The 86-year-old governor of a southern Indian state has resigned a day after a television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women, an official said.
Narain Dutt Tiwari's office has denied the allegation, denouncing the tape as fabricated.
Tiwari, a veteran governing Congress party leader in Andhra Pradesh, sent his resignation letter to the Indian president on Saturday, citing health reasons, a state official said.
The scandal hit as Andhra Pradesh is engulfed in social unrest. Outrage over a delay in creating a new state there erupted into violent demonstrations in several cities earlier this week.
Pressure mounted on Tiwari to quit after the tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women was broadcast on Friday, prompting the opposition and women's rights groups to hold street protests in Hyderabad, the state capital, demanding his resignation.
A statement issued on Friday by Aryendra Sharma, an aide to the governor, said "the news channel report is fabricated, false and malicious to tarnish the image of the governor".
The television channel ABN Andhra Jyoti News, which broadcast the tape, said it was made in a sting operation. The three women were from his northern home state of Uttrakhand, it said.
They were brought to Hyderabad by another woman who was allegedly promised a mining lease by the governor in return for sex, the channel said.
The woman said she decided to expose Tiwari through a sting operation after he did not keep his promise, the channel said.
A court stopped the channel from broadcasting the tape again later on Friday after a petition filed by Sharma, who said the video was "likely to demean and denigrate his office".
Tiwari had earlier served as the top elected official of northern Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand states and as a federal minister.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - – Manny Pacquiao will not fight Floyd Mayweather next March because a blood testing stalemate wiped out what could have been the richest fight in boxing history, promoter Bob Arum said Thursday.
The planned showdown between Filipino hero Pacquiao, a seven-division world champion, and unbeaten US star Mayweather could have brought each fighter as much as 40 million dollars in a rare Las Vegas mega-fight spectacular.
Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, said Mayweather's request to have stricter US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing methods, including possible random blood tests within days of the bout, killed any hope of reaching a deal.
"It's over," Arum said. "As far as I'm concerned the fight is over."
For boxing fans, it was like a Christmas Eve theft of their favorite gift, a long-awaited showdown between the generation's two recognized pound-for-pound superstars.
Mayweather-backing Golden Boy Promotions chief executive Richard Schaefer told the New York Times that calling off the fight would be "a big void for boxing" and "a setback for the sport and for these fighters."
Arum, who said every other aspect of the contract had been agreed upon, held out some hope the fight might come off later in 2010, but promised nothing.
"Can it be revisited in the fall? We'll see," Arum said.
An original May 1 date was scuttled because Pacquiao wants to run for Congress in his homeland and elections are in May. "Pac-Man" is expected to fight March 13, but against American Paul Malignaggi, 27-3 with five knockouts.
Mayweather was insisting on greater blood and urine testing than normal. Pacquiao was willing to commit to tests in January, 30 days before the fight and after the bout.
But Mayweather insisted on a USADA-administered program that opened the door for possible random blood tests within days of the fight.
Neither fighter had ever tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance under typical Nevada dope tests, which involve only urine samples that are taken just before and after the fight.
Arum saw Mayweather's insisting on random blood testing as a way out to avoid having to weigh in and face Pacquiao, who did not want blood drawn so close to the fight, Arum told the Grand Rapids Press.
"Floyd, to me, is a coward. Floyd never really wanted the fight and this is just harassment of Pacquiao," Arum said.
"Mayweather pressed for blood testing even up to the weigh-in. He knew that Manny gets freaked out when his blood gets taken and feels that it weakens him. This is just harassment and to me just signaled that he didnt want the fight."
Arum had set a Thursday deadline to solve the testing issue, saying Pacquiao saw USADA as biased in favor of American Mayweather and unwilling to compromise their test procedures to accommodate a compromise.
"They are viewed by the Pacquiao side as being partisan. He doesn't want to use them," Arum said. "I don't want to use them. They're so inflexible they can't be used."
Mayweather, 40-0 with 25 knockouts, was regarded as the world's top pound-for-pound fighter before a 19-month layoff that ended last September.
Pacquiao, 50-3 with 38 knockouts, staked his claim on the pound-for-pound crown in Mayweather's absence by knocking out England's Ricky Hatton in the second round last May and stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round last month.
