Sydney  - Alex Bellini fell just 65 kilometres short of his bid to row the 18,000 kilometres of Pacific Ocean between Lima and Sydney.

After nine months at sea, and almost in sight of Australia's east coast, the Italian activated his EPIRB, or emergency beacon, in December and the rescue cavalry was called out.

It wasn't a difficult, dangerous or costly rescue, but it fed into a debate in Australia and New Zealand about curbing the limits of solo seafaring.

Hamburg  - A wedding dress should be festive, and a close look at the current bridal collections reveal more than just classic styles and fabrics.

The trend is toward details such as jewellery elements that are placed sparingly on the dress. This is an example of how bridal designers have been inspired by casual wear.

"It's all about inconspicuous elegance - the new style isn't loaded down or opulent," said designer Christiane Wirth of Ilsenburg, Germany, who designs her own bridal gowns.

Sydney  - With Australians now buying more bicycles than cars, you would think that cycling to work would be accelerating at a similar rate.

It's not.

Of the commuting done in Sydney, only around 1 per cent is by bike. In comparison, in some Scandinavian cities the proportion of those cycling to work is around one-third.

Statistician and avid cyclist Dorothy Robinson has pondered this conundrum. She reckons that repealing laws passed in the 1990s requiring cyclists to wear helmets would get bikes out of garages and onto the roads.

Hamburg  - Every bride wants to be the most beautiful woman at her wedding. Her dress, shoes, veil and flowers are carefully selected, ordered, purchased and prepared in advance.

But the bride's outfit is not complete until her make-up is on and her hair is styled. However, women should not go overboard on their big day. Hair and makeup do not require a lot of preparation.

Frankfurt  - There are many ways couples can save money when planning their wedding.

"The bridal gown most certainly can be rented for a reasonable price or bought second-hand," said Friederike Mauritz, chairwoman of the association of German wedding planners in Frankfurt. A second-hand dress may have to be altered, so that cost should be taken into consideration when considering the purchase.

Munich - Art auction houses are not all gloomy about prospects in 2009 despite the global financial and economic crisis.

While art works remained unsold at auctions last autumn and the flurry of record prices in recent years has given way to a more sober-minded market, art buyers with bags of money are still out there, said the president of Sotheby's Germany.