INDIA. Movie star Bachchan is Indian of the Year. Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, whose star and sex appeal remains undiminished by age, has been voted Indian of the Year, the Times of India reported yesterday. An opinion poll in the newspaper said 15 percent of Indians voted for the 64-year-old actor as the most popular citizen, far ahead of the five percent who backed star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and ruling Congress party president Italian-born Sonia Gandhi. Bachchan got maximum votes from housewives ? 19 percent ? and those in the 35-45 age category in the survey of 1,005 people in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. He was also the overwhelming choice in the Indian capital, where he completed college, where 31 percent voted for him. Tendulkar, currently playing for India in a cricket series against South Africa, was second ranked, despite a slump in form over the past year. Singh, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal ? who is of Indian origin ? and Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai each followed with four percent votes each.

JAPAN. Giant squid caught on video by scientists. Its mass of reddish tentacles flailing, a giant squid fought a losing battle to evade capture in a video unveiled by Japanese scientists on Friday. Images of the squid ? a relatively small female about 3.5 metres long and weighing 50 kg (110 lb) ? were the ultimate prize for zoologists at the National Science Museum, who have been pursuing one of the ocean?s most mysterious creatures for years. Little was known until recently about the creature thought to have inspired the myth of the ?kraken?, a tentacled monster that was blamed by sailors for sinking ships off Norway in the 18th century.

CHINA. PhD students say ?humbug!? to Christmas. Ten doctoral students from three of China?s top universities have posted an online petition slamming local Christmas celebrations and calling on people to ?resist Western cultural invasion?, state media said on Friday.

The students from the elite Peking, Tsinghua and People?s universities railed against ?American and European culture? expanding throughout China along with ?their technological and economic domination?, the China Daily said. ?Occidental culture has been more like storms sweeping through the country rather than mild showers,? the paper quoted the petition ? dated with China?s traditional lunar calendar ? as saying. It was a ?failure on the part of the government to maintain Chinese traditions, while encouraging the economy?. The authors criticised retailers for using the festival to boost business and local people for revelling without knowing the origin of the occasion, the paper said. ?On Christmas Eve, people must wait for seats at nearly every restaurant in Beijing and other cities in China,? the authors lamented. Western festivals like Christmas and Valentine?s Day have become popular among China?s youth in recent years, but some have worried traditional Chinese culture is being swept away in the country?s headlong economic boom. China?s Communist rulers only officially recognise one traditional festival ? Chinese Lunar New Year. Others, like the Dragon Boat Festival, are still formally marked in Hong Kong and Taiwan.