A late 18th Century gold locket pendant, wrapped in newspaper in a battered old wardrobe, had been auctioned off for £44,000.

Several keen phone bidders from around the world had pushed the price up from its initially guide price of between £2,000 and £5,000..

The rare artefact, beautifully made and very significant, is linked to Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton’s famous love affair.

It is a unique relic of an enduring love affair, which thought to contain a lock of Nelson’s hair on one side and Lady Hamilton’s on its reverse.

It is marked with a capital N, a naval anchor and the date of August 1798 – when Nelson achieved victory at the Battle of the Nile.

He then stayed with the British Envoy in Naples, Sir William Hamilton and began a relationship with his wife Emma which scandalised society at the time.

They returned to England together in 1800.

The item had been found by an Australian couple while clearing a house they had inherited in Portsmouth.

He managed to increase his fortune by $1 billion despite the global financial crisis.

His wealth is currently estimated to be around $20 billion.

- 4 Kuwaitis in top 50 ‘richest’ Arab list Khorafi Group occupies 6th place.

The Khorafi Group occupied the sixth place with an estimated wealth of $8.2 billion.

The Al-Shaya family came tenth with its $6.5 billion assets.

Bu Khamseen group was listed at 25th position for its $4 billion wealth and,

Faisal Al-Aya’arhe, with $3.4 billion wealth, secured him the 30th position.

Twenty-four new entrants, all from Saudi Arabia, made it to the list this year.

A blue fin tuna weighing 342 Kg went for 32.49 million yen (US$396.000) in the biggest fish market in Tokyo on January 5.

The fish was caught around the island of Hokkaido.

The price beat the 20,02 juta yen for 2001 blue fin tuna.

Japan consume 3/4 of blue fin tunas caught worldwide.

The animal was sold for SR200,000.

The priced animal has certain characteristics that only an expert in the field can spot – It has cotton hair of an almost yellowish hue.”

The sheep was sold to a consultant doctor from a university hospital .

Jim Rogers – Straits Times Photo

Investor Jim Rogers would let everyone trade using whatever they wanted as money, if he has his way.

That’s the new dominant medium of exchange – From any currency, object or commodity the markets chose to use.

But last year, he made a further pledge of around US$50m in matching funds – for every US$1m pledged by another donor.

Big names like George Soros and Bill Gates had made their pledge too.

James Martin has donated US$150m to the University of Oxford to set up a school to study the problems of the 21st century.

He is now the single biggest private donor in Oxford’s 900-year history, more generous than Sir Thomas Bodley, the diplomat, scholar and founder in 1598 of the Bodleian Library.

Yet few people would recognise his name, let alone his face.

But Martin’s sizeable donation has enabled him to have the school named after him – the Oxford Martin School.

His name will survive with his legacy.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt – PHOTO: REUTERS

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, are donating US$2 million to the Naankuse Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary.

It is a Namibian sanctuary where The Jolie-Pitt family spent Christmas with their kids at the exclusive lodge. The children helped to feed and care for orphaned baby baboons and foxes and saw a leopard released back into the wild.

The donation was made  in the name of their daughter Shiloh, who was born in Namibia.

The money would be used primarily to benefit the community of San bushmen – in the running of a clinic which provides free medical care to the community of bushmen, including the treatment of malnutrition, tuberculosis and HIVon the farm and surrounding areas.

Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren, the owners of the sanctuary, are their friends who are dedicated to the people and conserve the land and wildlife of Namibia.

They were ‘overjoyed’ that Angelina and Brad chose Naankuse as the foundation’s partner in Namibia.

The film has cast his biggest box-office spell with a franchise record $125.1 million domestically over opening weekend.

Another $205 million was also added from another 54 overseas countries, making “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″‘ worldwide revenue totalling to $330.1 million.

But it’s the same size audience – around 16 million – were drawn the latest movie, as the franchise’s best previous draws – “Goblet of Fire” and 2001′s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

So, it’s today’s higher admission prices that led to the revenue increase.

The computer went to Italian private collector Marco Boglione, who loves computers, and made his offer over the phone.

The Apple I, one of only 200 such models ever made,  came with its original packaging, signed sales letter from Steve Jobs, one of Apple Computer’s co-founders and the current CEO of Apple Inc.