurora, a ten-month-old female polar bear, shakes off snow at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk December 7, 2010.
Aurora is one of two female wild polar bear cubs which were found in Russia's Taimyr Peninsula on the coast of the Arctic Ocean in early May and were later housed in Krasnoyarsk zoo.
Crtzy:REUTERS
A model of the Chinese high-speed train on display at the 7th World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing on December 7, 2010.
China is rapidly expanding and upgrading its railway network amid increased pressures on its transportation system, with plans to have 120,000 kilometres of track by 2020, and spending about 120 billion USD to nearly double the country's high-speed rail network by 2012.
Crtzy:AFP
