Five hundred million people around the world last night saw Russian Victoria Radochinskaya, 28, win the Mrs World contest in Vung Tau City Vietnam.
First runner-up was Mrs America Andrea Robertson, a professional model. Mrs Viet Nam, businesswoman Hoang Thi Yen, was second.
Victoria, who works in advertising, defeated the US and Vietnamese favourites in Vung Tau City to became the 15th winner of the crown since the contest started in 1985.
The lovely Russian was selected from three finalists narrowed down from a field of 12. Seventy-six women from 75 countries and territories earlier took part in the contest.
Mrs Hongkong Chen Yijuan was declared Mrs World Traditional Dress 2009 and Mrs Ivory Coast Marie Carine Davison won Mrs World Ao Dai.
Victoria was ecstatic when receiving the jewell-studded crown from Ukrainian Natalya Shmarenkova, who won the Mrs World Pageant last year in Kaliningrad, Russia.
In questions deciding the winner, Victoria was asked why a judge should vote for her.
Mrs Viet Nam Hoang Thi Yen, replied that she would like to change the concept that woman should stay at home and do housework. However, her reply in English was apparently not clear enough for the judge.
Contestants have been visiting historical sites and schools for disabled students, taking part in cultural and sporting activities.
They all said they were moved by the hearty welcome they received from Vietnamese people.
The evening was conducted by American Alan Thicke and Miss World Viet Nam 2007, Ngo Phuong Lan. The Mrs World 2010 contest will be held in Seoul, South Korea.
The first runner-up, Mrs. USA and her family.
Mrs. Kazakhstan and her son.
Mrs. World 2008 and Mrs. World 2009, both from Russia.
From the left: Mrs. World 2007 Diane Tucker (American), Mrs. World 2009 and Mrs. World 2008.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of Nathalie Blanchard of Quebec, Canada, it can also be worth thousands of dollars in lost benefits. The 29-year-old IBM employee, diagnosed with severe depression, spent more than a year and a half away from her job, during which she received paid sick leave from Manulife, IBM’s insurance company. At the suggestion of her doctor, Blanchard went on short vacations to try to improve her mental state while still out from work. These trips seemed to do the trick, for Blanchard was shown having a good time in the photos she posted on her Facebook page, including ones at Chippendale’s and on the beach. In October she noticed that her sick-leave payments stopped coming. That’s because, she alleges, her agent at Manulife saw the images and concluded that Blanchard was no longer depressed. Manulife declined to comment on the incident but said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook."
But the company did recognize that it uses such information to learn more about their clients.
A technology expert says that's the lesson people should learn from the case of a Canadian woman who says her Facebook postings led to her disability benefits being cancelled.
French striker Thierry Henry could miss the start of the World Cup if the FIFA disciplinary panel decides that his handball in the build-up to France's winning goal against Ireland in Paris last Wednesday night constituted "unsporting behaviour".
The Telegraph quoted a FIFA spokesman, as saying that Henry could yet face punishment should the commission, which will meet at some stage in the next two weeks, chooses to study the incident.
Now France is headed to the 2010 World Cup and Ireland is headed to the pub to rant about it for time immemorial. Check out the controversial play, below:
Henry, who has called for the game to be replayed, has admitted he handled the ball before crossing for William Gallas to score, but he is likely to be punished only if it is thought he deliberately cheated.
"The disciplinary commission is an independent organ. It will decide if the case is of interest. The possibility exists of sanctioning a player for unsporting behaviour on the basis of video evidence," the FIFA spokesman said.
Irish journalist Geraldine Comiskey, who works Sunday World Irish newspaper, poses next to the poster of French football player Thierry Henry outside FC Barcelona's Joan Gamper Sports Center near Barcelona on November 20, 2009. France captain Thierry Henry said today that 'the fairest solution' to the row surrounding his handball in the World Cup playoff against Ireland would be to replay the match. He renewed his admission that he had controlled the ball with his hand, but insisted it was 'instinctive' in the heat of the action.
UPDATE:24 NOV 2009
Fifa to discuss Thierry Henry's handball but not a replay
It is understood that Fifa, having already ruled out replaying the second leg of the match at the Stade de France that saw France qualify at Ireland's expense, will not reconsider doing so at its meeting. The Football Association of Ireland reacted pointedly to the announcement, confirming "that it heard about this meeting today through Fifa's press release".
