Shakira pregnant with baby No. 2

SHAKIRA is pregnant with baby No. 2.
THE Colombian singer made the announcement on her Facebook and Twitter pages on Thursday. Her representative confirmed that the accounts were real.
The Grammy winner wrote: "Yes, we are expecting our second baby!! Thank you all for your well wishes!" No more details about the pregnancy were revealed.
Shakira and soccer player Gerard Pique, 27, welcomed their son, Milan Pique Mebarak, last year.
Pique, who is from Barcelona, is a soccer player for FC Barcelona.

Magnitude 6.1 quake rattles southern Japan

A MAGNITUDE-6.1 earthquake has struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency says.

NO tsunami warning was issued, and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake, which hit the region at 4.14am (0514 AEST) on Friday, originated underground off the coast of Miyazaki prefecture, the area between Kyushu and the southwestern island of Shikoku, the agency said.

Google builds package-delivering drones

GOOGLE'S secretive research laboratory is trying to build a fleet of drones designed to bypass earthbound traffic so packages can be delivered to people more quickly.

THE ambitious program announced on Thursday escalates Google's technological arms race with rival Amazon.com, which also is experimenting with self-flying vehicles to carry merchandise bought by customers of its online store.

Google Inc has dubbed its effort "Project Wing". Although Google expects it to take several more years before its fleet of drones is fully operational, the company says test flights in Australia recently delivered a first aid kit, chocolate bars, dog treats, and water to two farmers.

Welsh rugby star fined for attack on ex

WELSH international rugby star Ian Gough has been ordered to pay STG2,130 ($A3,890) in fines and costs after attacking his beauty queen ex-girlfriend just days after she got engaged to pop star Dane Bowers.

THE 37-year-old player grabbed and pushed former Miss Wales Sophia Cahill against his van as he dropped their two-year-old son Gabriel off at her house in South Croydon in south London January 5.

Gough, who was found guilty of assault after a short trial at the court last month, is appealing against the conviction, his lawyer said.

Cahill said she was so shaken up by the attack she fled in tears back to the home she shares with 1990s singer Bowers, to whom she got engaged over the Christmas break.

She did not attend Gough's sentencing at Croydon Magistrates' Court in south London on Thursday but a victim impact statement read out on her behalf said she has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since the incident.

US President Barack Obama has no strategy on Syria and ISIS militants

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama played down the prospect of imminent US military action in Syria on Thursday, saying “we don’t have a strategy yet” for degrading the violent militant group seeking to establish a caliphate in the Middle East.

Obama said confronting ISIS militants requires a regional strategy with support from other countries in the region. He said it’s time for states in the region to “stop being ambivalent” about the aims of extremist groups like the ISIS.

“They have no ideology beyond violence and chaos and the slaughter of innocent people,” Obama said, alluding to the group’s announcement last week that it had killed American journalist James Foley. The militants also have threatened to kill other US hostages.

Schapelle Corby’s boyfriend arrested in Bali on drug charges

Ben Panangian faces a maximum 12 years in jail after police allege that he was caught with marijuana in a Bali street. A later search of his Kuta home also allegedly found more marijuana in his wardrobe.

This week the 32-year-old was among a group of drug suspects paraded by police in Denpasar, wearing orange suspect overalls and balaclavas on their heads. At the time his face was covered, he was not named and police gave only the initials BPS.

Several different police sources confirmed to News Corporation that the man arrested was Corby’s boyfriend.

Cameron makes plea to Scottish voters as referendum temperature rises

David Cameron will plead with Scottish voters on Thursday not to abandon one of the "oldest and most successful single markets in the world", after the home secretary, Theresa May, highlighted nerves in the pro-union campaign, warning that it needed to redouble its efforts.

As the referendum campaign enters its final stage the prime minister will seek to warn wavering voters of the dangers of separating from the UK by raising the prospect that Scotland's financial services could lose 90% of their business if voters endorsed independence on 18 September.

Cameron will acknowledge that questions over the economy lie at the heart of the referendum campaign when he says that key Scottish industries are underpinned by membership of the UK.

In a speech to the CBI Scotland conference in Glasgow, he will say that 90% of Scottish financial services' customers live in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Scotland's computer gaming industry and its "cutting-edge sub-sea technology" benefit from selling across the UK without transaction costs.

His arrival comes as the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, receives a boost from 150 business leaders who have signed a letter supporting independence. The signatories include Ralph Topping, the former chief executive of William Hill, and Tom Barrie, managing director of the logistics company Currie European.

Details of the letter emerged a day after 130 prominent business leaders, including the HSBC chairman Douglas Flint, signed an open letter warning that the case for Scottish independence had not been made.

Cameron will tell his audience: "This is one of the oldest and most successful single markets in the world. Scotland does twice as much trade with the rest of the UK than with the rest of the world put together – trade that helps to support one million Scottish jobs.

"For some industries, the proportion of trade with the rest of the UK is even higher – 90% of Scottish financial services' customers are in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Then there's the world-famous gaming industry, cutting-edge subsea technology and life-saving biomedicine – all selling far more outside Scotland than inside.

"This success doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of the skill of people in Scotland and the opportunities that come from being part of something bigger, a large domestic market, underpinned by a common currency, common taxes, common rules and regulations, with no borders, no transaction costs, no restrictions on the flow of goods, investment or people. Ours really is an economy of opportunity."

