Goldman Sachs threw a party last month at Pier 36 in the Lower East Side to celebrate its new partner class, Daily Intelligencer's Kevin Roose reports.

The investment bank hasn't thrown a party after its partner dinner since 2006.  

The reason the bank didn't hold parties in 2008 or 2010 is because some "might have found it offensive," a Goldman source told Roose.  Lavish parties across Wall Street pretty much disappeared after the financial crisis hit.

Roose also found an Instagram user, who was at the gala and posted photos of the super swanky event.  She described the party as being like the "Golden Globes of investment banking!"

Being named a partner at Goldman is a huge deal. It's one of the most highly coveted titles on Wall Street and it comes with its own set of perks, including a hefty paycheck and now, it seems, a really nice party.   

Read the rest of Roose's scoop at the Daily Intelligencer >

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We've been highlighting impressive college students across the country, and this Rubik's Cube-juggling Stanford student takes today's cake.

Mathematics undergrad Ravi Fernando, '14, demonstrates his unique skill: solving a Rubik's Cube while juggling. stanford.io/XnK7Sq

— Stanford University (@Stanford) February 28, 2013

Fernando, a member of the World Cube Association, has previously solved a cube in 7.65 seconds. (Here's what an 8-second solve looks like.)

SEE ALSO: The 22 Most Impressive Students At Harvard Right Now

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BERLIN -  "Tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan famously implored in Berlin in 1987, challenging Mikhail Gorbacev to bring an end to the Cold War. Now, it appears, this was also the much quieter request of a luxury condominium developer.

The longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, stretching 1,316 meters (4,317.6 feet), and located in the borough of Friedrichshain, has been a protected monument of the Iron Curtain era. But now, this piece of history known as the East Side Gallery, is scheduled to be removed to make way for luxury apartments, German daily Die Welt reports.

Wall segments were already removed a few years ago to create a marina and park. Now the removal of several more of the concrete slabs is to facilitate access to the Spree River which, borough mayor Franz Schulz  said, is necessary for several reasons including the creation of an emergency exit for park visitors, and the rebuilding of the pedestrian bridge linking Friedrichshain to the borough of Kreuzberg which had been demolished by a bomb in 1945.

But according to Die Welt, irate citizens see another reason: the construction of a 63 meter (207 feet) high “luxury” apartment tower. In the words of one protester, removing slabs from “the longest still existing stretch of wall along the former ‘death strip’ […]” would “definitively and irrevocably” destroy it. "I’m sorry they have this impression [that removing slabs from the wall is related to the apartment house]," Mayor Schulz said. "It is true that the building will border on the new access-way,” but he stressed that the path had been planned independently of the tower, and that there was no other alternative to link the new pedestrian bridge to Mühlenstrasse.

The 15-story "Living Levels" apartment tower designed by architects Sergei Tchoban and Ekkehard Voss is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. The 36 apartments will be selling for €2,750 ($3,594) per square meter. The smallest units measure 62.85 square meters (676.5 square feet), the largest 173.2 m2 1,864.3 square feet).

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Worldcrunch is a new global news service that for the first time delivers the best foreign-language journalism in English.

BERLIN -  "Tear down this wall!" Ronald Reagan famously implored in Berlin in 1987, challenging Mikhail Gorbacev to bring an end to the Cold War. Now, it appears, this was also the much quieter request of a luxury condominium developer.

The longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, stretching 1,316 meters (4,317.6 feet), and located in the borough of Friedrichshain, has been a protected monument of the Iron Curtain era. But now, this piece of history known as the East Side Gallery, is scheduled to be removed to make way for luxury apartments, German daily Die Welt reports.

Wall segments were already removed a few years ago to create a marina and park. Now the removal of several more of the concrete slabs is to facilitate access to the Spree River which, borough mayor Franz Schulz  said, is necessary for several reasons including the creation of an emergency exit for park visitors, and the rebuilding of the pedestrian bridge linking Friedrichshain to the borough of Kreuzberg which had been demolished by a bomb in 1945.