Henry says he considered retirement from the international game after feeling "truly alone" and "abandoned" by the France Football Federation in the wake of his controversial "Hand of God" assist in the play-off against Ireland.
The Barcelona striker, like so many of his fellow Frenchmen, has been engaged in soul-searching since last Wednesday's flashpoint, when replays showed him to have handled twice before he spirited the ball across to William Gallas, who scored the goal that secured France's place at the finals in South Africa next summer.
Henry chose to celebrate with Gallas and the rest of his team-mates rather than own up immediately to the infringement, a reaction that he has come to regret. France's record goalscorer has spent the time since the incident desperately trying to make amends.
He commiserated with Ireland's devastated players on the pitch at full-time and on Friday he said Ireland ought to get the replay they had demanded. By then, however, Fifa had confirmed that there could be no replay. Henry fears his reputation will be forever tainted by the events at Stade de France.
France Does Not Deserve to Be In World Cup - Poll
PARIS (Reuters) - Most people in France do not think their soccer team deserves to be in the 2010 World Cup and did not approve of Thierry Henry's handball that helped secure a finals place, according to an opinion poll published on Sunday.
Henry clearly handled the ball when setting up a late, decisive goal in the second leg of their playoff against Ireland last week, winning France a place in the World Cup finals.
But an OpinionWay poll for French state television said 81 percent of French people did not think their national team deserved to go to South Africa given their unconvincing performances throughout the qualifying stages.
An even bigger 88 percent said Henry was wrong to have used his hand to keep the ball in play and thereby create the vital scoring opportunity.
The contested victory has dominated French media over the past five days, with much soul searching about the notion of fair play in sport.
Henry, who has been vilified on the Internet, has denied cheating and said he wanted to see a replay against Ireland.
World soccer's governing body FIFA has ruled that the result should stand and that France rather than Ireland should take part in the World Cup. OpinionWay pollsters questioned 1,003 people on November 20-21.
REFEREE MARTIN TO RETIRE
Martin Hansson, the referee at the centre of the Thierry Henry handball furore, has spoken at length for the first time about his "turbulent" ordeal and admitted he considered retiring during the fallout from the affair.
Martin Hansson waves away the Republic of Ireland's protests after France's equaliser.
The 38-year-old Swede failed to see Henry's double-paddle of the ball with his hand, which allowed the forward to then cross for William Gallas to head the extra-time equaliser which sent France to next summer's World Cup finals at Ireland's expense.
Speaking to his local newspaper, Sydöstran, Hansson said he hopes to return to high-profile officiating during the final round of Champions League group games next month.
"It has been a turbulent week. I cannot really comment anything about the match, and I'm not the one who decides that. That is Fifa regulations to protect the referees until the investigations are done," he said. "I asked myself if this job is worth all the humiliation I had to face.
"Thoughts like, 'Is this really what I want?' also came up in my head. But now I realise, after all the support I've got, that it wasn't my fault. It was an unlucky situation with big consequences for Ireland. But it wasn't our referee team's fault."
Of his return to refereeing in the Champions League on either 8 or 9 December, he added: "It is good to get a match so soon after all this [ France v Ireland flak]."
Hansson also said that directly after the second leg of the playoff in Paris last Wednesday he and his Swedish assistants returned and were offered support. "[On] Thursday we went to Enköping where all Swedish referees had a meeting. There we were offered support. We talked a lot, which felt good. The group got to know what had happened."
PRETTY teen Charlotte Higgins was rushed to hospital "looking like Elephant Woman" after an allergic reaction to hair dye.
BEFORE: Charlotte Higgins
PRETTY teen Charlotte Higgins was rushed to hospital "looking like Elephant Woman" after an allergic reaction to hair dye.
The 13-year-old blonde did a 48-hour allergy test before using Clairol Perfect 10 to go dark brown.
Despite the test showing negative her face blew up like a balloon two days later.
She had trouble breathing because of swelling to her windpipe, her eyes were forced shut and her neck was burned.
Dad Scott, 39, took her to hospital where she was given anti-histamines and steroids to stop the swelling.
When that failed she had to return for more treatment.
Last night she was beginning to return to normal five days after seeing docs.
Lorry driver Scott, of Whitchurch, Bristol, said: "It's an absolute disgrace. My daughter followed the instructions right the way through, yet she still came out looking like Elephant Woman.
"Her nose and forehead grew to five times their normal size. This has left her emotionally scarred."
