The Milanese live up to their effortlessly elegant reputation, writes Zoe Walker.

A Kiwi designer has taken out a top spot at the World Bodypainting Championships in Austria.

A Russian betting firm wants to buy psychic World Cup octopus Paul as a bookmaker and pay him a salary of $NZ7000 a month, according to local media.

Fifteen lucky poker players are headed from Auckland to Queenstown this week for a chance to strike it rich.

Stocks in the US advanced as better-than-anticipated earnings outweighed a decline in homebuilder confidence.

Divers have found what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.

Forget the Large Hadron Collider, Cern's scientists have their hearts set on a new, $9.48 billion, 31km Linear Collider.

Solid earnings data from corporate America has done little to ease investors' concerns that growth in the world economy is slowing.

Stocks in Europe and the US fell after worse-than-expected US economic data bolstered concern about growth.

NZ is one of the best places to shuffle off the mortal coil, according to a new index.

Pierre Herme is to macarons what Heston Blumenthal was to porridge and ice-cream.

Retailer offers a three-year bond where the return is paid in deliveries of chocolate over the period.

The designer will create the kit for the British Olympic team, working in conjunction with the sportswear label Adidas.

Janetta Mackay test drives a host of beauty products, from Paris with love.

Zambesi menswear designer Dayne Johnston takes us inside the fast-paced world of working the Paris fashion collections.

A tourist and a resident give their views on the best bits of the City of Love.

As a nation celebrates World Cup victory, Simon Calder explains why the British love affair with Spain is more passionate than ever.

Swiss citizen Johann Hari wonders how Polanski, who boasted about his crime from exile, was allowed to get away with it.