Sydney - The wine snobs who said Australians would never forsake bottles with corks for screw-topped ones have been proved wrong.

More than 70 per cent of this year's vintage will go on sale in bottles with metal caps. In fact, corks are now most prevalent in the cheap end of the market rather than in top-shelf wines.

To blunt the shift to metal, Portugal's Amorim has gone on the offensive, saying corks are the more environmentally sound solution because screw tops require four times more greenhouse gases to produce than corks do.

The world's largest producer of corks has a million-dollar advertising campaign running that tugs at the heartstrings of Australian drinkers.

Berlin - A cell phone's ringtone can be just about anything. It can imitate the ring of an old-fashioned telephone, reproduce a snappy 1980s pop song or even sound like a frog ribbeting.

But in particular social situations it's best to play it safe when setting the ringtone. While out with a group of friends or business associates, a straight-forward ringtone or a silent vibration are stylistically the most elegant choices. It could put others off, if the ringtone sounds like a toilet flushing.

Hamburg - Daughters have a particular influence on their mothers when it comes to fashion, according to a survey.

Hamburg - To meet the demands of tourists who are invariably surprised by the caprices of summertime weather, German researchers have developed a "convertible" canvas shoe that morphs into a sandal with the flick of a zipper.

And if the weather suddenly changes again (which it always does during a summer vacation), you just zip the canvas top back onto the sandal soles - while meanwhile putting up the top on your convertible rental car.

Best of all, you don't have to pack beach sandals in your luggage. You are already wearing two-in-one shoes. Arriving at the beach, you just remove the canvas tops and slip them into your backpack and - presto - you are wearing comfy sandals.

Hamburg, Germany -

Hamburg - Having a best friend is especially important to women, a recent representative survey of women aged 25 to 55 in Germany shows.

Asked what really counts in life, 97 per cent answered "having and keeping good friends." In second place was a relationship: 95 per cent of the women questioned said it was especially important to have a long-term partner and to be happy in the relationship.

The study, which appears in the August edition of a lifestyle magazine published in Hamburg, also showed that 91 per cent consider financial independence an important life goal.