Boxing telecaster HBO had tried to negotiate a compromise Thursday to no avail, Arum said, and Golden Boy namesake Oscar de la Hoya tried his best, writing in a blog that Pacquiao needed the USADA testing for his own good.
"If Pacquiao doesnt want to do this ... or believes hell be weakened by blood tests, then that raises question marks," De La Hoya wrote.
"People have to wonder why doesnt he want to do this? Why is it such a big deal? A lot of eyebrows have been raised. This is not good at all. If you have nothing to hide, then do the test."
A woman jumped the barriers in St Peter's Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as he walked down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass on Thursday, a Vatican spokesman said.
The Reverend Ciro Benedettini said the 82-year-old Pope quickly got up and was unhurt.
As the Pope's procession was making its way toward the main altar gasps rang out through the public and a commotion could be seen among the clergymen surrounding Benedict. The procession came to a halt and bodyguards rushed to the trouble spot.
Benedettini said the woman who pushed the Pope appeared to be mentally unstable and had been arrested by Vatican police.
He said she also knocked down Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who was taken to hospital for a check-up.
"During the procession an unstable person jumped a barrier and knocked down the Holy Father," Benedettini told The Associated Press by telephone. "(The Pope) quickly got up and continued the procession".
After the incident, Benedict calmly resumed his walk to the basilica's main altar to start the Mass.
Benedict made no reference to the incident as the service started. As a choir sang, he sprinkled incense on the main altar before opening the service with the traditional wish for peace in Latin: "Pax vobis" ("Peace be with you"). The faithful responded: "Et cum spiritu tuo" ("And also with you").
It was the second year in a row there was a security breach at the service. At the end of last year's Mass a woman who had jumped the barriers got close to the Pope but was quickly blocked on the ground by security.
Benedettini said it was not immediately known if the same woman was behind Thursday's incident.
MANILA, Philippines – Search-and-rescue teams combed the waters of Manila Bay on Thursday for at least 27 people missing after a passenger ferry collided with a fishing boat, the coast guard said.
At least 46 people have been plucked alive from the water, and the coast guard alerted all vessels in the area to look for others, said coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo.
The wooden-hulled ferry was carrying 73 people on a journey from Manila to southwest Mindoro Island, but it was not clear how many were in the fishing boat, which sank shortly after the accident, Balilo said.
The cause of the collision at a time when millions of Filipinos were heading to their home provinces ahead of Christmas Eve was not clear. No weather disturbances were reported in the area.
Sea accidents are common in the archipelago due to tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Prince William has spent the night sleeping rough in a cold London alley, to highlight the plight of homeless British teenagers.
He spent a chilly night near Blackfriars Bridge last week with Seyi Obakin, the chief executive of British homeless charity Centrepoint. William has been the charity's patron since 2005.
"I cannot, after one night, even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough on London's streets night after night," William said Tuesday. "Poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependancy and family breakdown cause people to become and then stay homeless.
"I hope that by deepening my understanding of the issue, I can help do my bit to help the most vulnerable on our streets."
William, second in line to the throne, was exposed to some of the hardships found on London's streets when his mother, Princess Diana, took him to a shelter in 1996. Just 13 at the time, William spent an hour at the facility with his younger brother, Harry.
Diana was well-known for her charitable work and the homeless was a group she was particularly close to. She had also served as Centrepoint's patron, a position she held at the time of her death in 1997.
A photograph released by the charity shows William, 27, in the alley in jeans, a gray hooded sweat shirt and a knit hat pulled low.
In a post to the charity's Web site, Obakin said the idea for William to spend a night on the streets — known as "sleeping rough" in Britain — was hatched in March.
"He was determined, as he has always been, to understand deeply the full range of problems a homeless young person might face," Obakin said. "For me, it was a scary experience. Out of my comfortable bed. Out there in the elements. Out there on an extremely cold night, with temperatures down to -4 C (39 F). And it was the same for Prince William. But he was determined to do it."
Obakin said they found a secluded spot — tucked away behind some garbage bins — and settled in for a restless night.
"But there was no shielding from the bitter cold, or the hard concrete floor, or the fear of being accosted by drug dealers, pimps or those out to give homeless people a 'good' kicking," Obakin said.
William is currently training to be a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot.
