Jennifer Lopez Sued Over Dog Attack :

Jennifer Lopez is being sued for $5 million by a flight attendant who claims she was attacked by the singer’s guard dog two years ago.
Lisa Wilson, an employee of NetJets, filed a suit in Brooklyn citing the incident took place in July of 2006 when she was assigned to work a flight with Jenny From the Block on board.
The security on board featured Floyd, a German shepherd who was described in documents obtained by New York Daily News as "a well-behaved guard dog." However, Lopez still gave her instructions on how to act around Floyd.
An hour and a half into the flight, when Wilson walked past Floyd, the dog began "attacking her and biting her pant leg" causing the shocked air stewardess to twist and fall resulting in an injured back which required surgery last year "at great economic loss."

Rihanna, Helen Mirren have the Sexiest Stomachs :

R&B singer Rihanna has topped a new poll of the 'Sexiest Celebrity Stomachs in the World'. The 20-year-old Barbados-born beauty, renowned for her revealing stage outfits, came first in the poll conducted by stomach-flattening supplement AntiBloat, reports China Daily.

Second on the list was Keira Knightley, who is famous for wearing midriff-flashing costumes, and who has bared her taut abs in movies including ''Bend It Like Beckham'' and ''King Arthur''.

Hollywood's Best-Paid Actors :

Tinseltown's leading ladies may generate more tabloid ink, but when it comes to blockbuster paychecks, Hollywood is still a man's town.
In an era where risk-averse studio executives have declared men the more reliable movie stars--and the more desirable moviegoers--perhaps it's no surprise that they are also the medium's top earners. The reality: Hollywood's 10 best-paid actors out-earned Hollywood's 10 best-paid actresses 2-to-1 over the course of the year.

Collectively, the big screen's leading men took home an estimated $487 million between June 1, 2007, and June 1, 2008, compared with the leading ladies' haul of $244.5 million.

Chinese border assault kills 16 :

Sixteen Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post in the restive Muslim region of Xinjiang, state media say.
Two attackers reportedly drove up to the post in a rubbish truck and threw two grenades, before moving in to attack the policemen with knives.
The attack came four days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Both attackers were captured during the raid near the city of Kashgar, Xinhua state news agency reported.
Kashgar, known as Kashi in Chinese, is some 2,500 miles (4,000km) from Beijing, near the border with Tajikistan.
Xinhua said the attack happened at about 0800 (0000 GMT), as the policemen were jogging outside the compound.

Supporters rally for ANC leader :

Thousands of people have rallied in support of the leader of South Africa's governing ANC as he appeared at a court hearing on corruption charges.
Jacob Zuma is trying to have the charges dismissed and remove the last obstacle in his way to becoming South Africa's next president.
He stands accused of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering over a controversial arms deal.
Supporters danced and sang during an overnight rally outside the court.
The supporters have promised to bring the city of Pietermaritzburg - where Mr Zuma is appearing at the high court - to a virtual standstill during hearing.
They say Mr Zuma is fit to serve as the country's president, and no barriers should be put in his way.

Al-Qaida: Explosives expert wanted by US killed :

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida confirmed Sunday the death of a top commander accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole eight years ago.

Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike apparently launched by the U.S. in Pakistan last week.
An al-Qaida statement posted on the Internet said al-Masri and three other top figures were killed and warned of vengeance for their deaths. It did not say when, where or how they died but said some of their children were killed along with them.
Pakistani authorities have said they believe al-Masri is one of six people killed in an airstrike on July 28 on a compound in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

Celebrities leading tattoo demand :

The social stigma attached to a tattoo is disappearing, say the organisers of a major convention.As celebrities like David Beckham show off their body art, the popularity of the once-maligned tattoo increases.

The Tattoo Jam, organised by Skin Deep magazine at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, brings together about 150 tattooists from more than 20 different countries. Skin Deep editor Neil Dalleywater said celebrity culture played a part in the increased demand for tattoos. "You do tend to see a lot more ink on pop stars and film stars in the media," he said."The social stigma of tattoos is breaking down although you still come across it in places but it's becoming far more socially acceptable.

Several Welsh tattooists are taking part in the three-day convention alongside others from as far afield as New Zealand and Singapore. "The number of studios in Wales is phenomenal for the size of the country," said Mr Dalleywater.

