A Ukrainian billionaire was spending more than £4 million on an opulent 50th birthday bash on Saturday in the French ski resort of Courchevel, flying in the Cirque de Soleil and Alain Ducasse, the superchef for the occasion.

Viktor Pinchuk's mega-party has taken Courchevel's reputation as the winter playground for the former Soviet Union's super rich to another level, but has led some locals to brand the extravagant spending obscene.
The steel magnate and modern art collector, whose fortune Forbes estimates stands at $3.1 billion (£2 billion), was sparing no expense for the 300 lucky guests invited to Saturday's night event.
He has hired out a huge 3,000-meter squared marquee from the town hall in Courchevel 1650, the second-highest part of the resort in the French Alps' Trois Vallées.
It has taken 50 workmen two weeks ""under difficult climactic conditions"" to set up the venue, which will house the Cirque du Soleil, the world-renowned Canada-based circus troupe. Local schoolchildren were invited to come and watch the acrobats rehearse.
The gastronomic buffet has been concocted by Alain Ducasse, whose restaurants around the world have a total of 19 Michelin stars, including three at London's The Dorchester.
Mr. Pinchuk, whose wife Elena is the daughter of Leonid Kutchma, the former Ukrainian president, is the world's 307th wealthiest person, according to Forbes and was on this year's Time 100, the magazine's list of the world's most influential people.
A former Soviet engineer, he made his money in steel pipes after the collapse of the USSR, now owns five television stations and three newspapers, including the country's most popular title.
He and his wife bought what was the world's most expensive home in London for £80 million in 2008 – a five-storey Victorian house in Kensington complete with huge underground swimming pool, gym, sauna and cinema.
Booking at the resort, which normally welcomes 20,000 holidaymakers from the ex-Soviet Union for New Year, took a tumble last year due to the knock-on effects of the financial crisis, which hit oligarchs' cash flow.
However, not all locals were happy about the birthday extravaganza. ""Is this is joke?,"" Caroline, a local skier asked Le Parisian newspaper. ""With so many children dying in the world and lots of people in France struggling in the crisis, I find it scandalous, indecent,"" she said.
But Gilbert Blanc-Tailleur, the mayor, said: ""If he didn't come to Courchevel, he'd no doubt go abroad, to a Swiss or Austrian station. And it would be a shame for our country. So it's a good operation for France and for our resort, whose quality welcome is recognized. And it brings work to hotels here.""
(Source: Daily Telegraph)