Actress Brittany Murphy, known for her roles in films such as Clueless and 8 Mile, died on Sunday after suffering a cardiac arrest at her home, police and hospital officials said. She was 32.
Murphy's mother discovered the star slumped unconscious in a shower at her home in Los Angeles before her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, called emergency services, entertainment website TMZ.com reported.
The actress was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Beverly Hills where she was confirmed dead at 10.04am, spokeswoman Sally Stewart said. No other information was released by the hospital.
Los Angeles Police Department officers were at Murphy's home asking preliminary questions, police confirmed.
News of Murphy's death comes after a medical drama involving the actress's husband Monjack last month, when an ambulance was called to a Los Angeles airport arrival gate as the couple returned from Puerto Rico.
On that occasion it was Murphy's husband who was rushed to hospital.
Reports said the couple had been returning to Los Angeles after Murphy was thrown off the set of a movie and fired for difficult behaviour.
Murphy made her name in television sitcoms during the 1990s before grabbing notable roles in Clueless, Girl Interrupted, Sin City, 8 Mile and Happy Feet.
She provided the voice of Luanne Platter in more than 200 episodes of the animated television sitcom King Of The Hill.
Murphy was born in Atlanta and was raised by her mother, Sharon Murphy, in New Jersey before moving to Los Angeles.
Murphy scored her first role in 1991 on the television show Blossom, before landing a starring role that same year in Drexell's Class.
She also had recurring roles in Sister, Sister, Party of Five, and Boy Meets World.
As well as acting, Murphy also enjoyed a successful foray into music, collaborating with British DJ Paul Oakenfold on the single Faster Kill Pussycat, a club hit which reached number one in the dance charts.
In the dancing penguin animated hit film Happy Feet, she performed a cover version of Queen's Somebody to Love and Earth, Wind & Fire's Boogie Wonderland.
Before marrying Monjack in 2007, she was engaged to talent manager Jeff Kwatinetz and had previously dated actor Ashton Kutcher.
Kutcher, now married to actress Demi Moore, offered condolences on Sunday via his page on micro-blogging site Twitter.
"2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon," the actor wrote. "See you on the other side kid."
Pay your respects to Brittany Murphy. Leave your comments below.
A Brazilian toddler is awake and breathing on his own after doctors removed four life-threatening sewing needles from around one of his lungs and his heart, but he's likely to face more surgery in the coming days.
The two-year-old boy - who police say had dozens of the needles stuck deep into his body by his stepfather in a bizarre ritual - remained in intensive care on Saturday following his surgery, and the next two days are critical to his recovery, Roque Aras, medical director of the Ana Nery Hospital, told reporters in the northeastern city of Salvador.
"The next step will be a surgery on the abdomen, to remove needles that are in the bladder and intestines," Aras said. "A third (surgery) will be to remove a needle that is in the spine."
Aras added that the needles removed so far were rusty, which increases the chances of infection in the boy. The next surgery should take place on Monday or Tuesday.
Police say 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes confessed to pushing the metal sewing needles into the child because, he said, his lover told him to while in trances. The rituals, performed over a month, were supposedly aimed at keeping the couple together.
The child underwent nearly five hours of surgery on Friday to remove the four needles, which were up to five centimetres long.
Dozens more needles remain inside the boy's body, but the four removed were considered the most life-threatening.
Police say they believe the lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, told Magalhaes the ritual would keep them together, but she was really seeking revenge on Magalhaes' wife by having him hurt her son.
The bricklayer told detectives that dos Santos would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said. The stepfather told police the rituals happened every few days for a full month, with him inserting several needles during each session.
Dos Santos paid to have the needles blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomble, Santana said.
Authorities initially estimated the boy had as many as 50 needles inside him. After many tests, doctors now believe he was struck with closer to 30 needles but they still don't know exactly how many.
Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested, though no charges have been filed.
Dos Santos is not believed to be a member of any religious or occult group, and authorities believe she came up with the idea on her own, Santana said.
The two were taken to an undisclosed location for their own protection after a mob threw stones at the police station where they were being held. It was not immediately clear whether they had legal representation.
Authorities also detained the woman who blessed the needles so she could be questioned, but Santana says he expects she will be released without charge because she did not know how the needles were being used.
