In a bid to prove China's Pearl River is now clean enough for swimmers to dive in, Chinese officials mobilized 3500 swimmers who plunged into the river to confirm its cleanliness in a mass swim. Xinhua news agency quotes the local provincial governor confirmed the river was, "no longer thick and smelly. " The Pearl River flows through Guangzhou, the capital of China's industrial province of Guangdon.

Saudi Prince Bandar has set his 56,000 square-foot mansion on a record sale of $135 million. If the Prince is able to find a buyer the purchase will be the costliest in U. S. real estate history. Real estate agent Joshua Saslove says in a statement to the Aspen Times and the Aspen Daily News that Bandar's mountaintop hideaway has 15 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, a racquetball court, an indoor pool, and other outdoor water features. Saslove says the getaway is up for sale because the prince's been too busy to enjoy his palace.

A woman accused of defrauding a credit union and buying hundreds of items was sentenced to 27 months in prison. "She was a compulsive shopper and was one of the most extreme cases I'd ever seen," Dr. George Perovich, an Allentown psychologist told the AP. Betty Jean Barachie, stole more than $1. 5 million from her job at Northampton-Carbon County Federal Credit Union. She held no contest and pleaded guilty to charges of embezzlement and filing a false federal tax return.

San Francisco, CA (AHN)-A 7-year-old Arizona boy completed an estimated 1. 4-mile swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco's Aquatic Park early Monday.

"Ice Bear" Lewis Gordon Pugh has broken his own world record for the longest ice water swim on Friday. Lewis swam for 1. 2 kilometres inside the Norwegian mountains where the water temperature in the lake, about 300km northeast of Bergen, was just above zero degrees.