Kardashians want out of card deal

NEW YORK - THE Kardashian sisters are seeking to cut ties with a venture that sold prepaid debit cards under their name after coming under attack for the card's high fees.

The card, which launched three weeks ago, was aimed at young adults, the same group that watches the sisters' hit cable TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. An attorney for the sisters sent a letter on Monday to parties affiliated with the card asking them to immediately stop using the names and images of the three sisters.

Stars quit Facebook, Twitter

Lady Gaga is among the celebrities who have decided to temporarily exit social networking websites to help raise money for needy children. PHOTO: UNIVERSAL MUSIC

LOS ANGELES - SINGERS Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake are among the celebrities who have decided to temporarily exit social networking websites to help raise money for needy children, local media reported.

Drug tunnel discovered

An agent from the San Diego Tunnel Task Force walks through part of the passageway of a tunnel found under the U.S.-Mexico border, in San Diego. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SAN DIEGO - INVESTIGATORS suspect a major drug cartel was the driving force behind two long, sophisticated tunnels connecting Mexico with the US that were discovered this month along with more than 40 tons of marijuana.

Man 'threatened to shoot Obama'

COLUMBIA (South Carolina) - A 78-YEAR-OLD man with more than a dozen weapons in his home was arrested after federal authorities said he told a nurse he wanted to kill President Barack Obama.

But the man's son said on Friday his father only spoke out as a cry for help for mental instability.

Jobless stewardesses launch sexy calendar

Women who worked as Mexicana airlines stewardesses before the company stopped flying last August pose for pictures during an event to present their calendar in Mexico City. -- PHOTO: AP

MEXICO CITY - IT COULD be the Mexican remake of the The Full Monty - just swap the out-of-work British steel workers from the 1997 hit movie for curvy Latina flight attendants.

Lindsay Lohan to Leave Rehab on Thanksgiving

Lindsay Lohan may be home for the holidays after all.

Though the actress will remain in a court-mandated rehab facility until January 3. The Betty Ford Clinic has given Lindsay a 15-hour day pass to leave the rehab facility.

S Korea to boost forces

Remnants of buildings after North Korea fired
shells at a South Korean island. (AP)

Yeonpyeong Island - South Korea vowed on Thursday to boost military forces on frontline islands with North Korea, which warned of more possible strikes after its artillery attack sent tensions soaring.

Two days after the bombardment, workers were clearing the rubble on the Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, where 80 shells rained down on Tuesday, killing four people in the first such attack since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Warrant issued for Nazi war criminal

THE HAGUE - AUTHORITIES in the Netherlands have issued an arrest warrant for a Dutch-born convicted Nazi war criminal who is living in Germany after escaping from prison six decades ago, prosecutors said on Thursday.

A European arrest warrant had been issued for the arrest of 88-year-old Klaas Carel Faber who is now living in Bavaria in southern Germany, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Doctor jailed 278 years for raping patients

Roger Abdelmassih

SAO PAULO - A BRAZILIAN reproductive medicine specialist was sentenced to 278 years in prison for sexually abusing 39 of his patients, local media reported on Tuesday.

Roger Abdelmassih, a well-known Sao Paulo fertility doctor, was accused of 56 cases of sexual abuse of patients in his private clinic.

S.Korea vows retaliation

'Our military... will sternly retaliate against any further provocations,' a presidential statement said. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL - SOUTH Korea warned North Korea it would 'sternly retaliate' for any further provocations after dozens of shells were fired at a South Korean island on Tuesday.

'Our military... will sternly retaliate against any further provocations,' a presidential statement said.

Nato is 'military mafia'

HAVANA - NATO is a 'military mafia,' the war in Afghanistan is 'genocidal' and US President Barack Obama deserves the prize for the 'best snake charmer' who ever lived, Cuba's Fidel Castro said on Monday.

Ivana Trump strips down to her undies on television (video)

Pictures of the nearly nude ex-Mrs. Donald Trump have surfaced on the Internet at Usmagazine.com showing her in a flesh-toned boulder holder, same-hued undies and high heels.

Four time divorcee Ivana Trump may be a real piece of work, but she’s not shy. The 60 year-old posed in her underwear alongside a 27 year-old model for a “life drawing” exercise on UK’s celebrity Big Brother show. She looked pretty good for 60 and while she’s probably had a lot of help from her surgeon, it wasn’t immediately obvious:

Monaco princess-to-be meets crowds

MONACO - MONACO'S future princess, South African Charlene Wittstock, made her first official appearance as royal fiancee on Friday, waving to crowds from the balcony of her prince's palace.

Former Olympic swimmer Wittstock, 32, appeared smiling and waving in a beige Armani suit and brown hat for the annual royal appearance on the principality's national day. She stood alongside Prince Albert II, 52, whom she is to marry in July.

