Monitor: US to release five female prisoners in Iraq: Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A US military spokesman in Baghdad confirmed Wednesday statements by Iraq Justice Ministry officials who said five women detainees are scheduled to be released Thursday.

...The American military spokesman said Thursday's release of the female Iraqi detainees is unconnected to (journalist Jill) Carroll's abduction. He stated that the US military and Iraqi government had processed the women's cases according to normal procedures and determined they did not need to be held any longer.

Here's number one:

1. Bubble Trouble "If you grew up in Danvers, and you remember it as the spooky place on the hill, it might not be the right place to live."

-- William McLaughlin, an executive with AvalonBay Communities, which is converting boarded-up Massachusetts mental institution Danvers State Hospital into a 497-unit complex of high-end apartments and condos. That sound you hear? Not the ghosts of mental patients, but loud hissing from the wildly inflated housing bubble, which tops our list this year with seven priceless moments of real estate insanity. First up: the nuthouse-to-yuppie-house trend currently sweeping North America, with such conversions also planned in Detroit, New York, Vancouver, and Columbia, S.C., where the centerpiece of the development is an original brick building with the word "asylum" chiseled into the facade.

Well, where would you put the Old Folks Rock 'n' Roll Rest Home?

Reviews of new (mostly odd) food: McSweeney's reviewers remember and relate, although some review, Primal Strips Vegan Jerky; Hot & Spicy Shiitake; Coddle; expired fennel seeds; White Chocolate Key Lime Almond Joy, Caramel Apple Fig Newtons, Red Bull and many, many more.

Beautiful China. Amazing photos. You thought China was crowded? Not here.

23 stunning photos on a page, that's all.