Mum Michelle, 35, added: "There should be clearer warnings on the packet."
Clairol apologised and urged Charlotte to contact them.
CASE 2: Horror of hair dye for Paula Paula looking-like-an-alien-after-an-allergic-reaction-to-a-hair-dye
BEFORE: Paula Pratt
A WOMAN had to fight for breath as her face swelled up like an "elephant woman" in a terrifying allergic reaction to hair dye. Paula Pratt, 38, was rushed to hospital when her head and neck ballooned and her eyelids were forced shut.
She was taken to A&E where doctors treated her with steroids and antihistamine tablets.
Married Paula had used a £5 Clairol Nice 'n Easy kit to turn her greying hair a chocolate brown.
She said she followed the instructions and carried out an allergy test before going ahead.
Paula had no obvious problems when her sister helped apply the dye and she went to work as usual the next day. But that evening her head, face and neck began swelling. Her eyes closed and her scalp stretched and began to weep.
Paula said: "The swelling started travelling down my throat and it was hard to breathe." She went on: "I went straight to see my GP. "When I got there I looked like an alien with one side of my face going out like a rugby ball.
"He took one look at me and sent me straight to A & E. By the time I got there the other side of my face had swelled up too. "I couldn't see my ears. The swelling must have gone out about three inches on either side. It was terrifying. I looked like the elephant woman."
Paula, a production manager from Bognor Regis, West Sussex, has now recovered and said she would not seek compensation from Clairol.
But she added: "I want to make people aware of the reactions you can get."
A Clairol spokeswoman said: "Allergic reactions are very rare. However, we recommend all consumers conduct a 48-hour test before each use of our colourant products."
CASE 3:Horror of hair dye for Abigail BEFORE: Schoolgirl Abigail Colbourne ignored instructions to test hair dye first Pain ... Abigail struggled to see after her eyes and head swelled
A SCHOOLGIRL was left "looking like an alien" after an extreme allergic reaction to a hair dye.
Abigail Colbourne, 15, dyed her brown locks darker but didn't do a patch test, as advised.
The Clairol dye caused huge swelling. Abigail, of Sydenham, South London, said: "My eyes were glued together, and my head swelled up. It was terrifying."
Docs reduced the swelling but mum Joanna Leech said: "People should be aware of the effects of these dyes."
Here some exciting and most expensive records of Million Dollar Bra
LATEST BRA: Massage bras helping hand Not only do you look a million dollars but you really feel it as well
It's the amazing new invention that's being hailed a real life wonder bra by both doctors and women.
The Hidrosens uses hidden pouches of water and air to make the most of a woman's assets - and give her an uplifting massage.
Sensors within the 60 GBP bra - flying off the shelves in Europe - are constantly adjusting the fit of the pouches, say Spanish inventors Teleno.
They claim the massaging effect leaves women full of "wellbeing and peace".
"Women feel more comfortable and that their breasts look more firm and natural, apart from the fact that they can show off their cleavage" added Teleno boss Alfons Perez Carballo.
"These bras have undergone extensive testing by doctors and the tests show they increase blood flow to the breasts, improve lymphatic drainage and prevent sagging.
"So not only do you look a million dollars but you really feel it as well," said a spokesman.
An amazing story which promises joy, good luck girls and a huge well done to the surgical team. Surgeons in Australia have successfully separated conjoined twin girls during a complex 32-hour operation. Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna were in serious but stable condition on Wednesday after Australian surgeons separated their conjoined heads in what has been hailed as a “miracle” operation.
The two-year-old girls are being closely monitored as they recover in an induced coma and on ventilators after the marathon 32-hour surgery aimed at giving them healthy lives apart.
Leo Donnan, chief of surgery at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, said doctors will watch for possible infection and how the girls’ organs adapt to the change. There was no immediate evidence of any brain damage, he added. “We have still got many unknown things that will need to be addressed related to how well they recover from the surgery and how their bodies adapt to the separation,” Donnan told reporters.
“They both will have issues with their kidneys and with other organs as well,” he added.
“There is a whole lot of changes that will occur over the next couple of weeks, even into months, and we really don’t know how well they will tolerate those.”
The girls, who also had reconstruction surgery to cover their gaping skulls, will remain in a medical coma for several days before gradually being woken up.
A hospital statement said the pair were in a “serious but stable condition” and had undergone MRI scans on their brains. “They will continue to have various tests for weeks to come.”
