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Team Britney has bitten back. Following a critical savaging for her lip-synching performance at the start of her Australian tour in Perth, the controversial teen icon's publicity machine has decided to have their own say. After a second show at Burswood o nSaturday night, Spears' manager Adam Leber used social networking platform Twitter to hit back at the less than complimentary reviews. "Its unfortunate that one journalist in Perth didn't enjoy the show last night. Fortunately the other 18,272 fans in attendance did," Leber wrote. And after widespread reports of disappointed fans - who had paid hundreds of dollars for tickets - demanding their money back, Ms Spears' official website posted a long list of positive reviews purporting to be from satisfied fans. "I was at the show in Perth last night and it was FANTASTIC!! Loved every minute! And I'm one of many I know who are so very angry about the people here in Perth saying bad things about the con...

LONDON: Public support for the war in Afghanistan is falling, while more than 40 percent do not understand why British troops are fighting there, a poll released on Remembrance Sunday showed.Some 64 percent agreed that "the war in Afghanistan is un-winnable", up six percent from July, while 27 percent disagreed, down four percent. Ten percent said they did not know.Similar numbers said British forces should be withdrawn as quickly as possible, with 63 percent agreeing and 31 percent disagreeing.Some 54 percent felt they had "a good understanding of the purpose of Britain's mission in Afghanistan", with 42 percent disagreeing."Overall there is the sense that Afghanistan is becoming for Gordon Brown what Iraq became for his predecessor Tony Blair," said Andrew Hawkins, chief executive of pollsters ComRes."More than four in 10 don't understand Britain's mission; support for the British presence there is ebbing away, and a majority have respon...

Sunday, November 08, 2009 NEW YORK: The USS New York, built with steel from the rubble of the World Trade Centre, was put into service Saturday both as a symbol of healing and strength."No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back," Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said at the amphibious assault ship's commissioning. "America always comes back. That's what this ship represents."He spoke on a Manhattan pier where hundreds of Navy officers and sailors joined first responders and families of September 11 victims for the ceremony."I hereby place the USS New York in commission," Mabus announced.And with a long drum roll, the ship's crew was sent on its first watch, obeying the order, as traditionally worded: "Man our ship and bring her to life!"From atop the vessel, decked in red, white and blue bunting, black smoke rose into the chilly fall morning to signal that the USS New York was powered up. A loud cheer accompanied a fl...

Saturday, November 07, 2009 MOSCOW: Winter arrived in Moscow on Friday as the first major snow fall of the season covered the city in a thick white blanket.Locals said the snow was much earlier than in recent years which have been unseasonably mild."I am very happy that the first snow came, it's great fun, it's beautiful, particularly Moscow at night," said Anya Oleinik, local Russian student. As always the snow was tough going for motorists as visibility was cut to a minimum and traffic was slowed by icy roads.That didn't stop many residents from enjoying the winter wonderland on Friday as children, and the odd adult, enjoyed the first snow fights of the season in what was a very white Red Square.

Saturday, November 07, 2009 KABUL: Seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a NATO air strike that also injured international forces in remote western Afghanistan, the Afghan defence ministry said on Saturday.The Afghan statement comes as NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating an incident in Badghis province Friday in which more than 25 international and Afghan forces were wounded.Five of the 25 wounded were US soldiers injured in what a Western military official, speaking anonymously, said was friendly fire.However, ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, of the US Air Force, told a foreign news agency: "We have nothing to confirm friendly fire.""No ISAF members were killed," he said, confirming only that five ISAF soldiers injured in the Badghis incident were Americans.Investigations into the incident were ongoing and no further details were available, Vician said.Afghan defence ministry spokesm...

Saturday, November 07, 2009 TOKYO: US President Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day, a Japanese foreign ministry official said Saturday, following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas.Obama had been due to arrive for his first trip to Japan on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and to meet Emperor Akihito. "The US government has requested a delay," a foreign ministry official told AFP, adding that the Japanese government had agreed to the request.Obama would now be arriving on Friday and stay until Saturday, the official said. A meeting scheduled for Friday with Hatoyama would go ahead as planned, Kyodo News reported, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source.

