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Photo: Three young men from Henan province who started building robots for fun modeled after characters from the Hollywood blockbuster Transformers have been cashing in on their work. Their first creation, a 3-meter-high robot made from recycled auto parts, sold for 10,000 yuan ($1,600).

Forum topic: Pet lovers are spending billions on their animals in China's latest growth industry. A growing number of middle-class couples are choosing to lavish their time and money on pets rather than on children. Is this too much?

Bilingual news: South Korean children are the least happy among youngsters in developed countries, according to a government study, which cited the stress of the country's educational system. South Korea ranked near the bottom among 30 countries in terms of children's satisfaction with their lives, the health ministry said, followed only by Romania and Poland. "The most relevant factor to the children's life satisfaction is academic stress, followed by school violence, Internet addiction, negligence and cyberviolence," the ministry said. The study covered more than 4,000 households with children younger than 18.