But according to Die Welt, irate citizens see another reason: the construction of a 63 meter (207 feet) high “luxury” apartment tower. In the words of one protester, removing slabs from “the longest still existing stretch of wall along the former ‘death strip’ […]” would “definitively and irrevocably” destroy it. "I’m sorry they have this impression [that removing slabs from the wall is related to the apartment house]," Mayor Schulz said. "It is true that the building will border on the new access-way,” but he stressed that the path had been planned independently of the tower, and that there was no other alternative to link the new pedestrian bridge to Mühlenstrasse.

The 15-story "Living Levels" apartment tower designed by architects Sergei Tchoban and Ekkehard Voss is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. The 36 apartments will be selling for €2,750 ($3,594) per square meter. The smallest units measure 62.85 square meters (676.5 square feet), the largest 173.2 m2 1,864.3 square feet).

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British border officials have seized 94 kilogrammes (207 pounds) of dried caterpillars from a man who claimed they were "for personal consumption", the Home Office said.

Officials at Gatwick Airport, south of London, found the bugs in the luggage of a 22-year-old man who flew in from Burkina Faso via Istanbul on February 23.

"When officers checked his luggage they discovered tens of thousands of dried caterpillars shrink-wrapped in cellophane, which had been packed into four hessian bags," the interior ministry said.

"The man claimed that they were for personal consumption and that they were to be used as food."

Insects are commonly eaten in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

But the caterpillars breached British rules on importing products of animal origin and will be destroyed.

"This was an unusual seizure but the vigilance of our officers has stopped these dried insects from entering the UK, and possibly posing a risk to our food chain," said Ingrid Smith of Britain's Border Force.

"I would warn travellers not to attempt to bring any products of animal origin into the UK without a permit, as they may not have been inspected to appropriate standards and may contain diseases."

Restrictions apply in Britain to the importation of meat, dairy, fish, eggs and honey, as well as some fruit, vegetables and plants.

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For most of the past two months, politicians and pundits have predicted that, like the government's previous artificial fiscal disasters, sequestration was going to be resolved at the last minute.

But "hope" isn't all that effective a strategy when one is hurtling toward the abyss, and it looks like sequestration might actually happen after all.

While Republicans in Congress are rushing to shift blame for the fiscally suicidal plan onto President Obama, and congressional Democrats unable to attract any GOP moderates toward a compromise, the massive budget cuts that we've been dreading are about to arrive.

Click here to see how they could affect your life >

There's a bright side, sort of:

The $1.2 trillion that is scheduled to get hacked out of the federal budget over the next decade would, in a simple world, go a long way toward cutting the deficit. The trouble is, we don't live in a simple world, and using a sweeping policy like sequestration to attack a comparatively minor problem like the deficit is sort of like amputating an arm to fix a hangnail. The cuts would ripple across the economy, slashing federal programs, putting people out of work and quite possibly sending the economy tumbling back into recession -- which would shrink tax revenues, and make our deficits larger, not smaller.

Even if we dodged a recession, shrinking consumer spending, paired with rising unemployment would still translate into reduced tax revenue. At the same time, we'll be paying out more money for social programs to cover people who aren't able to support themselves because their government-funded or -supported jobs have disappeared. In other words, we'll be right back where we are right now, borrowing money to cover the vital expenses of running the nation.

And if the rating agencies cut our credit rating in light of Congress' apparent desire to to cut the legs out from under an economy in the midst of a slow recovery, borrowing that money could get more costly too.

As numerous pundits have already pointed out, the sequester will be especially tough on anyone employed by the federal government. In other words, you might want to batten down the hatches if you work for a government agency, the military, a military contractor, or anyone with a federal government contract. For that matter, you might want to dust off your résumé if you work for a fast food joint that serves a lot of military personnel, a store that sells coffee to people who work for public schools, or any other company within two or three degrees of separation from anyone who relies on federal money.