Women's nationality is focus of new campaign for gender equality

A global campaign to revoke discriminatory laws that prohibit women from changing their nationalities, or conferring their nationalities on their children, was launched in Geneva this week.

The International Campaign to End Gender Discrimination in Nationality Laws, organised by a coalition of NGOs, UN agencies and academics, is calling on governments to amend any laws that deny women equal rights to men in regard to nationality and citizenship.

In contravention of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the UN general assembly in 1979, 27 countries do not allow women to confer their nationality on their children, and more than 60 countries do not afford women the same right as men to acquire, change or retain their nationality, or confer their nationality on their husbands if they were born elsewhere.

Twelve of the 27 countries, are found in the Middle East and north Africa, while eight are in sub-Saharan Africa, four in Asia and three in the Americas.

Investors look for more gains as U.S. S&P 500 index hits 2,000 milestone

(Reuters) - The U.S. S&P 500 stock index broke through the landmark 2,000 level on Monday, marking a six-year rally which has benefited many Americans from Wall Street to Main Street.

During that time the unemployment rate has fallen from a high of 10 percent in December 2009 to a low of 6.1 percent in June of this year, but the rally is still seen as largely benefiting wealthier Americans as paltry wage rises have left most Americans with little to invest in retirement accounts.

Roche’s $8 bln bet outsmarts ice-bucket challenge

By Robert Cyran

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Roche’s latest $8 billion bet may outsmart the ice-bucket challenge. Dumping cold water on heads, the social-media phenomenon now boosting research on Lou Gehrig’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a great way to raise charitable cash. But the drug made by Roche’s target, InterMune, treats an obscure yet equally fatal disease with more sufferers.

There are about 35,000 patients diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, in the United States every year. That’s more than five times the annual incidence of ALS. Both diseases strike similar age groups and are uniformly deadly, killing most patients within a handful of years. Yet ALS attracts more than twice the research budget annually and the popular ice-bucket challenge, which has already raised about $80 million, will increase the gap.

ALS has attracted media attention ever since it struck down Gehrig, an outstanding baseball player, in his prime. And death by loss of motor control inspires fear and empathy. But financial markets tend to take a more hard-nosed approach. Pharmaceutical companies focus on patient numbers and a drug’s potential efficacy. InterMune’s drug stacks up well on these metrics. Patients taking it tend to stave off the lung scarring of IPF for longer, and there are few alternative treatments. Analysts project sales could eventually top $1 billion a year.

Ukraine crisis: Poroshenko and Putin set for Minsk talks

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is due to take part in talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at a summit in Minsk, capital of Belarus.

The meeting comes amid rising tension between the two countries over Ukraine's military campaign against pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine said on Monday that its troops had captured 10 Russian servicemen in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly denied supporting the rebels.

More than 2,000 people have died in months of fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The two regions declared independence from Kiev following Russia's annexation of the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March.

Alleged town council hacker handed 105 more charges

(UPDATED 25 August 2014. Adds details of new charges)

James Raj Arokiasamy, the alleged “Messiah” hacker was handed 105 additional charges on Monday (25 Aug) in court.

According to Channel News Asia, Raj, 35, has been charged for unauthorised access into the Fuji Xerox webserver in March last year.

He faces a total of 162 charges.

He was previously charged with hacking the Ang Mo Kio town council website and ordered to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric evaluation for up to two weeks.

He is accused of defacing a portion of the Ang Mo Kio town council website by adding the image of the Guy Fawkes Mask, displaying a statement addressed to Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee and signing off with the name “The Messiah”.

China antitrust regulator says Microsoft not transparent with sales information

BEIJING - A Chinese antitrust regulator said on Tuesday that Microsoft Corp had not been fully transparent with its sales data on the software it distributes in China, including information on sales of its media player and web browser software.

Microsoft has expressed willingness to cooperate with ongoing investigations, Zhang Mao, the head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), told reporters at a briefing in Beijing.

"After multiple meetings including at high levels, they've expressed a willingness to respect Chinese law and collaborate with investigating officials," Zhang said.

The Microsoft investigation comes amid a spate of anti-trust probes against foreign firms in China, including mobile chipset maker Qualcomm Inc and German car maker Daimler AG's luxury auto unit Mercedes-Benz. The investigations have renewed fears of Chinese protectionism.

Malaysia Airlines flying virtually empty

It has been nothing short of a catastrophic year for Malaysia Airlines, which suffered two major tragedies in quick succession, leaving its jets flying virtually empty, as pictures on social media show.

Photos of the deserted cabins have been making the rounds on the internet, a graphic reminder of how completely customer confidence has fled from Malaysia’s national carrier.

US plans surveillance flights in Syria

The United States is poised to send spy planes into Syria to track Islamist militants, preparing the way for possible air strikes against jihadists there, a senior US official said Monday (Aug 25).

WASHINGTON: The United States is poised to send spy planes into Syria to track Islamist militants, preparing the way for possible air strikes against jihadists there, a senior US official said Monday (Aug 25).

Singapore Government to boost cyber security measures: Yaacob

Monitoring and Operations Control Centre to be established, Cyber-Watch Centre upgraded and Chief Information Security Officers appointed, Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim announced on Tues (Aug 26)

SINGAPORE: The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) will set up a Monitoring and Operations Control Centre to help the Government guard against, and respond swiftly, to security threats. This will complement the existing Cyber-Watch Centre, which will be upgraded by January 2015.