Yearly euro inflation at record high of 4.1% :

Yearly inflation in the 15 euro nations rose to a record high of 4.1 percent in July, the EU statistical agency Eurostat reported Thursday.
Prices have not climbed as fast since inflation records started in 1996 for the countries that eventually formed the euro.Soaring fuel and food prices are Europe's biggest economic problem, eating into household spending -- one of the engines of economic growth -- as people steer away from major purchases and luxury goods.Accelerating prices and signs that growth is stalling create a major dilemma for the European Central Bank, which acted last month to cool inflation by hiking borrowing costs for the first time in a year.But the bank may have to hold back from more interest rate increases as the European economy stumbles and companies slash staff.Eurostat reported that the jobless rate in the 15 countries that share the euro had risen to 7.3 percent in May and June from a year ago.

It revised upward an earlier estimate of 7.2 percent for May as unemployment worsened from a record low it hit in December 2007.

US star Applegate fighting cancer :

US actress Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer, according to her publicist.
Ame Van Iden said: "The cancer is not life threatening. She is following the recommended treatment of her doctors and will have a full recovery."
The 36-year-old is best known for her role as Kelly Bundy in the long-running US sitcom Married with Children.
Last month she was nominated for an Emmy award for her current role as an amnesiac in TV comedy Samantha Who?
Applegate also received a Golden Globe nomination for the show, in which she plays a woman who awakens from an eight-day coma remembering nothing about her past.

Madonna brings movie to Michigan :

Pop singer Madonna has presented I Am Because We Are, her documentary about Malawi orphans, at the Traverse City film festival in northern Michigan.
The musician turned film producer was met at the screening by director and fellow Michigan native, Michael Moore.
Madonna, who was born in Bay City in 1958, said it was "great bringing my movie to a place that I feel familiar".
"There's something poetic about coming back to the place where I used to come for holidays," she continued.
Madonna was accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, and the film's director, Nathan Rissman.
Her husband, British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, was not present.

The buzz of internet film teasers :

Last weekend, film director McG stepped off the Terminator Salvation set and screened its teaser trailer at the world's biggest comic book convention in San Diego.
"It felt good to put that footage in front of everybody here. We're only half way through principal photography. So I wanted to make sure we were on the right track," he said.
"And to get that response really galvanised our efforts, made us feel like we were doing the right thing."
McG could have saved on petrol and checked out the audience's response from the comfort of his Winnebago.
The same trailer surfaced on the internet two weeks earlier and had already been discussed and dissected by fans, fuelling a publicity machine on a movie not due to be released for another year.
Obviously film studios aren't missing this trick.
On Wednesday, a minute-and-a-half of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was released online, two days before being shown on cinema screens.

Character building on Hollywood Boulevard :

Hollywood is full of wannabes. The nearest most of them will get to fame is Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame, dressed as Superman or Wonder Woman. The characters are a big tourist attraction and are now the subject of a documentary. David Willis went to meet some of them.

Superman is one of about 80 characters who crowd the boulevard
Superman stubbed out a cigarette and started searching for his keys. Adjusting his blood-red cape, he flashed a final glance at a web camera pointed at Hollywood Boulevard.
It was a hot summer's day and tourists were spilling out of gaily painted buses and flooding the strip.
The superhero descended from his one-bedroomed apartment two stairs at a time, stopping briefly to banter with his Mexican neighbours before striding for the boulevard a block away.
Christopher Dennis was once an unemployed actor working at a hamburger joint across the street.

Limits to China's pledge of change :

China promised an open Olympics for the media, and to promote human rights and democracy, in its bid for the Games. To see if it was true to its word, BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney spent five weeks criss-crossing the country, following the torch relay.

John Sweeney still found it hard to find those willing to speak out
Fang Zheng is the kind of person who sums up the Olympic ideal. He lost his legs in what was, officially, a "traffic accident" and subsequently won golds in an all-China competition.
But when the torch came through his home town of Hefei, he was not there.
Fang's story tells you something about just how open modern China is.
"It wasn't a traffic accident," he told me. "The truth is that on June 4th 1989 when I was withdrawing from Tiananmen Square, I was chased from behind by a tank and both of my legs were crushed."