But even if you don't work for the CDC, or run a Jiffy Lube across the street from a military base, you still need to be prepared for sequestration. After all, many of those government employees who will be looking for work are currently doing jobs that matter to you. Here's a look at nine unexpected ways that sequestration will probably touch your life:

More from DailyFinance: 

1. Head Starts for Fewer Kids

2. Airport Lines

3. FEMA

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In news that will shock no-one, earning a Crimson pedigree may be the surest-fire way to amassing greenbacks.

Almost 3,000 graduates of Harvard University are worth more than $30 million (each), according to rankings compiled by market research firm Wealth-X seen by Quartz, and most of them earned the money themselves.

That’s more than twice the number of what Wealth-X calls ”ultra-high-net-worth individuals” (UHNWIs) produced by any other institution in the world. (The report, by the way, counts both undergraduate and graduate degrees.)

That Harvard’s a multi-millionaire factory probably surprises exactly no one. But here are some report findings that might:

• Of course, the top of the list is rather dense with Ivy. But even among top schools, wealth varies greatly: while the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University graduated a combined 2,390 UHNWIs, Yale, Princeton and Cornell count among them only 1,604, in total.

• Of the US schools in Wealth-X’s Global top 20, just three are public: University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley.

• At least in the US, having a business school probably helps. The top five on the global list—Harvard, Penn, Stanford University, Columbia and New York University, in that order—all have top-flight MBA programs. Of the top 15, only Princeton lacks a B-school. On the non-US list, meanwhile, France’s Insead and LBS are both exclusively graduate business schools.

• Proximity to Hollywood and Silicon Valley may help, as well, though. Combining Wealth-X’s lists of public and private universities, the ranking Californian schools put out the most UHNWIs, with 4,672 of them—more even than posh school-dense Massachusetts, which produced 4,198.

• Nearly one-quarter of Brown’s and Cornell’s UHNWIs’ ultra-high net worths came exclusively from inheritance. And around two-fifths of the super-rich from Penn, Columbia, Northwestern and Boston University made the list thanks to old money alone.

• What of the nouveau riche? At the University of Virginia, which also happens to be the highest-ranked public university, some 78% of the über-rich were self-made. Harvard, Chicago, Princeton and New York University were close behind.

• Women who want to strike it rich should consider Northwestern and Brown Universities—almost 15% of their UHNWIs are women, compared with 2%-4% for the University of Chicago, MIT, and Yale. But in terms of raw numbers, Harvard produces the most ultra-affluent women:

• On the international list, Australia’s Monash University has the highest proportion, with 17%.

• The UK is churning out top-earners too, though. UHNWI alumni of Oxford and Cambridge totaled 401 and 361, respectively, breaking into the global top 20. And Wealth-X’s non-US ranking included four more: the London School of Economics, Imperial College of London, the London School of Business, and University College London.

• The University of Mumbai was the only university outside of the US and the UK to make the top 20, with it 372 UHNWIs worth a combined $37 billion.

• Of emerging-market universities, India’s University of Mumbai and University of Delhi produced 601 super-rich alumni, while China’s Tsinghua and Peking Universities together graduated 291.

• In addition to simply having the most UHNWIs, Harvard also boasts the most billionaire alumni—52 of them, to be exact. But in the top 10 of UHNWIs from schools that made Wealth-X’s list, it only has one (Brazil’s Jorge Lemann, who just co-bought Heinz):

SEE ALSO: The 20 Most Expensive Colleges In America

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Traveling is super fun. What isn't? The airport. Airports are awkward pauses that delay adventures. Yet, they're essential.

More than four-fifths of U.S. citizens have flown on a commercial airplane, and there are more than 50,000 airports in the world. Travel is more accessible than ever, and airports are starting to reflect that. 

More international flights mean more long layovers, and more long layovers mean more time to explore, relax and enjoy—and spend, of course.

These 10 airports are redefining how we travel.

Scotland's Barra Airport has a vanishing runway.

The tiny regional Barra Airport, perched on the northern tip of a Scottish island, is the only public airport where planes land on the beach.