Doctors have said there is a 25 percent chance they will both make a complete recovery.
An emotional Moira Kelly, one of the girls’ legal guardians who brought them from Bangladesh, called the events a “miracle”.
“It’s a miracle we have here at the hospital,” Kelly said through tears. “We have beautiful little girls, Trishna and Krishna. They’re so good, they’re looking really good,” she added.
The operation received widespread media coverage in Australia while nuns at the Mother Teresa orphanage, their former home in the Bangladeshi capital, were praying in shifts.
“We are still in touch with them and we have been kept informed of the progress of the operation. Yesterday everyone in the home took turns to pray for them,” said senior nun Sister Olivet.
“Everyone remembers these children. They are very special children and we have many photos of them around the home so we can remember them. It’s wonderful news.”
The girls were close to death when they arrived in Australia two years ago from Dhaka, where doctors said they were powerless to improve their fading health.
But their condition rapidly improved and they developed a unique system of crawling on their backs and a love of Australian children’s band “The Wiggles” while undergoing a series of preparatory operations.
A team of 16 specialists worked through the night, taking regular food and rest breaks and listening to pop music in the operating theatre, before finally separating them at 11:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday.
“I think I’m going to get emotional, but it was definitely one of the most pleasurable moments when we saw them both apart, side by side,” said joint guardian Atom Rahman.
UPDATE: 22 Nov 2009 Bangladeshi mom doesn't want twins back
First photograph of Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna with their birth parents
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP): The mother of recently separated conjoined Bangladeshi twins does not want custody of the daughters she gave up for adoption and wants them to have new lives in Australia, newspapers reported Saturday.
The twins, who turn 3 next months old, had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery in a Melbourne hospital and then underwent an additional six hours of reconstructive work.
The charity that brought Trishna and Krishna from a Dhaka orphanage to Australia two years ago for the surgery, Children First Foundation, will continue to provide care and support for the twins in Australia for at least the next two years, chief executive Margaret Smith said on Friday.
News Corp.-owned Australian newspapers on Saturday published an English translation of an interview with the 23-year-old mother, Lavlee Mollik. She said she and her husband, Kartik Mollik, were praying for their daughters' quick recovery.
"We don't want to get them back because we don't have the ability to take proper care of them," she told the Bangladesh newspaper Daily Shamokal.
But she said she missed them daily and hoped to visit them one day. "It will be the most happy day of my life if I can see them again," she said.
"I want them to live in Australia and be educated in Australia and one day when they have become very respected people, I want them to call me 'mother,"' she said.
The mother, who gave the twins up for adoption after giving birth by cesarean section, said she had followed their progress through the media.
The Associated Press on Saturday was unable to immediately contact the parents, who live in the Jessore district of southwestern Bangladesh.
Trishna awoke from a medically induced coma Thursday and was talking and behaving normally.
In a statement Friday, officials at Royal Children's Hospital said Krishna was still slowly being brought out of her coma.
"She is more alert, starting to breathe more and opening her eyes," the statement said.
Krishna is expected to have a longer period of adjustment as the separation brought more changes to her body and brain's blood circulation. Both girls were in serious but stable condition Friday.
Wirginia Maixner, the hospital's director of neurosurgery, said there may be minor changes to the girls from where their brains were separated but that overall the brains looked good. MRI scans Wednesday showed no signs of brain injury.
Doctors had earlier said there was a 50-50 chance that one of the girls could suffer brain damage from the complicated separation.
An aid worker first saw Trishna and Krishna in the orphanage when they were a month old, and contacted the Children First Foundation.
Smith said it was too early to say whether the girls' legal guardian, Children First Foundation founder Moira Kelly, would adopt them.
"I think she'd like to do that, but that's something we can't make a decision on at the moment," Smith said.
The foundation raised almost 250,000 Australian dollars ($229,000) for the cost of caring for the twins in between numerous earlier surgeries to separate blood vessels connecting their brains. A mystery benefactor funded all hospital costs, Smith said.
Revealed: The real Belle de Jour is Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist
A former prostitute whose memoirs were turned into the TV series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" has revealed her true identity - Brooke Magnanti, a British research scientist.
Magnanti told British newspaper The Sunday Times that she wrote under the pen name Belle de Jour to describe the encounters she had as a high-class call girl while she was earning money as she wrote her PhD.
