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Transsexual Thai Air Hostesses: Gimmick or Equality?

With her crisp uniform, immaculate makeup and hair swept up, Mew looks like any other air hostess, but she's one of a handful of Thai transsexuals blazing a trail in the skies.

Fledgling Thailand-based carrier PC Air has hired four transgender cabin crew in a highly publicized recruitment drive that has divided opinion over whether the move is in the spirit of equality or exploitation.

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10 Die in Egypt While Digging for Ancient Treasures

Ten people were killed when the soil caved in on them as they were illegally digging for ancient treasures under a house in a central Egyptian village, police officials told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The 10, including four brothers, were buried alive when the walls of the dig collapsed in the village of Arab al-Manasra, north of the historic city of Luxor.

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Belgian Racing Pigeons Lure Rich Chinese Aficionados

Rich Chinese pigeon fanciers are offering tens of thousands of Euros to buy Belgian champions, to the despair of local pigeon-lovers unable to compete in such sky-high auction bids.

Pigeon-breeding is an old Chinese passion, even though long-distance pigeon-racing has never caught on the way it has in northern Europe.

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Brother Charged after Actress Headless Body Found in Canal

The brother of an actress who starred in popular British soap opera was on Saturday charged with her murder, police said, four days after her headless body was found in a London canal.

Tony McCluskie, 35, was charged with killing his 29-year-old sister Gemma McCluskie, who disappeared last week, Scotland Yard said in a statement, adding that he would appear in court on Monday.

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Speeding Ferrari Driver Caught after YouTube Post

A boastful Ferrari driver who put film on the Internet of his supercar doing three times the speed limit in Japan was facing possible jail Saturday, after disapproving YouTube viewers called police.

The 50-year-old doctor uploaded a six-minute video showing him driving his Ferrari 458 Italia through Fukuoka, in southern Japan, at 84 kilometers (52 miles) an hour over the limit, police said.

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Mass Wedding in Indian 'Village of Sex Workers'

Eight young women whose mothers are sex workers were married in a so-called "village of prostitutes" in India on Sunday under a plan to save them from being pushed into the world's oldest profession.

The event, held in the village of Vadia in the western state of Gujarat, was organized by Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch(VSSM), a non-profit group which works with marginalized nomadic communities.

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S.Africa Woman Gets House Arrest for Shoe Attack

A South African woman has been placed under house arrest after she was found guilty of assaulting another woman with a high-heeled shoe at a nightclub over a missing bracelet, media reported Friday.

The Pretoria District Court found Meryl Lotriet, 23, guilty of assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm and sentenced her to 18-months of house arrest, for attacking Nelly Dean, 41, in 2010, according to the Beeld newspaper.

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Floating Bookshop Sails on Amid Electronic Storm

Despite fierce storms, a deadly bomb attack and growing competition from electronic media, a Christian charity still sails the seas on a mission to offer cheap books while promoting family values.

The "Logos Hope", which docked in Manila Bay last month, is the latest in a fleet of converted ferries that have been selling books in harbours of mostly poor nations for the past four decades.

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Raspberry and Chili? The Secrets of The Macaroon Master

Some call him the king of cakes. Vogue dubbed him the "Picasso" of pastry. Whatever the moniker, Pierre Herme, who started as a humble apprentice at the venerable French patisserie Lenotre, is right at the top of his game.

In Japan, where the 50-year-old French chef opened his first own-name boutique, he is a red-carpet star, and his wildly popular delicacies are rolled out in themed collections, like fashion lines, in London or Paris.

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Hisss and Hers: When Women are Best at Spotting Snakes

Women who have just finished ovulating are better at detecting snakes than at other times of their menstrual cycle, according to an unusual study that sheds light on in-built reflexes for survival.

Nobuo Masataka of Japan's Kyoto University tested 60 healthy women of child-bearing age at three different phases of their cycle.

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