There are only four flights a day—two in, two out—because at high tide, the runway vanishes. Though it’s only accessible from U.K. cities Benbecula and Glasgow, every single flight in June is already sold out.

Singapore's airport has free wifi and foot massages.

If Barra is one of the world’s sparsest places, the Changi International Airport in Singapore has to be one of its most lavish.

The wifi is free, and so are foot massages, feature films, rooftop swims and indoor gardens.

There's also a tram that carries visitors into the city for two-hour tours. And if you somehow do everything, Changi also boasts a four-story slide (the nation's largest) that you can ride for $10.

In Amsterdam, grab a book from the airport library.

If you can’t stay to discover Amsterdam, you can get your fix of art and literature at Schiphol International Airport.

ProBiblio, a Dutch nonprofit, installed a 1,200-volume library there in 2010. You can read in more than 20 languages, but most of the books are almost guaranteed to teach you something about Dutch culture.

If reading isn't your style, the national Rijksmuseum keeps a small rotating exhibit of Dutch art in an annex at the airport too.

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While "Mad Man" the TV series is known for highlighting women with hourglass figures, "Mad Men" the clothing line at Banana Republic is getting flack for being promoted with thin models wearing dresses Christina Hendricks would never fit into.

Angry consumers have taken to Banana Republic's Facebook page to complain: "That model is too skinny!!" and "Not loving the bony girl! Have you people watched mad men? Nobody looks like that. Thanks preppy brand for once again reminding regular girls that they just are not skinny enough. Cute print though."

Coco Rocha modeled the line, and she has actually made headlines in the past for being "too fat." The model says that she has been rejected from runway shows for being a size six.

But the issue shouldn't be about whether Rocha is "too skinny" or not, but rather if that depiction best captures the message of the "Mad Men" line.

Charlotte Cowles at The Cut notes, "One of the major reasons why everyone loves designer Janie Bryant's taste so much is that she makes womanly figures like that of Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan Harris, look so fabulous. For Banana Republic to show Bryant's collection on a runway-size model, no matter how lovely and healthy she is in real life, seems like a wasted opportunity."

Rocha, however, defended the shoot to Entertainment Weekly. Her argument is that the photographer was going for a Twiggy (thin '60s icon) look rather than the Joan Harris "Mad Men" effect.

“It was fascinating because we also shot in a style that was heavily used in ’60s photos, and I’ve never shot in that kind of framing before," she said. "It’s a Twiggy sort of style where the [models' faces are angled] forward, and their bodies look smaller. I think we really got the essence of a ’60s campaign."

SEE ALSO: Conan Made This iPad Ad That Shows How People Who REALLY Use The Tablet Read

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It's hard to think clearly when it comes to the people we love. Our gut reaction — normally spot-on — can be completely derailed when we want to believe our significant other is telling the truth.

But people lie in relationships all the time, be they white lies, lies of omission, or elaborate fibs.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but if you really want to know if the person you're with is being dishonest, here are 15 body and language indicators that will help tip you off.

Common wisdom says liars avoid making eye contact, but be wary if someone is trying too hard to hold your gaze.

Source: Dr. Phil

Liars also purse their mouths —It's a classic expression of guilt.

Source: Dr. Phil

Liars tend to touch their face a lot (especially their nose) when they're telling a lie.

Source: Dr. Phil

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An empty Russian ship, the Lyubov Orlova, has been drifting in the North Atlantic for more than a month, after breaking free from its towing line as it was being pulled from Canada to a scrapyard in the Dominican Republic. 

The abandoned ship — now infested with rats — was last located about 1,300 nautical miles off the Irish coast, but its exact whereabouts aren't known.

The ship's co-owner, Reza Shoeybi, of Toronto, has been frantically trying to track down the vessel (potentially worth up to $800,000 in scrap metal), since it first escaped in January.  

The Orlova hasn't always been a rat-infested ghost ship. 

Rick Derevan and his wife, Kathi, remember the orphaned vessel when it still worked as a polar expedition cruise ship. 