Kosovo lives: A mixed village :

In the first of five pieces by BBC reporters on life in Kosovo today, Nick Thorpe meets a Serbian family forced out in 1999, which made a new home in Kosovo five years later.
"The most painful thing for us, is when we see people selling up and leaving," says Dragana Gospic.
And she relates how one of her neighbours, a fellow Serb, has just sold his land, and is now selling his house.
"Each person who leaves makes it harder for those who remain," she explains.
At 33, originally from the Bosnian town of Mrkonjic Grad, she lives in the village of Vidanje, near Klina in central Kosovo, with her husband Ranko and daughters Tanja and Sanja.

Chinese border attack 'kills 16' :

Unidentified assailants have killed 16 policemen in an attack on a border post in China's restive Muslim region of Xinjiang, state media report.
The attackers drove up to the post at Kashgar and threw two grenades, which also wounded 16 members of the border patrol armed police division.
A militant Islamist group from the region recently claimed responsibility for bombings which killed five people.
The group promised attacks on the Olympic Games, due to start on Friday.
In a brief dispatch, China's state news agency said two attackers were arrested in a dump truck at the scene.
They had, it said, used the truck to break into the police post at about 0800 (0000 GMT) on Monday.
Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uighur people. Uighur separatists have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.

Global Aids forum opens in Mexico :

A global conference on HIV/Aids has opened in Mexico City, a quarter of a century after the disease first became widely known.
Figures released ahead of the meeting reveal that the number of people with the condition around the world has gone down slightly overall.
However, infection rates are still rising in some countries and access to the right treatment is also an issue.
Across the world 33 million people are affected by the syndrome.
The six-day conference was preceded by an awareness march, a photo exhibition and other events.
About 20,000 scientists, government officials and campaigners are in Mexico City for the event.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89 :

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile, has died near Moscow at the age of 89.
The author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, who returned to Russia in 1994, died of either a stroke or heart failure.
The Nobel laureate had suffered from high blood pressure in recent years.
After returning to Russia, Solzhenitsyn wrote several polemics on Russian history and identity.

At least nine climbers die on K2 Himalayan peak :

ISLAMABAD: At least nine mountaineers died near the summit of K2 in the Himalayas when a huge chunk of ice sheared off the mountain and hit them, and several more climbers were missing, Pakistani tour operators said Sunday.Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, a Dutch, a Serb, a Norwegian and a Pakistani climber were killed on the notoriously treacherous Himalayan peak, the world's second highest mountain after Mount Everest."I can confirm nine dead and three missing," Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani climber and chief of Nazir Sabir Expeditions, told a foreign news agency."It is the worst tragedy on K2 since 1986, when 12 climbers were killed due to exposure," said Sabir, who scaled K2 in 1981 and Everest in 2000, and whose company organised one of the expeditions.The missing were from France, Pakistan and Austria, he said.Mohammad Akram, vice president of the company that organised another of the expeditions, told AFP the group was hit by the falling ice as they made their descent on Friday.

Pak delegation to join Indian Jewellry Show :

KARACHI: A 68-member delegation of Pakistan would partake in the Indian Jewellry Show to be held in Mumbai, told Pakistan Gems and Jewellry Development Company (PGJDC).PGJDC told that people of Pakistan, annexed with jewellry industry, would be educated with the current Indian trends of the industry during the show, as it gets underway from 7 August.

15 killed in Iraq bomb blasts :

BAGHDAD: A series of bomb attacks Sunday in Iraq, most of them in the capital Baghdad which has been rocked by violence in the past week, killed 15 people and wounded at least 38, witnesses and officials said. In the deadliest attack a small truck parked near the passport office on Magreb street in the north of Baghdad killed 12 people and wounded 23, defence and interior ministry sources said.

Several people suffered burns as flames from the powerful blast swept skywards, damaging buildings, they said.Bloodstains were still visible on the busy commercial street as dozens of Iraqi soldiers set about clearing debris as far as 100 metres (yards) from the seat of the blast, a foreign media photographer saw who was prevented by soldiers from taking pictures. A US army captain whose platoon was offering support for the Iraqi police said the attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda. "It was a safe and stable neighbourhood," he said, adding that typically Al-Qaeda sought to destabilise areas believed to be secure.

Bush plays host at Camp David to ruler of Dubai :

CAMP DAVID: President George W. Bush welcomed Dubai's ruler to his presidential retreat on Sunday, returning the favor for the opulent hospitality he received in the United Arab Emirates this year. At Camp David in rustic Maryland, Bush met with Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the UAE's prime minister and ruler of Dubai. “You're looking good,” Bush told al-Maktoum after the sheik arrived by helicopter. Both leaders were dressed casually and engaged in small talk before driving out of sight on a golf cart. Al-Maktoum's overnight stay at the presidential compound follows a visit to Camp David in late June by Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, another in the UAE's string of seven semiautonomous emirates.