Stranger than fiction: Escort girl Belle de Jour was leading a double life as Dr Brooke Magnanti the studious scientist who 'outed' herself yesterday
She detailed her secret life in a blog from 2003 which then led to a best-selling book, "The Intimate Adventures of a London call Girl" in 2005, and sparked two more books, as well as a TV series starring Billie Piper that is shown in about 25 countries.
Despite many attempts to discover her true identity and questions over whether her memoirs were genuine, Belle de Jour remained anonymous, until Magnanti, 34, finally decided it was time to unmask herself saying anonymity had become "no fun".
"It feels so much better on this side. Not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about. To be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the sceptics and doubters," she wrote on her blog on Sunday.
"Anonymity had a purpose then - it will always have a reason to exist, for writers whose work is too damaging or too controversial to put their names on ... but for me it became important to acknowledge that aspect of my life and my personality to the world at large."
Magnanti, who lives in Bristol in southwest England, is a research scientist who works as a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol, employed by the University of Bristol.
Book Cover of The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl from fantasticfiction.co.uk
She said she worked as a 300 pounds ($696) an hour prostitute for 14 months for an escort agency in 2003 but had no regrets about that time. She said she felt worse "about my writing than I ever have about sex for money."
A statement on the website of Britain's Orion Books, which published Belle de Jour's novels, said: "It's a courageous decision for Belle de Jour to come forward with her true identity and we support her decision to do so."
"We have published her since 2005 and we are looking forward to continuing that relationship," said the publisher, adding that Belle would not be giving any further interviews.
A spokesman for her employer, the University of Bristol, told the Sunday Times: "This aspect of her past bears no relevance to her current role at the university."
Yu's story made many people feel true love again. "Although the bride passed away, she had the perfect love many people desire but cannot have today,"
Devoted partner Yu Liang, 27, married his fiancee's body after she died just days before their wedding day.
Bride Zhang Jinying, 25, was clothed in her wedding dress and brought up the aisle in a flower-covered glass coffin for the service in Zhengzhou, central China.
Cosmetics saleswomen Jinying had died during an epileptic fit, but her fiance persuaded her grieving parents to go ahead with the service.
"I had promised her a white wedding and I wasn't going to break my word to her. I now feel like her husband," said Liang.
A funeral service was held immediately after the wedding.
Now Liang plans to take the honeymoon the couple planned in Korea - taking a photo of his bride with him.
Yu could not help crying
The bridegroom looks at his wife's parents. A red ribbon, traditionally worn by the bridegroom on his chest, has never been seen in the funeral parlor before.
The priest pronounces them husband and wife.
It was love at first sight
Yu Liang, the bridegroom, is from Chengdu, Sichuan Province and works as a salesperson in a laptop company located in the city of Leshan.
Zhang Jinying, the bride, was from Zhengzhou, Henan Province. She studied in a vocational and technical school and was a Christian.
Yu joined the army in Zhengzhou in December 2003. In December 2006, they became lovers. They were engaged in Chengdu in April 2009 and received their marriage certificate in August 2009. On November 8 2009, Zhang died in Zhengzhou from a sudden epileptic fit. At 6pm on November 9 2009, Yu arrived in Zhengzhou after taking a night flight from Chengdu.
WEDDING 2 French woman marries boyfriend one year after he died A woman in France has married her boyfriend of six years - a year after he died.
Magali Jaskiewicz and Jonathan George had planned to wed at their local town hall in November 2008, but he was killed just two days before the ceremony in a motorcycle accident. Ms Jaskiewitz, 32, used a little-known section of the French civil code that allows posthumous marriages if all the formalities for the wedding were completed before one of the partners died, including the setting of a date.
She proved to officials that she and Mr George had been living together since 2004 and that they shared a bank account. She also provided a photo of the wedding dress she had bought to wear to their wedding.
Standing alone in the aisle at the town hall, she was "married" to Mr George at a ceremony attended by 30 family members and friends in the village of Dommary-Baroncourt, in eastern France, on Saturday.
Around ten posthumous marriages are carried out each year in France, French interior ministry officials said.
The first runner-up, Mrs. USA and her family.
Mrs. Kazakhstan and her son.
Mrs. World 2008 and Mrs. World 2009, both from Russia.
From the left: Mrs. World 2007 Diane Tucker (American), Mrs. World 2009 and Mrs. World 2008.
