Life

WASHINGTON — “Bo-flakes” featuring the first dog and ornaments fashioned from zippers are among the new twists on traditional favourites at the White House this Christmas season.
First lady Michelle Obama unveiled this year’s decorations before an appreciative crowd of military families Wednesday, then spent some time doing holiday crafts with military kids.

Foccacia is an Italian flatbread like pizza but without the sauce and the dough is thicker. It’s ideal for snacks or you can serve it along with soups or salads.
Mushroom Foccacia
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Rising time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
500 g (1 lb) pizza dough or frozen bread dough, thawed
45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil, divided

MILFORD, Mass. — Don’t tell Popeye. It turns out you don’t need to eat your spinach to get the world’s biggest arms.
Bodybuilder Moustafa Ismail eats three kilograms of protein and four kilograms of carbohydrates and drinks 11 litres of water each day to help maintain upper arms that measure 31 inches around — as big as a small man’s waist.

NEW YORK — With a little planning, a little help and a lot of resolve, holiday entertaining doesn’t have to mean you’re too stressed out to enjoy your own party.
Sometimes, said Michelle Morton, a professional organizer and busy mom of three in Raleigh, N.C., it’s all about attitude.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Cycling through the heart of some European cities can be a terrifying experience as you jostle for space with cars, trucks and scooters that whizz by with only inches to spare.
Thankfully for bicycle enthusiasts, a movement is afoot to create more room for cycling in the urban infrastructure.

OTTAWA—Canadian passports are being upgraded to include chip technology and watermark images.
Foreign Affairs minister John Baird said the new passports will have computer chips embedded in them—technology that’s already used in many other countries.
Each blank page of the document also will contain watermarks depicting iconic images from Canadian history.

HONOLULU — A photograph of a 93-year-old Second World War veteran casting what will likely be his last ballot has captured the hearts of tens of thousands of Internet users.

NEW YORK — Saying the gay population has “suffered a history of discrimination,” an appeals court in New York ruled Thursday that a U.S. law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional. The national fight over gay marriage is expected to reach the country’s top court soon.

TORONTO — A bottle of one of the rarest single malt scotches in the world is going under the gavel this weekend in Toronto, along with plenty of fine and rare wines.

BISMARCK, N.D. — A man who used to own McDonald’s restaurants in North Dakota is about US$10,000 richer after selling a 20-year-old container of McJordan barbecue sauce to a buyer in Chicago.