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A wealthy Indian teacher has built a replica of the Taj Mahal for his wife - and says their sprawling new home is 'a symbol of his love' for her. Anand Prakash Chouksey, 52, from Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh state, built the 10,000 sq ft marble house for his wife Manju Shah, 48, also a teacher. Just like the famous 17th century mausoleum - one of the seven wonders of the world - it features towers around the outside and a dome while the flooring and façade are made of marbles from Makrana that were also originally used in the Taj Mahal. The house, about one third the size of the original building, has four bedrooms, one hall, a library and a meditation room and took three years to...

Indonesia plans to clear forest land roughly the size of Belgium. Forest land of about 30,689 square km will be cleared to grow sugarcane for bioethanol, along with rice and food crops, according to a report by the Associated Press. Citing environment watchdogs, the Associated Press report mentioned this as the largest planned deforestation in the world. “Imagine every piece of vegetation in that area being completely cleared ... having all the trees and the wildlife erased from the landscape and replaced with a monoculture. It’s creating a zone of death in one of the most vibrant spots on Earth,” said Glenn Horowitz, chief executive of US non-governmental organisation...

Luxury is often associated with short stays in high-end hotels, an expensive treat reserved for special occasions. However, a surprising trend is taking hold in parts of China where people are trading in their homes to live full-time in luxury hotels. Across various Chinese provinces, residents are opting for hotel living over traditional housing. Many say it spares them the stress of apartment hunting and dealing with landlords. They enjoy the comfort and convenience of hotel life and some even claim it’s cheaper than buying a home. Chinese Residents Opting For Hotels Over HomesAccording to Audit Central, an increasing number of people in China are opting to live in hotels rather...

In Kenya’s Nakuru County, two young Belgian citizens were arrested on suspicion of illegally transporting natural resources, Euronews reported. Law enforcement found 5,000 ants packed into small test tubes in their possession. The young men claimed they had collected the insects just for fun and were unaware it was illegal. They were taken to court in Nairobi. At the same time, two other men — citizens of Kenya and Vietnam — were also charged with ant smuggling in the same courtroom. According to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the individuals were involved in illegally exporting insects to black markets in Asia and Europe. “Illegal export of ants not only...

A man in China who has a habit of smelling his dirty socks recently ended up with a lung infection. A middle-aged office employee from Chongqing was admitted to the hospital following the diagnosis, Sinar Harian reported. The man underwent a CT and MRI scan, and his doctor discovered a suspicious shadow at the bottom of his right lung. A bronchoscopy revealed that the lung was infected with mold due to Aspergillus disease. Aspergillosis is an infection caused by a type of mold, typically affecting the respiratory system. The fungus is often found on decaying leaves and compost. After he was questioned about the possible cause of the illness, he admitted to having a habit of smelling...

A 27-year-old Japanese man has trended on social media because his unconventional name of “Happy” has brought him just the opposite. After Happy Terauchi’s story was reported by ABEMA Prime TV at the end of March, a heated discussion about unusual names was triggered on the internet. His name was given to him by his mother to mark the overwhelming joy she felt when Terauchi, her first child, was born. But she did not expect his name would bring him so much trouble. Terauchi’s name attracted much attention at school and led to him being bullied.   (Terauchi’s name has given him nothing but trouble throughout his life. Photo: ABEMA Prime) He hates...

With its eyes closed in eternal prayer, a 1.7-meter-tall statue of a Buddha was unearthed by the Korean Archaeology Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences and the National Authority for the Protection of Cultural Heritage at an archaeological site in Yakjon-ri, South Phyongan Province, North Korea. It is an early relic of the Goryeo (pronounced “Koryo”) dynasty, which rose in 918 A.D. and lasted until 1392. Also known as the Golden Age of Buddhism (or the Age of Enlightenment) in Korea, the Goryeo dynasty—which was a Buddhist state—saw the flourishing of religious art and architecture known as Bulsa, or “Buddhist Projects.” Goryeo Korea was...

EUTIN, Germany (AP) — It’s timber over Tinder in a forest in northern Germany where the Bridegroom’s Oak has connected lovers for more than a century.   (A letter posted in a hole in the Bridegroom’s Oak which has a famous knothole that has been used as a mailbox since 1892, in Dodau forest, near Eutin, northern Germany, Saturday, March 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Known as “Bräutigamseiche” in German, the Bridegroom’s Oak has a famous knothole that’s been used as a mailbox since 1892. It even has its own postal code in the Dodau Forest some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Berlin. Mail carriers from the German postal...

Yu started from humble beginnings, having been born in a small village in China's southern Hunan province in 1922, according to Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. In 1949, he left his hometown for Shanghai, where he worked multiple jobs in hopes of achieving success. However, he faced imprisonment for several years due to false accusations, leading to the confiscation of his entire savings. Upon regaining his freedom, Yu moved to Hong Kong in 1958 and started working as a toilet cleaner for a large firm. While his colleagues often rushed their jobs, Yu was diligent and made his best efforts at work and even came to work on the weekends when others were seeking rest or...

ပစိဖိတ်သမုဒ္ဒရာမှာရှိတဲ့ ကမ္ဘာ့အနက်ဆုံးသမုဒ္ဒရာချောက်နက်ကြီး Mariana Trench ရဲ့အောက်ဆုံးဖျားဆီသို့ သင်ကိုယ်တိုင်ကူးခက်သွားခဲ့ရင် အံ့ဩစရာ ပင်လယ်ရေနေသတ္တဝါတွေကို မြင်တွေ့ရမှာတော့ အမှန်ပါပဲ။   အပြင်ပန်းက ကြည့်ရှုရင်တောင် အပြာရောက်နက်နက်နဲ့ လှပနေတဲ့...