Stress leads to daily grind

BERLIN: The alarm clock rings and you slowly lift your body from the bed. Your eyes are not fully open yet and there's a pain in your jaw that is so rigid you can feel the pressure right up to your temples.

Only fools rush brushing, say dentists

BERLIN: Cleaning teeth is usually a hurried affair. Most people grab a brush, squeeze a blob of toothpaste on the bristles and scour away for a few minutes.

Seeking out help to shake the blues

BERLIN: Everyone is familiar with bad moods, love sickness and feeling low when going through a tough time in life.

Mice studies shed light on asthma

PARIS: French scientists studying lactating mice say they can add an important piece of evidence to a charged debate as to whether breastfeeding helps protect a child against asthma.

IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Life Style

Big shoes to fill

PARIS: When Valentino took his final bow in Paris last week at his final collection before retirement, there were plenty of front-row female tears. Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu and various Ladies and Dames all pitched up to pay their respects, summing up the designer's reputation for attracting the celebrities and what Tom Wolfe dubbed "social x-rays".

Labels taking the plunge on aquatic haute couture

PARIS: While the real world ponders the prospect of global recession, we in the fashion industry have been mainly thinking about coral. Not saving Caribbean reefs, or anything useful like that, you understand, but clothes that look a bit like it.

Battle of the brands

Erdos, China's largest cashmere products company, gave a catwalk show in Beijing recently to showcase its new, luxury fashion brand "1436 Erdos". The name 1436 comes from the yarn of the cashmere used in the products and is positioned as a deluxe, semi-fashion brand offering high-quality cashmere apparel.

Life Expat

Sultans of swing

Former jockey Geoff Barton was ensconced in the Australian thoroughbred scene when he received the telephone call that would be the opening chapter of his China story. It was an unexpected opportunity that came while Barton was dealing with tragedy, and one that saw him headed for a foreign land to be part of a bold venture that has been described as China's greatest gamble.

Brit enjoys his Beijing takeaway

One Beijing expat shares what he most enjoys about life in the Chinese capital on the forum www.thebeijinger.com. The contributor, a British man who has lived here for more than two years, posted his observations under the title, "Living in Beijing as a foreigner is awesome".