The California couple took a trip to the Arctic in August 2007. At that time the ship was chartered by Cruise North, an Inuit-owned company.

Rick described his experience to Business Insider and was kind enough to share some photos with us. We also recommend checking out his full Arctic album on Flickr.

First, meet Rick and Kathi Derevan from Atacadero, California. Rick is an appellate lawyer and an environmentalist who loves the ocean.

The ship left from Iqaluit, a Canadian port city. To get there, the couple flew from Montreal to the local Airport (shown here).

The cruise lasted eight days, making stops throughout the Canadian Arctic, including Pangnirtung, Kekerten, and Auyuittuq National Park.

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Is there anything better than living right on the ocean?

Jim Duffy, a former senior partner at accounting firm Deloitte, and his wife are selling their gorgeous five bedroom, 6,433 square foot ocean front hom for $8.3 million, (h/t WSJ).

If the ocean isn't enough of a selling point, this gorgeous house also comes with a tennis court and a pool, an outdoor shower and dining space, and tons of wide open spaces.

Becky Munro of Halstead Property has the listing.

24 Brush Island Road

24 Brush Island Road

24 Brush Island Road

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Legendary travel stories usually come with a heaping serving of blood, sweat and tears: miles traveled, discomforts withstood, challenges endured. Effort is rewarded, expenditure recompensed.

For some travelers, however, the experience is emphatically about the destination, not the journey—and the less difficulty, the better.

Jump ahead to see the hotels >

For these dedicated comfort-seekers, who prefer to experience the world’s most captivating attractions in concert with unsurpassed amenities, a boutique hotel, air-conditioned bar or sumptuous spa is the ideal.

Tokyo’s Palace Hotel, for example, is home to a luxury spa that peeks into the city’s Imperial Palace gardens. For a view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour without the noise and smog, the pool on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton overlooks the historic body of water in peace and tranquility.

In Vietnam, the stunning limestone karsts of Halong Bay can be observed supine, from a deck chair on the Emeraude, a 19th-century paddle-steamer replica that blends colonial aesthetics with a luxury voyage through the azure waters of the bay.

In Chiang Mai, the Chedi has transformed one of Thailand’s iconic British consulates into a gourmet restaurant with a shaded veranda and a stellar high tea, successfully remaking a landmark into a place of leisure so visitors can enjoy history without stirring a step.

An enjoyably stress-free mode of travel, this armchair approach needn’t mean sacrificing must-sees. Choosing the right hotel means maximum reward for minimum effort, and the more sights one can take in from one’s suite, restaurant or bar, the fewer there are to squeeze in while on foot. Keeping in mind that an unhurried vacation is the sweetest kind, here are ten fabulous rooms with a view.

Check out the hotels >

More from Departures:

Breathtaking clifftop hotels

Spectacular rooftop hotel pools

10 stunning hotel penthouses

Stunning hotel dining-room views

Caravelle Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

One of the most vivid photos from the Vietnam War is the 1975 image of refugees fleeing from a rooftop on one of the last helicopters leaving Saigon.

The iconic building has since undergone construction, but you can still see the historic landmark from the rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel in what is now Ho Chi Minh City.

The Saigon Saigon Bar is a piece of history, the same bar where war correspondents gathered, sinking gin and tonics and filing reports as Saigon fell to the communists under their very noses. 

Rooms, from $210; 19–23 Lam Son Sq.;

Chedi Chiang Mai, Thailand

The jackpot for armchair tourists is when the hotel is the landmark.

The Chedi Chiang Mai, a five-star property perched on the banks of the Mae Ping River in one of Thailand’s most charming cities, occupies the site of a former British consulate compound.

Designed by Kerry Hill, the sleek hotel is a modern masterpiece of internal courtyards and teak panels, with the flagship restaurant housed in the consulate building itself.

The consulate, which dates back to 1915, was built in accordance with Britain’s standard foreign office design for tropical countries.

Today air-conditioning instead of servants with fans keeps guests cool, but the colonial glamour remains. 

Rooms, from $545; 123 Charoen Prathet Rd.; 66-53/253-333; ghmhotels.com.