Brunei Prince testifies in NYC suit

Brunei's flamboyant Prince Jefri Bolkiah (above) told his side of a dispute with some former lawyers to a court on Thursday, a star witness in a multi-million-dollar money fight with a royal pedigree and a salacious tangent. --PHOTO: AP

NEW YORK - BRUNEI'S flamboyant Prince Jefri Bolkiah told his side of a dispute with some former lawyers to a court on Thursday, a star witness in a multi-million-dollar money fight with a royal pedigree and a salacious tangent.

Suspected bomb found in Namibia

BERLIN - A SUSPECTED bomb in a suitcase checked in on a German-bound plane was intercepted in Namibia, Germany's Federal Crime Office (BKA) said on Thursday, one day after Berlin raised its terror alert level.

Bikini girls a 'distraction'

The girls also perform routines that include traditional Chinese 

elements including martial arts and fan dancing. -- PHOTOS: REUTERS

GUANGZHOU - BIKINI-WEARING Asian Games beach volleyball cheer squads are proving too hot for some competitors who claim the scantily-clad dancers make it impossible to concentrate.

'They had an effect on how we played,' Yemen beach volleyballer Adeeb Mahfoudh told the Tianfu Morning News on Wednesday. 'I think they had something to do with our losing the match.'

Prince William to marry



Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton are due to marry
next spring or summer in London. -- PHOTO: AP

LONDON - BRITAIN'S Prince William is to marry his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton next year, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday.
William, 28, the elder son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and Middleton, 28, became engaged while on holiday in Kenya.

Bin Laden group wins $9.4b contract

RIYADH - THE Saudi Bin Laden Group has won a 27.1-billion-riyal (S$9.4 billion) deal to build a new terminal and infrastructure at Jeddah international airport, the Saudi airports authority announced on Sunday.

New evidence on phone-hacking scandal



Prime Minister
David Cameron



LONDON - BRITISH police on Friday said they had sent new evidence to prosecutors over phone-hacking claims at a newspaper when it was edited by the man now employed as Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief.

The announcement came just over a week after Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, was interviewed as a witness at a voluntary meeting with officers from London's Metropolitan Police.

A spokesman add

Obama's final Asian stop: Tokyo

MARKING the final stop on his 10-day tour of Asia, President Barack Obama will arrive Friday in the country that least fits his vision for the region.


Obama speaks of Asia's 'amazing success stories and rapidly expanding markets', but in Japan, those notions are memories rather than aspirations. He views Asia as a catalyst for the US economic recovery, but Japan's economy serves more as a cautionary tale of mismanagement.

US could trigger new crisis

Donald Tsang said there was a risk of 'unprecedented market turbulence' in currencies, bonds and stocks. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

YOKOHAMA - HONG Kong's leader warned on Friday that a move to inject billions of dollars into the ailing US economy could inflate Asian asset bubbles and trigger a repeat of the region's 1997-98 crisis.

Israel tells citizens to leave Egypt

JERUSALEM - ISRAEL'S National Security Council on Thursday warned Israelis visiting Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to leave at once as it believed they could be targets of an Islamist militant kidnap plot.

Citing what it called 'updated and credible' information, the council said members of the Army of Islam, a group that espouses an Al-Qaeda-like ideology, were in Sinai at present and planning to snatch Israeli tourists.

New Interpol passport

A man displays the new Intepol passport. -- PHOTO: AFP

DOHA - THEY may not have diplomatic passports but Interpol police and experts should be able to cross borders more easily thanks to a new blue passport for the global policing organisation.

The goal of the new passports, approved on Monday at the Interpol general assembly in Doha, is to save time in the event of crisis, disaster or attack, and allow investigators and specialists to reach the site as soon as possible.

Obama arrives in Jakarta

JAKARTA - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday for a visit aimed at boosting US security and trade ties with Indonesia, and using the most populous Muslim nation to reach out to the wider Islamic world.


Indonesia is an important destination for Mr Obama for a variety of strategic and personal reasons, aides said. Its importance as a US ally is on the rise, even if the joy over Mr Obama's election has faded since he became president almost two years ago.

Iraq car bombs kill 21

BAGHDAD - CAR bombs struck three Shi'ite cities in southern Iraq on Monday, killing more than 20 people in an apparent move to derail progress toward forming a new government as political leaders tried to break the eight-month deadlock.


The blasts in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf and in Iraq's second largest city of Basra were the third major attacks since last week, after the slaughter of more than 50 Christians in a Baghdad church and a string of 13 coordinated bombings across Baghdad that killed more than 90 people.

