Seven Days

A glance at the week that was

A glance at the week that was

"I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities"- Fifa president Sepp Blatter when asked about concerns over the treatment of gay fans at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal

The numbers

1,000 - The number of complaints to Ofcom about Rihanna’s and Christina Aguilera’s raunchy performances on the X Factor final

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$147m - The annual takings of Bon Jovi (whose lead singer is Jon Bon Jovi), making them the most successful live act of the year

350 - The number of fake Fabergé eggs seized by customs at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris

We now know

Royal Navy archaeologists have unearthed a 2,400-year-old pot of soup in China

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been named Timemagazine's person of the year

Harrier jump jets have been retired from operation by the UK military

Head wreck

The embalmed head of France's King Henri IV, presumed lost since the French Revolution, has been discovered by a team of scientists. The head was believed to have been taken in 1793 when revolutionaries attacked the graves of French kings in the royal basilica of Saint-Denis, near Paris. Many features consistent with the monarch's face, including hairs, wounds and "a dark, mushroom-like lesion", have led experts to announce its identification in the British Medical Journal.

Smooth talkers

A survey of online flirting says the most effective internet chat-up line for men to use is, “You have beautiful lips”. Badoo.com, a free online dating service with 87 million registered users, analysed the success of around 200,000 ice-breakers in 11 languages during one month. Users of the site were asked to use one of 12 chat-up lines relating to a woman’s appearance; researchers found that complimenting lips was more effective than praising skin, hair or fashion sense.