Frankfurt  - When it comes to choosing clothes, even a good friend isn't completely neutral.

Women who can afford it therefore have sought the advice of a personal style consultant. But as men become more style conscious, they too are increasingly enlisting personal shoppers who advise them style matters and support them in their search for the right outfit.

"This is a service that is well-established in the United States," said Andreas Rose, a style consultant and personal shopper in Frankfurt.

Saarbrucken, Germany  - For professional cyclists, track and field athletes and weightlifters the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is a serious offence.

But amateur athletes and people who are simply dedicated to a chosen sport routinely use pills, powders and injections, according to a German government health report.

Sydney  - It's a dilemma that besets many parents: to have their child start junior school younger than their peers or to delay entry for a year in the hope of a better academic outcome at the end of high school.

New research in Australia shows that, if it matters at all when a child starts school, it's probably better to start them young than hold them back.

"Kids find their own station in life," said Sydney University 's Andrew Martin. "The truth will out."

Stockholm  - A Swedish district court has criticized the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for discriminating against women in its selection process for applicants to veterinary studies.

The district court in the university city of Uppsala, north-west of Stockholm, ruled that 44 women were discriminated against by being denied places in veterinary school even though they had the same grades as the male applicants.

Bielefeld, Germany  - Only one out of 10 Germans desire eternal life, according to a survey of 1,002 people conducted in January by the opinion research company Emnid based in Bielefeld, Germany.

The survey also showed that only 2 per cent of those questioned would like to live to be 150 or 300 years old, while 8 per cent desire a life span of 110 years. Fifty-six per cent would like to live to be 90 years old, and 16 per cent said they would be satisfied with 70 years.

Washington  - The legislature of the US state of Vermont on Tuesday voted to make same-sex marriage legal, overriding the governor's veto of a bill that allowed gay couples to marry.

Vermont becomes the fourth state to allow same-sex marriage, and the first to do so through the legislative process and not court action. It joins the states of Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the courts intervened to make gay marriage legal.