A new Dutch program tests the limits of reality television by following a woman searching for a potential sperm donor in order to conceive a child. Billionaire television producer John de Mol, behind the pioneer show Big Brother, launched the show earlier this month on his new TV station Talpa.

Thailand is trying attract tourists back to its beaches by calling in a revered Chinese sea goddess to ward off the spirits of thousands who died in last December's tsunami. A statue of Godmother Ruby, known as Mazu in Chinese, will be brought to the Thai island of Phuket from the Chinese coastal province of Fujian next month for ghost-clearing rites, says Suwalai Pinpradab of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

A wealthy Dallas developer quit his influential city job to fight the deportation of his younger Chinese wife, whom he married after leaving his wife of 30 years. Ralph Isenberg, 53, and his wife, Nicole, who turns 41 on Friday, ignored a U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement order that she leave the country by August 15 and are fighting it in New York, attorney Ted Cox says.

Thailand is trying attract tourists back to its beaches by calling in a revered Chinese sea goddess to ward off the spirits of thousands who died in last December's tsunami. A statue of Godmother Ruby, known as Mazu in Chinese, will be brought to the Thai island of Phuket from the Chinese coastal province of Fujian next month for ghost-clearing rites, says Suwalai Pinpradab of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Stephen King and John Grisham are among 16 authors selling the right to have a character in a book named for the highest bidder in an effort to raise money for the First Amendment Project, a California-based nonprofit group that promotes freedom of information and expression. Details of exactly what each author is offering have been posted on Internet auction site eBay and the auctions will be held between September 1 and September 25, the group says, according to Reuters.