The boy's mother, a maid, took him to her hometown hospital in Ibotirama on December 10, saying he was complaining of pain.
After X-rays revealed the cause, the mother told police she didn't know how the needles got inside her son, whose name was not released because of his age. The boy was later transferred to the much larger hospital in Salvador.
Police and doctors concluded it would have been impossible for the boy to have ingested the needles, which have been found throughout his abdomen, in one leg and in his spine.
Afro-Brazilian religions practiced in Brazil have no ceremonies, rituals or practices involving harm to people, said Nelson Inocencio, director of African-Brazilian studies at the University of Brasilia.
He worried that the incident could hurt the image of the religions, of which Candomble is the most popular, concentrated in Bahia state where Ibotirama is located.
While Accenture ended the relationship with Tiger Woods, he(Tiger himself) has won much-needed backing from the head of key sponsor Nike, while one of the troubled golf star's alleged mistresses apologised to his wife Elin for the pain she had caused.
Woods, a squeaky-clean marketing juggernaut, became the first billion-dollar athlete thanks to endorsements that have started to vanish even as the world's top golfer said he will take an indefinite break to work on personal issues.
The chairman of US sportswear giant Nike, which has backed Woods since his 1996 professional debut, told Sports Business Journal in remarks published on Monday that he believed the storm would blow over the 14-time major winner.
"I think he has been really great," Phil Knight said. "When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now."
Accenture, a Dublin-based technology and management company, said on Sunday it was ending six years of ties to Woods because he was "no longer the right representative for its advertising."
Gillette said on Saturday it would phase Woods out of advertisements during his break from golf, calling it a supportive move.
AT&T, which backs Woods' own US PGA event, said in a statement, "We are presently evaluating our ongoing relationship with him."
Knight called the admitted infidelity by Woods "part of the game" in the industry of endorsements and said when it comes to building brands around athletes, "There is always a risk.
"One of the things we always try to do when we have a big endorsement is check out the character and the pattern of the individual, but you're not going to get it right all the time, and if you're going to be in the business you have to recognise that."
"Obviously, he was one we checked out and he came out clean."
The latest gossip-page fodder in the icon's epic meltdown came on Monday when former Woods fling Cory Rist appeared on the Today show, apologising to Woods's wife Elin and saying Woods portrayed his marriage as falling apart in 2006.
"I understood that things were very difficult at home, not what we thought they were on TV," Rist said on the US show. "According to him, things were rough and they were going to separate.
"He said, 'We're on the outs,' but she was pregnant and they had to get through that."
US magazine quoted Rist as saying, "He would stay there because she was pregnant, because of his reputation and image - he had to uphold that."
Rist said her relationship with Woods began in June of 2006, barely a month after the death of Woods's father and golf mentor, Earl Woods.
Woods's first child with Elin, daughter Sam, was born a year later after the 2007 US Open. The couple's other child, son Charlie, was born 10 months ago.
At least a dozen women have reportedly claimed to have been lovers of Woods, who turns 34 later this month.
"I don't know how he had the time to have so many women in his life," Rist said. "I don't think he's an honest man."
She apologised to Elin Woods, who has purchased land on an island in Sweden and has given no public indication whether or not she is willing to stay married to Woods in the wake of his infidelity.
"I can only imagine the pain she is feeling now and I'm sorry," Rist said. "I'm sorry for her pain. I hate that I'm a part of it."
It was early in the morning on November 27, two days after a tabloid newspaper revealed a relationship between Woods and New York show club hostess Rachel Uchitel, that Woods crashed a vehicle into a tree and a hydrant, touching off a firestorm that has threatened to destroy his marketing image.
Woods has drawn extra attention and sponsor support to golf and a prolonged absence by the superstar and a halt to his pursuit of the record 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus could deal a major blow to global interest in golf.
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was taken to hospital with blood smeared over his face after a man hurled a small model of Milan cathedral at him at a political rally, police said on Sunday.
Television footage showed the premier with blood splattered over his lips, teeth and chin being bundled into a car by aides and rushed away, minutes after finishing a lively speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters in a central Milan square.
Initial X-rays showed a loss of blood and injuries to two teeth but the 73-year-old prime minister and media mogul said "I'm fine, I'm fine" when he was moved to a hospital room in the northern city, Ansa news agency said.
