NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" on Wednesday, reclaiming a title he first won in 2003.

Depp, whom People described as "the king of cool with the killer cheekbones," succeeded 2008 winner Hugh Jackman. Other stars who have received the honor twice include George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide

German police have arrested several people suspected of operating a soccer match-fixing ring that targeted top-flight soccer fixtures in Europe. Arrests were made in several European countries. 

German authorities have swooped on a group suspected of fixing top-level European soccer matches. The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into suspected bribery at the highest levels in soccer in Europe.

Public prosecutors in the German city of Bochum said an investigation into the bribery ring had been underway since the beginning of this year, and was conducted with the support of soccer's governing body in Europe, UEFA.

Those arrested are suspected of using cash to bribe players, coaches, referees and officials in "high-ranking European leagues" with the aim to profit from fixed match results through betting syndicates.

German daily Berliner Morgenpost reported that the central figures in the match-fixing ring were believed to be based in the German capital Berlin, and were suspected of involvement in a prior soccer match manipulation scandal centered on former referee Robert Hoyzer.

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Jeanne-Claude, the artist who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on large-scale public works that included wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in aluminum and decking out New York City's Central Park with sheets of yellow- orange fabric, has died. She was 74.

She died last night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm, the Associated Press reported, citing her family.

The couple's 2005 project in New York, "The Gates," placed panels of free-flowing fabric suspended from gateway frames along 23 miles of the park's walkways. The two-week exhibition drew 4 million visitors and generated $254 million from hotel stays, restaurants and other cultural attractions, according to the city.

Other projects by Jeanne-Claude and her Bulgarian-born husband included the 1995 "Wrapped Reichstag" in Berlin, the 1983 transformation of islands off Miami into lily pads using pink fabric, and, in 1991, a simultaneous display of huge umbrellas in Japan (blue) and in California (yellow). The display was taken down early after one umbrella uprooted by a wind gust north of Los Angeles struck and killed a woman.