■ BERLIN. What says Christmas like a serial killer?

A German advent calendar for children has become a hot seller since word got out it has a picture of a notorious serial killer on it. The cartoon calendar shows Fritz Haarmann, who murdered 24 young men and boys in the 1920s, lurking under a tree with a hatchet next to the door for December 1. Below him, Santa Claus hands out presents to children in a festive-looking Hanover. A local tourism office included the serial killer alongside 23 other celebrities in the northern city, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and hard rock band The Scorpions. Haarmann?s depiction featured in last year?s edition, but this year it is attracting wider attention because top-selling newspaper Bild questioned whether the use of the murderer in a children?s calendar was in good taste. ?People are queuing up to buy the calendar now,? said a surprised Hans Nolte, director of the city?s tourism.

■ LONDON. The look of love is all in the eyes.

Burt Bacharach penned the music four decades ago and Dusty Springfield sang about it in the James Bond film Casino Royale. Now, researchers have concluded that ?The Look of Love? is, indeed, all in the eyes: looking directly at someone makes you more attractive to them. The finding, from the Face Research Laboratory at Aberdeen University, challenges previous studies that have attributed attractiveness to physical characteristics ? such as a preference for symmetrical faces, large lips in women and strong jaw-lines in men. Dr Claire Conway, author of the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society on the day before, said that maintaining eye contact and smiling makes you more attractive. Conway and fellow researchers analyzed the effect of gaze direction, facial expressions and gender on attractiveness.

■ WASHINGTON. Cold virus chief suspect in AIDS vaccine failure.

A cold virus used to make an experimental HIV vaccine that was discontinued in September somehow may have caused volunteers to be more susceptible to the AIDS virus, the vaccine?s developers said on the day before. Researchers were doubly dismayed when it appeared that those who had been vaccinated were more likely to become infected, and cautioned more than 3,000 volunteers who had been testing the vaccine that they may be at higher risk of infection.

■ WASHINGTON. Dandruff?s genes sequenced.

First, researchers grew enough fungus to give dandruff to 10 million people. Next, they sequenced its genes. Then they found out that not only does an icky fungus live on your head and cause dandruff ? but it could be having sex. On your head. Right now.

A team at Procter & Gamble Beauty said on recently they had sequenced the genome of Malassezia globosa, a fungus that grows on the skin of between 50 % and 90 % of the population. It causes dandruff and a range of other skin conditions.