● HONG KONG. World female eating star wins debut Asian contest. The world?s top female speed-eating champion chomped her way to a 28th eating record yesterday, wolfing down 17 Chinese-style lotus seed buns in 12 minutes during her debut competition in Asia. Sonya Thomas (photo), stuffing her mouth with the jumbo buns amid swigs of water, obliterated competitors from Hong Kong and China in the ?Whampoa Asia Eating Championship.? ?I still feel hungry,? said the Korean-American from Virginia, United States, after winning a $20,000 (US$2,500) cheque. Runner up Johnny Wu, the Hong Kong Eating Champion, managed nine buns. In the semi-finals on Saturday, Thomas consumed 176 Chinese- style vegetable dumplings against Wu?s 74. The Hong Kong victory was the first for the waif-like Thomas in Asia, as she seeks to expands her reputation beyond the established American circuit of Krystal hamburgers, hot-dogs, chicken wings and waffles. ?I?d say she?s the Billie Jean King of eating,? said her publicist ?Hungry? Charles Hardy, who once competed against Thomas, referring to the former tennis champion. The eating champion from the United States has amassed 28 records in a variety of speed-eating events, including eating 552 oysters in 10 minutes and five kg of cheesecake in nine minutes. Despite a string of successes, Thomas has not managed to dethrone the current world eating champion, Takeru Kobayashi of Japan. ?I?ve never beat him. His speed is sooo good,? she said. ?He?s very strong, his mind. That?s why he?s number one in the world (?). That?s my goal. I want to beat him some day,? she added.

● CUBA. Castro says he is better, but still at risk. Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he is ?considerably? better, but still at risk, in an 80th birthday message to Cubans published yesterday by the newspaper Juventud Rebelde. ?To say the stability has improved considerably is not to tell a lie. To say that the period of recovery will be short and there is now no risk, would be absolutely incorrect,? Castro said in the message published on the youth daily?s Web site. The newspaper published four photographs of Castro showing him sitting up, wearing a sweat suit and speaking on the telephone.

● FRANCE. Politician-in-bikini photos raise eyebrows. Paparazzi photographs of Socialist presidential hopeful Segolene Royal (photo) in a turquoise bikini have raised eyebrows in France and underlined the spread of celebrity culture into France?s traditionally sober political coverage.

This week?s edition of celebrity magazine ?Closer? included a cover picture of Royal on holiday in bathing suit, cap and sunglasses as part of a survey of ?50 stars at the beach.?

The photos have sparked widespread radio and newspaper comment including a long article in the ultra-serious Le Monde.

Both politicians are shrewd at using the media to push their image as modern politicians ready to breathe life into France?s hidebound political system and both have faced accusations they place style and image over substance.

The French media has traditionally been very discreet about covering politicians? private lives, steering clear of sensitive issues and sparing them the relentless attention faced by their counterparts in countries like Britain.

Royal initially considered taking legal action but eventually decided against it so as not to whip up even more interest in the issue.

Le Monde?s cartoonist Plantu took a more jaundiced view, showing a bikini-clad Royal lying on the beach under a television camera and asking her partner, Socialist Party head Francois Hollande: ?Can you rub a bit of cream in??

● PHILIPPINE. Volcano shows signs of imminent eruption. Mount Mayon, a volcano in the central Philippines, showed signs a major eruption was imminent as it belched smoke and spewed burning rocks and mud, scientists said yesterday. Four explosions have been recorded since Saturday. One mild eruption shot gray ash columns into the air and sent heated volcanic debris cascading down Mayon?s slopes, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). Last week, Phivolcs scientists warned that Mayon, the country?s most active volcano, could explode any time, raising the alert level to 4 and forcing more than 40,000 people to move from an 8-km danger zone on Mayon?s southeast flank. A major hazardous eruption had been expected Wednesday night due to the possible gravitational pull of a full moon, but the volcano calmed for the next three days. A full moon coincided with at least three of Mayon?s nearly 50 explosions over the last 400 years, including the most recent in 2000 and 2001.