Saturday, November 07, 2009 UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed on Friday that the world body is not evacuating staff from Afghanistan despite the dangerous security situation there. Ban, who has just returned from an overseas tour that included Afghanistan, briefed the UN Security Council on the recent developments in the Central Asian country. The UN is taking immediate steps to bolster security for all UN staff in the country, including the short-term relocating of some international staff, he told reporters. He refuted some media reports that had "inaccurately characterized this as withdrawal or evacuation." "We are not moving any international staff in the provinces out of the country," he stressed. "But let me be crystal clear: we are not evacuating," he said. "We will not, cannot and must not be deterred. Our work will continue." The secretary-general went on saying that "no critical staff will be moved, and our ...

Saturday, November 07, 2009 MOSCOW: Ten people are believed to have been killed when a Russian long-range anti-submarine aircraft, a Tu-142, crashed in the Tatar Strait in Russia's Far East.The plane was said to have been on a routine training mission when it lost radio contact with air traffic control.The emergency services say, despite the bad weather, they have located the wreckage site some 15-20 kilometres from the coastline, and are now searching for surviving crewmembers.

Saturday, November 07, 2009 KABUL: More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search for two missing U.S. soldiers, the NATO-led force said on Friday.The force gave no further details about the circumstances of the incident. The chief of police in Badghis province in western Afghanistan, Abdul Jabar, said NATO aircraft had struck their own troops who were searching for the two missing soldiers.

Friday, November 06, 2009 TEXAS: The death toll from Fort Hood shooting has climbed to 13.Twenty-eight of the 31 people injured in the attack on the nation's largest military base remain hospitalized. The alleged shooter, an Army psychiatrist who was wounded during the attack, is also hospitalized, unconscious and on a ventilator.President Obama, speaking at the White House Rose Garden, said he had consulted with FBI Director Robert Muller and others about the investigation into the tragedy."We don't know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we know all the facts," Obama said.What is known, the president said, is that the nation is grieving over one of the worst mass shootings at a U.S. military installation. He ordered that flags be flown at half-staff, a "modest tribute" to those who died and military personnel who serve the nation.Authorities have identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who worked at t...

Friday, November 06, 2009 ORLANDO (Sami Abraham): Two persons have been killed and six others hurt in a shooting at an Orlando office building, the US media reported on Friday.A police helicopter hovered over the scene, as dozens of police cars locked down the area surrounding the Gateway Center and panicked workers rushed to safety.It may be mentioned here that 13 people had died and 30 others hurt in a firing incident that took place at Fort Hood in Texas last night.

Friday, November 06, 2009 LONDON: The West could withdraw support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai if he fails to live up to its expectations during his second term, Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned on Friday.While defending Britain's Afghanistan mission against waning public support, Brown admitted Karzai's government had become a "by-word for corruption" -- and also pressed for more Afghan troops to bear the brunt of frontline action.He said he had spoken to Karzai, whose re-election was confirmed this week, several times in recent days and urged progress on the key issues of security, governance, reconciliation, economic development and regional relations."If the government fails to meet these five tests, it will not only have failed its own people, it will have forfeited its right to international support," Brown said in a speech in London.He said he had proposed Karzai draw up a new anti-corruption law, with a new commission advised by a high-profile...

Friday, November 06, 2009 PARIS: A baby's very first cry is audibly shaped by the language heard while in the womb, according to a new study.Comparing the gurgles, coos and cries of French and German newborns, a team of scientists from both countries found that babytalk is not, as long thought, universal.Earlier research had shown that by the third trimester human foetuses memorise sounds from the external world, and are especially keyed in to the melodic qualities of music and speech.It was known, for example, that newborns prefer the voice of their mothers, and can decipher emotional content -- anger or joy -- from the intonation of maternal speech.But even if tiny tots can perceive differences in language, it was widely held that they were incapable of vocalising those distinctions.The new research, published in the upcoming issue of the US-based Current Biology, shows this assumption was wrong.Researchers led by Kathleen Wermke of the University of Wurzburg in Germany recorded ...