Referendum on Aborigines

MELBOURNE - AUSTRALIA on Monday announced a national referendum on recognising the country's Aborigines in the constitution, in a bid to improve conditions for the chronically disadvantaged community.


Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia had a 'once in 50-year opportunity' with parliamentary support and widespread public backing, three years after former leader Kevin Rudd's historic apology to the native people.

Pakistan mosque blast kills 68

Medics assist a man injured in a suicide bomb attack in Darra Adam Khei. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


AKHURWALL (Pakistan) - THE toll from a suicide bombing on a mosque packed with worshippers rose to 68 on Saturday, as four others died in an attack nearby, ending a lull in violence in Pakistan's militant-riddled northwest.

In the country's deadliest attack in two months a mosque was reduced to blood-spattered rubble strewn with body parts after a suicide bomber detonated explosives as worshippers attended Friday prayers.

Pope warns of clash

Pope Benedict XVI (centre) speaks to journalist during his flight from Italy to Spain. -- PHOTO: AFP


ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - POPE Benedict XVI warned on Saturday of a very strong clash between faith and modernity in Spain and he called for dialogue, not confrontation.

The pontiff said an anti-clerical movement erupted in Spain in the 1930s in the run-up to the Spanish Civil War.

BMW hybrid car to enter production

LEIPZIG: BMW will be making a hybrid sports car based on the four-seat BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept study.


Since its introduction at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009, it has won several awards for its futuristic design and its engine technology.

Oil rises to US$86 in Asia

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up $1.04 at $85.73 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


BANGKOK - OIL jumped to near US$86 a barrel in Asia on Thursday as the dollar weakened moderately after the Federal Reserve's announcement it will buy $600 billion dollars of Treasurys to stimulate the US economy.

Stinging blow to Obama

Opposition Republicans delivered a stinging blow to President Barack Obama, capturing the House of Representatives in election results tallied. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON - AMERICANS awoke on Wednesday to a vastly different political landscape, with Republicans retaking the House of Representatives as US voters rebuke President Barack Obama and the hopes of his historic 2008 election win.

5 blasts in Athens

An unidentified personnel looks from the balcony of the Swiss Embassy after a bomb alert in Athens. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


ATHENS - A BOMB exploded at the Swiss embassy in Athens on Tuesday and suspicious packages were detonated by police outside Parliament, the Bulgarian embassy, a courier company and the Russian embassy, officials said.

No injuries or damage were reported from Tuesday's five small explosions.

Japan to recall Russia envoy

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits one of the Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, at the southern Kurils. -- PHOTO: AP


TOKYO/BEIJING - JAPAN said on Tuesday it was recalling its ambassador to Moscow temporarily to hear explanations about a row over disputed islands that is snarling ties with Russia.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, struggling with a divided parliament and a fragile economy and now under fire for what critics call his mishandling of a similar row with China, got a fresh headache on Monday when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited one of four islands that both nations claim.

US hails 'historic' victory



Dilma Rousseff

 WASHINGTON - THE United States congratulated Dilma Rousseff on Monday on her 'historic' election as Brazil's first female president, expressing hope their countries would deepen ties during her tenure.


Ms Rousseff, outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's anointed successor, was elected 56 per cent of the vote in a runoff election on Sunday against opposition candidate Jose Serra.

US President Barack Obama called Ms Rousseff, 62, 'to congratulate her on her historic victory in yesterday's election', the White House said in a statement.

Saudi is bomb suspect

This undated photo released by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior is said by them to show Ibrahim al-Asiri, who, according to US officials, is the suspected bombmaker and the prime suspect in the latest Yemen mail bomb plot. -- PHOTO: AP


WASHINGTON - IBRAHIM Hassan Taleh Al-Asiri, accused of constructing the Yemen parcel bombs, is a Saudi militant wanted for a string of high-profile Al-Qaeda attacks including the botched 2009 'underwear' bombing.

Clinton vows to fight sxx slavery



US Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton

 SIEM REAP (Cambodia) - SITTING out the intense political battle back home, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toured Cambodia's famed 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex on Sunday and pledged to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery on a visit to a rehabilitation center for child prostitutes.


While her husband and fellow Democrats campaigned frantically ahead of Tuesday's midterm congressional elections, the former first lady and New York senator stayed well above the domestic fray, visiting the northern Cambodian city of Siem Reap while in the midst of a two-week, seven-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific.

7 die in Iraq hostage drama

File picture dated October 13, 2008 shows an Iraqi boy walking past the Syrian Catholic church in the Baghdad's central Karrada district, where fleeing gunmen took worshippers hostage. -- PHOTO: AFP


BAGHDAD - SEVEN Christians were killed on Sunday and at least 13 wounded in a rescue operation involving US and Iraqi forces to end a hostage drama at a church in the Iraqi capital, officials said.