The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

There is nothing more evocative of Asia than verdant rice fields. Unfortunately, they are most often glimpsed from the hard seat of a local train or out the window of a packed bus.

For visitors to Bali, however, some of Asia’s most sublime paddies are spread across the grounds of the Chedi Club Tanah Gajah.

The best venue is the hotel’s open-air restaurant, where guests can recline on one of the extended sofas, order a rice dish (with grains grown in the very same fields) and feast their eyes and appetites at the same time.

Rooms, from $370; Jalan Goa Gajah, Tengkulak Kaja; 62-361/975-685; ghmhotels.com.

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It's the Instagram account that's taking over the world — literally.

Murad Osmann and his girlfriend Natalia Zakharova have traveled to destinations most people only dream about: They've seen the rice fields in Bali, swam in the Singapore infinity pool, walked the streets of Barcelona, and even toured Disneyland in California.

Jump right to the photos >>

But instead of run-of-the-mill tourist shots, Murad snapped pictures of his girlfriend taking his hand and leading him through some of the world's most iconic and recognizable landmarks. There are more down-to-earth pictures too, like those of Natalia on a park swing, or at a bowling alley.

The series is aptly titled, "Follow Me" on Murad's Instagram account, which has since gone viral with almost 50,000 followers at the time of this post.

The first photo happened accidentally in Barcelona when Natalia and Murad were on vacation. "Nataly was a bit annoyed that I was always taking pictures of everything, so she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me forward," he explained to The Daily Mail UK.

"That said it didn't stop me from doing photos while she was pulling me. So that's how it all started."

Murad graduated as a civil engineer from Imperial College London, but later decided to pursue a career in photography and started his own production company Hype Production in 2011. The Daily Mail UK reports that his girlfriend Natalia works as a Russian journalist.

Here, the couple tours the Temple of 1,000 Buddhas in Hong Kong.

Natalia in Indonesia wearing an elaborate conical hat in the Bali rice fields.

The greenery in this other Bali waterfall shot is incredible.

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A decade after he retired, Michael Jordan is still one of the most important people in sports.

He owns an NBA team, has his own Nike brand, and continues to make headlines whenever he says anything interesting.

When he retired, he took his legendary competitiveness off the court. Because of his business savvy, he makes more money now than most current players.

And he spends it on some spectacular things.

10 years after he retired, Michael Jordan still makes $80 million

Source: Forbes

Ironically, that's way more than he made in salary while he played. He made ~$90 million TOTAL in NBA salary

Source: Basketball-Reference

His net worth is $650 million, thanks to a bevy of endorsement deals

Source: Forbes

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This is The Macallan X Oakley Flask from a partnership by luxury whiskey brand The Macallan and sports and lifestyle brand Oakley.

Why We Love It: A flask is just a flask — unless it's built from food-grade steel, carbon fiber, and aerospace-grade aluminum. "The Flask" is a collaboration that combines Oakley's innovative sporty technology and Macallan's passion for, well, liquor.

This flask will protect your libations in any situation, but can easily be hidden in a coat pocket. It has a rubberized bottom that's scratch proof, and a mouthpiece that is double sprung so it stays out of your way when you're drinking. It also comes with an aluminum funnel to reduce spillage.

Where To Buy: Available on The Macallan website.

Cost:£600, or roughly $910.

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

SEE ALSO: This Tripod Mount For iPhones Will Make Snapping Pictures A Breeze

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The government is selling off its vintage French wine collection for £5,000 a bottle in a bid to offset the costs of its expensive wine cellar.

The government wine cellar, located in the basement of Lancaster House near Buckingham Palace, is used to provide wine for visiting dignitaries at 200 or more events a year.

It contains 38,090 bottles of wine and spirits with an estimated market value of £2.95m, according to an annual report on the cellar released last month.

But figures show that, despite efforts to make the cellar self-funding following a 2010 review, it cost the taxpayer £5,000 last year after selling £44,000 worth of wine last year, but buying in bottles worth £49,000 in total.