A 42-year-old man was detained for throwing a small model of Milan cathedral at Berlusconi from close range, police said. The man has been undergoing treatment for mental problems for the past 10 years, Ansa said.
Berlusconi's allies were quick to say the incident was the result of a campaign of "hatred" by his leftist opponents. He has faced growing criticism in recent months amid mounting legal troubles and scandals over his private life.
"What they've done to Berlusconi is an act of terrorism," Umberto Bossi, head of the far-right Northern League and a close Berlusconi ally, told Ansa.
Condemnation of the act poured in from allies and critics alike. It has been a bruising political year for Berlusconi, who launched a tirade against the left in his Milan speech, a characteristically defiant performance aimed at regaining political momentum.
After a summer battling sex scandals, Berlusconi has come under pressure from mounting legal troubles and a widening rift with his main ally Gianfranco Fini, the lower house speaker who in private remarks has accused the premier of acting like an "absolute monarch."
Stripped of immunity from prosecution, Berlusconi faces several trials, including one on charges of bribery and corruption and another on charges of tax fraud.
An opinion poll published on Saturday showed the prime minister's popularity had fallen four percentage points to just over 50 percent as Italians fretted that his legal entanglements could distract him from government duties.
He denies any wrongdoing and says legal allegations against him are part of a campaign by biased courts and "communist" magistrates to bring down his government.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan announced a deal to buy Friendster, a social networking site that still retains a strong following in Southeast Asia after losing in global popularity to Facebook and MySpace.
Tan's online payment systems business will buy 100 percent of Friendster through an affiliate company, according to a joint statement Thursday.
The two companies will be combined so Tan's business empire can sell content such as games, movies, music and other products to Friendster's 115 million members, using his company's electronic payments system. Tan's businesses include retail franchises in Southeast Asia such as Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Borders, Krispy Kreme, and Wendy's.
The price for Friendster wasn't disclosed but the combined entity will have annual revenue of about $110 million.
"We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base here in Southeast Asia," the statement said.
Launched in 2003, Friendster was among the first to establish online social networking as a hot trend. It soon faded in popularity, however, as Web users migrated to newer sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com.
Facebook is the world's second most popular Web site, attracting almost 29 percent of Internet users, according to Web traffic monitor Alexa.com.
In contrast, only 0.4 percent of Internet users are visiting Friendster, ranking it the 164th most popular site globally.
Despite its demise in the U.S., Friendster has managed to build a strong following in Asia, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. The three countries account for almost 60 percent of its users.
Friendster Chief Executive Richard Kimber said about 90 million of the site's members are Asians and described the merger as an "industry-changing event."
The Tiger Woods saga continues with claims he has been linked to a relationship with an adult movie star.
Holly Sampson, 36, is an alleged seventh mistress of Woods but The New York Post reports the number of women linked to the billionaire golf champion may be as high as nine.
Sampson, whose list of movies includes My First Sex Teacher, reportedly said through a lawyer she had no comment to make on the matter.
It was revealed yesterday that 33-year-old restaurant worker Mindy Lawton claimed she met Woods every couple of weeks in 2007 for sex.
She described the golfing star as "compassionate and passionate" and said they even had sex in a church car park.
"Sometimes I looked like a rag doll after we'd made love," she told the News of the World.
"He really did like it quite rough."
She also claims Tiger likes to spank her.
"[He] loved pulling my hair as we had sex," she said.
Jaimee Grubbs, a cocktail waitress, also claims to have been seeing Woods for more than two years and has text messages and voicemails to prove it.
"According to Us Weekly, Grubbs has more than 300 text messages from Tiger - who married Elin Nordegren in 2004," TMZ reported.
One of the text messages allegedly sent by Woods read: "I will wear you out ... when was the last time you got (bleeped)?"
Another read: "Send me something very naughty... Go to the bathroom and take (a picture)."
Grubbs recently starred on the US reality TV show, Tool Academy. She reportedly met woods in Las Vegas in April, 2007.
Rumours started soon after a car crash when Woods refused to speak to police, fuelling speculation that he had been fleeing Elin after she became violently angry at reports he was seeing a New York nightclub hostess.
Meanwhile, Life and Style magazine has a report naming a Las Vegas club manager, Kalika Moquin, as another alleged mistress.
