In Cuba, many women are paying top dollar to marry foreigners in arranged ceremonies in order to leave their country. In some cases, the bride to be doesn't even get to meet her arranged groom until the day of the wedding. The arranged marriages come with a hefty price, though. The going rate for an America, Canadian, European, or Mexican groom is about $5,000. 00. A Costa Rican willing to marry can accept about $2,000. 00 and a Peruvian at the best bargain is at only $800. 00.

A researcher says that Native American tales describing a "Thunderbird" and a "Whale" point to "at least two massive quakes and tsunamis" that have hit the area in the last 1,100 years. Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington researcher, has been working with seismologists, to look into the U. S. West Coast's "geomythology. "

A tabloid is making good on an offensive article that labeled a police officer who suffered disfiguring burns in a crash while on duty as "ugly. "American Media Inc. , owner of the Weekly World News, ran a list of the ''top 10 ugliest people'' in its Feb. 7 issue featuring a post-surgery photo of the disfigured officer and his wife.

A bid by Indonesia's first directly elected president to be closer to his people by publicizing his mobile phone number backfires over the weekend, after thousands of calls crashed the line. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the number on Saturday saying anyone could call or send text messages if they wanted to complain about government services. By Monday, Indonesian newspapers were carrying stories of people complaining they couldn't get through.