Balanced News Blog

Ashlee Simpson collapsed following a performance in Tokyo and has been hospitalized.

A veteran Sinn Fein figure expelled from the party has said he was a British agent for two decades. Denis Donaldson headed the party’s administration office at Stormont before his October 2002 arrest over an alleged spy ring led to its collapse.

A Turkish court put off the trial of a prominent novelist after a brief hearing Friday, giving the government until Feb. 7 to decide whether to go ahead with criminal proceedings against him for mentioning the Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915 in a magazine interview in which he also said 30,000 Kurds had been killed since the late 1980s.

Fresh allegations of fraud in stem cell research by prominent South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk have surfaced and scientists say his other high-profile claims could face investigation as well.

Prosecutors in Chechnya are looking into how “catastrophic” levels of radioactivity were recorded at a factory in the Russian republic.

An explosion ripped through a smelter at a nuclear power plant outside the northern city of St. Petersburg, badly injuring three people, Russia’s nuclear agency said Friday.

Today two press-releases announce patent infringement lawsuits. First there is Visto filed a legal action against Microsoft. Visto has 300 employees and is a global provider of communications platforms. The suit is going mostly against Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0.

On paper, the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants appear to cast similar shadows across the NFL landscape. Both have potent offenses and defenses that rank at or near the bottom third of the league, particularly when it comes to defending the pass.

The first shipment of US beef in nearly two years has arrived in Japan after the easing of an import ban put in place amid concerns about mad cow disease.

Air India flight attendants could be sorry if they don’t loose the excess baggage. The airline is warning its male and female crew members to shape up in two months — or else. The directive applies to overweight pilots, stewards and stewardesses. If they don’t lose the extra pounds, they may be reassigned to ground duties.