Extra! Extra! Casting couches, peacekeepers and warring birds

• How do you say "casting couch" in Chinese? A young actress named Xiao Qiong started a firestorm after writing on her blog about how she was propositioned by a director who offered her a role in a TV show if she slept with him. An insider says that 60 percent of young talents are affected by this practice.
• An 11 -year-old Chinese girl has been given a book deal with Harper Collins for a fantasy novel about warring tribes of birds. Naturally, it was based on the events of September 11 and is her way of expressing her feelings about the violence in the world.
• One of Shenyang Ginde's players is going to miss the rest of the China Super League football season after suffering a split scrotum. Just thinking about that is painful.
• One in 10 Chinese families will have children with birth defects. Some experts claims this happens because pre-marital health checks are no longer mandatory.
• China's peacekeeping force in Lebanon is up to 1,000.
• Korean trannie pop star He Lixiu (her name in Chinese) says that rumors that she doesn't like the Chinese or their food aren't true.
• Han and Tang dynasty style weddings are enjoying a bit of a comeback -- and about time (a thousand years in the coming). Check out the pictures.
• A mafia boss on trial is called the "underground mayor" of his city -- he was that powerful. He might have had a harem.
• Rights groups are saying that at least 50 schools for migrant workers' children have been closed in Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
• Chinese netizens are engaging in dialogue with the Japanese. Through voting, 10 questions to be put to the Japanese were selected and sent to people in various sectors of society. Most of the questions seemed to center around the typical hot-button issues -- Senkaku Diaoyutai Islands, etc. No one asked about those zany panda cartoons.
• Got an idea for the the theme song or mascot for the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai? Send them in.
• Not suprisingly, Alonso's team says that Michael Schumacher will crack under the pressure at next Sunday's Shanghai F1 race.

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