Rogue trading is all in a day's work, says Nick Leeson who toppled Barings Bank in 1995 with illicit trading worth $1. 6 billion, but the $7. 2 billion fraud that cost France's banking giant Societe Generale is frightening. "Rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence within the financial markets," Leeson told the BBC. "What shocked me was the size. I never for one moment believed it would get to this degree of magnitude, this degree of loss. "

orld-popular cartoon characters The Smurfs are now 50 years old and Belgians have prepared a big birthday bash starting early this week. The celebration will cover key European cities including Paris and Berlin. The Smurfs, the diminutive blue-colored forest dwellers, were created by late Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, fondly called 'Peyo,' through a comic strip in the late 1950s-back then, they were still called Schtroumpf. In the early 1980s, Smurfs debuted on US television and became hugely popular worldwide since then.

A German policeman has emerged as the new world champion of the hybrid sport of chessboxing by stopping his opponent in seven rounds of alternating rounds of chess and boxing. Effectively warding off American David 'Double D' Depto's punches, Frank Stoldt abbreviated the light-heavyweight fight with a checkmate in the seventh round, much to the delight of the 1,200 cheering fans in Berlin.

Collectors who wants a piece of history will be given an opportunity to own a big piece of Eiffel Towel stairway on November 19 when the Paris' Drouot auction house place the 4. 5 meter-high segment of the stairway under the hammer. In a statement, the auction house expects the 15-foot segment, which weighs at least 1,540 lbs to fetch between $21,000 to $28,000.

A University of California, Los Angeles student, who was given Paris Hilton's former cell phone number by her wireless company, said she is inundated with late night calls and messages meant for the hotel heiress. The student, Shira Barlow, accidentally dropped her phone in water and when she tried to replace it, her phone company insisted on reassigning her new phone number. In just two days of owning the number, Barlow was flooded with calls and texts pouring in with questions about the parties and other stuff. If this was not enough, many people sent her support messages after Hilton was sentenced to jail May 4.