White House pet dog Miss Beazley crosses paths with pet cat, India, on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington on October 2, 2006. President George W. Bush's family cat, India, has died, the White House said.
Overweight air hostesses sacked
State-run carrier Air India sacked 10 air hostesses for being "exceptionally overweight", a spokesman said yesterday.
The staff had been grounded for years and were sacked after a medical board declared them unfit for duty. The airline says they were given ample opportunity to shed weight.
"They haven't been flying for two to three years for being exceptionally overweight," Jitendra Bhargava, the airline's spokesman, told Reuters.
The spokesman confirmed some of the air hostesses had approached the New Delhi High Court for a legal challenge, which was later thrown out.
"That is their democratic right," he said.
This is not the first time the airline has sacked employees for being overweight, he added.
Angry aboriginals throw eggs
Hundreds of Taiwan aboriginals threw eggs at a heavily guarded government office yesterday while yelling epithets in protest against what they said was a lack of protection for historic land rights.
The aboriginals, who make up about two per cent of Taiwan's population and often regarded as second-class citizens, came from around the island to pelt the Council of Indigenous Affairs building façade as riot police looked on.
Taiwan has not fully implemented a law passed four years ago that gives the natives of "Austronesian" descent more say over tracts of land and ocean once under their control before ethnic Chinese became the island's dominant race, the group said.
Prayer for the redundant
The Church of England published a prayer to help comfort Britons who lose their jobs in the financial crisis.
"Hear me as I cry out in confusion, help me to think clearly, and calm my soul," says the "Prayer On Being Made Redundant".
As many as 600,000 Britons could lose their jobs this year.
Stop speeding or face 'sexual predators'
An Australian court has issued a blunt warning about the sexual predators a young driver faces in jail if he does not stop speeding, as authorities struggle to stop teenagers street racing.
"You'll find big, ugly, hairy strong men (in jail) who've got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you - and your anatomy," said Magistrate Brian Maloney.
The 19-year-old male appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Court charged with driving without a licence, failing to stop at a police alcohol check point and driving dangerously.
It was his third time before the courts for driving offences, prompting the magistrate's warning he would be jailed next time.
Wanted: FBI agents
Wanted by the FBI: agents, language specialists, computer experts, intelligence analysts and finance experts.
The FBI said it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies.
The agency, which seeks to protect the US from terrorist attacks, fights crime and catches spies, among other duties, said it currently has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees.
Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI has been criticised for not having enough employees fluent in foreign languages and for not moving fast enough to upgrade its computer system.
H5N1 bird flu virus death
A 19-year-old woman has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Bureau and Hong Kong's government said yesterday.
"The woman fell ill on December 24, was hospitalised on December 27 and died on Monday (at) 7.20 a.m.," the bureau said in a faxed statement.
Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection said the woman had had contact with poultry before the onset of symptoms.