Auction house Christie's said the government was selling six lots of wine, a total of 54 bottles, on March 21 with the sale expected to raise up to £65,000.

A spokeswoman said this was "the first time that wine from the Government Hospitality Cellar has gone to auction" with previous sales conducted privately.

"This is part of the process for making the cellar self-funding for the lifetime of the current parliament," said a statement from Mark Simmonds, a junior minister in Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Austerity has been the watchword for chancellor George Osborne since the coalition came to power in 2010 but last week the UK government suffered its first ever credit downgrade when Moody's cut its rating to Aa1 from Aaa, citing weak prospects for British economic growth.

Christie's said six bottles of the highly sought after 1961 vintage of Chateau Latour were leading the auction, with each of these estimated to raise up to £5,000 a bottle.

The sale also includes six bottles of 1978 Petrus and cases of 1986 Chateau Mouton Rothschild and 1988 Lafite Rothschild.

"Many of the wines included in this sale have been served across the decades to kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers," the Christie's spokeswoman said.

The sale comes at a time when affluent drinkers in China and the United States are spending more on expensive wines with growing demand for better quality vintages, according to a study released at the Vinexpo wine trade show in January.

China has become the biggest importer of Bordeaux wines with consumption soaring by 110pc in 2011.

The government wine cellar was set up in 1922 to provide hospitality for high-level overseas government guests.

Christie's said the cellar was an "exemplar of professional cellar management", with wines bought young and held in ideal conditions until fully mature and ready to drink.

The wines are bought on the recommendation of a committee that is made up of five people who select on blind tastings.

Details in the annual statement on the government wine cellar for 2011-12 showed that 4,651 bottles worth 55,679 pounds were drunk from the store between April 2011 and March 2012.

Source: Reuters

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The Supreme Court will consider the fate of gay marriage in just a few weeks. Many pro-gay marriage people are counting on Anthony Kennedy's vote, but they might not actually get it.

Kennedy, who's notoriously volatile, will likely be the high court's swing vote for the gay marriage cases, one of which seeks to overturn the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.

The other case before the court involves a challenge to Proposition 8, a voter-approved law that banned gay marriage in California.

Gay rights activists are counting on Kennedy's support because he wrote two landmark opinions on gay rights, including one striking down Texas' sodomy law.

The judge who initially struck down Prop 8 as unconstitutional even cited Kennedy's pro-gay opinions 15 times to bolster his argument for marriage equality.

But Kennedy's previous pro-gay opinions don't necessarily reveal how he'll vote in the two cases before the court now, UCLA Law professor Adam Winkler told Business Insider.

Neither pro-gay ruling he wrote involved marriage, and neither would have affected the lion's share of the United States as a decision for gay marriage would.

In Lawrence v. Texas, Kennedy struck down sodomy laws in Texas and 13 other states. His other major pro-gay decision struck down a Colorado law that barred its cities from passing their own laws that protected gays against discrimination.

A "bold ruling" saying there's a constitutional right to gay marriage would strike down the laws in 30 states that have already amended their constitutions to forbid gay marriage, Winkler says.

Kennedy has historically favored states' rights, and he might not issue a decision that would trample on the will of so many states at once.

"I think there are many people in the gay rights community who are fearful that Kennedy is not prepared to say that gay marriage is a constitutional right," Winkler said.

SEE ALSO: There's Absolutely No Logical Argument Against Gay Marriage

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International war photographer Goran Tomasevic has been covering conflicts all over the world for 22 years.

The Serbia native began working for Reuters as a freelance photographer in 1996, and most recently reported on the uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria.

Last week Tomasevic wrote an article describing the 28 days he recently spent on the front lines of the "bloody stalemate" in Damascus.

From Reuters:

As in the ruins of Beirut, Sarajevo or Stalingrad, it is a sniper's war; men stalk their fellow man down telescopic sights, hunting a glimpse of flesh, an eyeball peering from a crack, use lures and decoys to draw their prey into giving themselves away.

