Waitress Melina Salazar got a windfall just before Christmas and from a most unexpected benefactor. Salazar, a waitress at Luby's cafeteria in Brownsville, was amazed when she received $50,000 and a 2000 Buick from her one of her most loyal customers. The posthumous tip came from 89-year-old Walter "Buck" Swords, who passed away in July.

It used to be that thousands of Filipinos and foreigners would search the islands, spurred on by myths of Japanese World War II plunder. For decades, fortune seekers have traveled to the archipelago in search of hidden riches stolen by Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita and allegedly hidden across the island nation. However a new edict by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza will place all treasure-hunting activities under the watchful eyes of government regulation to protect the nation's natural and cultural heritage.

Hundreds of thousands of holiday greeting cards and get-well-soon letters for injured American soldiers were returned to sender or thrown away unopened and never reached their destinations. The Pentagon and Postal service have refused to deliver mail letters addressed to wounded troops since the September 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, for fear terrorists might send toxic materials or bad messages to the recovering soldier wounded during war.

A book with a lock of John Lennon's hair will be put up for auction on Wednesday, and experts predict that it could go for as much as $6,200. The book "A Spaniard in the Works" was the same one Lennon gave to Betty Glasgow, the official Beatles hairdresser, with the lock of hair purposely inserted inside. Inside the book can be found the inscription, "To Betty, Lots of Love and Hair, John Lennon. "

Nicole Kidman was the first to sign a United Nations movement to prevent violence against women, saying, "Think of it, actually being a woman puts you at risk. " "One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime. This is an appalling human rights violation, yet it remains one of the invisible and under-recognized pandemics of our time," Kidman said.