Australia

Most of the richest women in the world have one thing in common: It was their husbands or fathers who actually earned the wealth. But while Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart inherited $75 million from her dad, it was by her own efforts that she multiplied that sum -- 386 times.

Once again, 24/7 Wall St. has examined the OECD's report on life satisfaction. And once again, the United States fails to make the top 10 happiest nations in the world. Which countries do? Some may surprise you.

Forget black cats, broken mirrors and unstoppable psychopaths in hockey masks -- on Friday the 13th, the biggest terrors sometimes hit our wallets. No, the Great Crash of 1929 didn't start on a Friday, but a fair number of financial disasters did.

China's race to space is the science and technology story grabbing the headlines these days. But it's China's down-to-earth move into semiconductor country that should worry investors most.

Each year, a disturbing number of women fall prey to fraudsters posing as U.S. servicemen, who woo them long-distance, then ask for cash. "A couple of years ago we were getting hundreds of calls a year about this scam," says Christopher Grey of the Army Criminal Investigation Command. "Now we get thousands."

Simon Baker plays a not-quite-psychic sleuth on The Mentalist and a shady brokerage boss in the new film Margin Call. But in real life, he's not trying to read the tea leaves of Wall Street to manage his money: His working class upbringing made him a very conservative money man.

L.A. has been exceptionally kind to Yvonne Strahovski, the long, blonde spy-babe on NBC's Chuck and the lone pretty face in the new film Killer Elite. But if you don't get the help you need after your big break, Hollywood can kill you with kindness, so Strahovski had to adapt fast.

For the fifth straight year, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, bested 139 other cities worldwide in ratings of "relative comfort" to hold onto the right to call itself the World's 'Most Liveable' City, according to new rankings by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Among the questions investors now face: How much rally is left in cotton since skyrocketing 171% already in a year? Among the variables to consider are weather, demand and how much more land gets devoted to cotton. Analysts point to better and worse ways to play this commodity.

Sugar prices hit three-decade highs of almost 36 cent a pound Wednesday due to the anticipated effects of the monstrous category 5 cyclone that just hit Australia, the world's third-largest sugar producer, which was already suffering from the effects of recent storms and floods.