Tomasevic also spent 18 days in Aleppo, 15 days on the outskirts of Damascus, and five days in al Qusaiyr the near Homs. He was kind enough to provide us with some insights about the realities on the ground:

On being a photographer in a war zone:

"I’ve received excellent training on how to work in war conditions and have extensive experience, having covered conflicts all over the world for 22 years. I’ve become adept at avoiding snipers and rifle fire but I dread mortar shells because it is more difficult to predict where and when they will land. While I can’t stay entirely out of danger, I’ve come to accept a certain amount of risk, as all war photographers must, in order to capture images of violence, pain and fear."

On the rebels he spent his time with:

"I spent most of my time with Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters of the Sadik unit of Tahrir Al Shams Brigade, following them into some very heavy battles. Most of them were from a town near Damascus. They were religious, very motivated, well organized, and were also helpful and friendly to me."

On the makeup of the Free Syrian Army:

"I think most of the FSA are defectors from the Syrian Army, though I don’t have a good guess on the numbers."

On the radical Islamic frontline fighters of Jabhat al-Nusra:

"I saw Jabhat al Nusra fighters a few times. The FSA told me they had attacked a Syrian checkpoint several times while I was there. I heard one of these attacks and it was very heavy fighting and it went on for days. Even the local government-controlled media said that they had lost 12 soldiers in two suicide attacks. I could not cover them because I was warned that they don’t like journalists. I hear from the FSA there are many Jabhat al Nusra fighters in Damascus but I don’t know the exact numbers."

On the difference between fighting in Aleppo and Damascus:

"In both Damascus and Aleppo it is classic, very dangerous, and difficult urban warfare. In both places FSA rebels were religious, very motivated and fought hard against the well trained and well equipped Syrian Army. In both cities the Syrian army used very accurate sniper and mortar fire. The key difference I noticed was in Damascus the FSA was fighting much closer to the Syrian Army than in Aleppo in August when I was there. In Damascus sometimes I witnessed the FSA and the Syrian army fighting within 5 to 10 meters of each other."

On Damascus:

"They were fighting room-to-room in most of the places I visited in Damascus. And based on what I saw, I don’t expect big movements in the frontline in Damascus."

On what could tip the battle there:

"I think the FSA could do more if they had more heavy weapons. But unless this happens, I believe this conflict will carry on for a long time."

On the outlook on the ground for next six months:

"I don’t see the situation resolving itself that soon."

Check out Tomasevic's description of the front lines >

SEE ALSO: Syria Is Heading For The Worst Possible Scenario

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High unemployment, poor access to basic necessities such as food, shelter, and medicine, and rising obesity rates continue to plague many of America's Southern states, according to the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. 

The Index looks at six categories: basic access, life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, healthy behaviors, and physical health (we've highlighted a few in the following slides).

In general, state-level scores remained consistent with the past five years of data. Western and Midwestern states ranked highest on the wellbeing index, with Hawaii topping the list, and Southern states ranked near the bottom.

#10 (tie) Nevada

2011 Rank: #40

Life Evaluation: #48

Emotional Health:#19

Physical Health: #32

Source: Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index. Green represents states in the top quintile, blue is second, purple is third, orange is fourth, and red is fifth (bottom).

Gallup's rankings are based on daily interviews with more than 350,000 American adults from January to December 2012.

#10 (tie) Oklahoma

2011 Rank: #39

Life Evaluation: #40

Emotional Health:#39

Physical Health: #8

Source: Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index. Green represents states in the top quintile, blue is second, purple is third, orange is fourth, and red is fifth (bottom).

Gallup's rankings are based on daily interviews with more than 350,000 American adults from January to December 2012. 

#10 (tie) South Carolina

2011 Rank: #33

Life Evaluation: #30

Emotional Health:#27

Physical Health:#46

Source: Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index. Green represents states in the top quintile, blue is second, purple is third, orange is fourth, and red is fifth (bottom).

Gallup's rankings are based on daily interviews with more than 350,000 American adults from January to December 2012.

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