Gilani, Karzai agree to counter terrorism jointly :

COLOMBO: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday agreed to come up with a common strategy to tackle terrorism and extremism. Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met over breakfast on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit here. The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. According to a joint statement issued after the meeting, both sides agreed that there was a need for the two governments to engage on all issues across the board with a view to developing a common strategy to overcome the challenges posed to the security and stability of both countries by terrorism and extremism. The two sides agreed to coordinate their efforts to stop cross border terrorism.

KARACHI: President Pervez Musharraf stated on Sunday, conspiracies are being hatched against the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) that would be akin to deterioration of country.Addressing at the occasion of reception in his honor from industrialists President drew attention towards the current ongoing economic and security conditions of the state, termed the country’s position under likely threat of foreign invasion and sought all parties leaders’ ... Full Story

Fifteen militants killed in Sawat operation :

ISLAMABAD: At least 15 militants and a security official were killed while many others were injured in the ongoing security forces operation against local Taliban militants in Pakistan's northern Sawat valley here on Sunday.Security forces and militants are still exchanging heavy fire in Sawat and both sides are using heavy weapons and mortar shells which has mounted the death toll to 60, said security officials.

Officials said that more troops arrived in Sawat in the morning to take part in the operation.The operation in the Sawat valley was launched after the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) government announced to mobiles troops in the area a couple of days back.The decision was taken in the aftermath of Taliban threats to the government to withdraw forces from their area in exchange of nine kidnapped policemen and at least 17 Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel.The NWFP government was earlier compelled to end operation in the Hangu town, about 150 kilometers north of Islamabad, after the local Taliban militants threatened the government to resign in five days or face dire consequences.A large number of FC forces were already deployed in the valley when security forces launched a large-scale operation against local militants in May.

Iran serious in nuclear talks: Ahmadinejad :

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that diplomacy is the only way out of his country's standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear program and that he is serious about negotiations.Iran's leader made the comments a day after asserting that his country would not give up its ``nuclear rights,'' signaling that it won't accept demands to stop enriching uranium or at least not to expand its enrichment work.An informal deadline expired this weekend for Tehran to respond to an offer of economic and other incentives by six world powers if it agreed to curb uranium enrichment.

The United States and its European allies fear Iran intends to use the technology to develop material for nuclear weapons under the cloak of a civilian nuclear power program. Iran denies the accusation.Ahmadinejad said Saturday that his country's participation in any international talks would ``be aimed at reinforcing'' what Iran regards as its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for a civilian power program.On Sunday, the Iranian leader repeated that his country was ``serious in nuclear talks'' and hopes ``the other side'' will be as well.

$30b investments on energy projects in pipeline: Pervaiz Ashraf

ISLAMABAD: Two-day regional conference on power import from the Central Asia has kicked off here today, while Pakistan said that investments amounting to $30 billion would be made on energy generation projects in the next seven years.

The energy ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are attending the Central Asia-South Asia Inter-Government Council’s energy ministers’ conference that commenced here today.Federal Minister for water and power, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in his inaugural address said that the existing government was giving priority to the import of electricity at regional level in tandem with the promotion of projects relating to power generation. He said that the import of electricity from Central Asia would spur prosperity in the region. Later on, talking to the media, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that 16000MW of additional electricity would get into the system by 2015. He said that $10 billion in public sector, while $20 billion in private sector would be invested for power generation. He said that the load shedding was shortening and the situation by next month would further get better, while by the end of next year load shedding in the country would end. He said that the time advanced by one hour would be reversed on September 1.

To a question regarding Bhasha Dam, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that the World Bank has not refused funding for Bhasha Dam.

India’s 170-run win levels series against Sri Lanka :

GALLE, Sri Lanka: Teenager Ishant Sharma gave a superb display of fast bowling to help India square the series with a 170-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test here on Sunday. Sharma finished with 3-20 off 15 testing overs as Sri Lanka were shot out for 136 in their second innings in the closing session on the fourth day chasing a challenging 307-run target. India lost the opening match of the three-Test series by an innings and 239 .... Full Story