WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his appeal to Congress to pass a credit card reform bill that would outlaw sudden interest rate increases, hidden fees and what the White House calls 'unfair penalties.'
'There is no time for delay,' Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address. 'We need a durable and successful flow of credit in our economy, but we can't tolerate profits that depend upon misleading working families.'
KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA said on Saturday it has freed 13 people held under its tough internal security laws, including three ethnic Indian activists detained since organising anti-government protests in 2007.
'All of them have been released today,' police chief Musa Hassan told AFP.
He said five Filipinos and two Indonesians released will be sent back to their home countries.
SANTA BARBARA (California) - AS MANY as 23,000 more people faced possible evacuation on Saturday as firefighters struggled to get a grip on an out-of-control wildfire raging in southern California.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency to help release resources to fight the blaze.
HONG KONG - A MEXICAN traveller confirmed as Hong Kong's first and only case of the new flu strain has been discharged from hospital, a spokesman said on Saturday.
The unidentified man, who unwittingly caused the confinement of almost 300 guests and staff at a Hong Kong hotel where he had stayed, had been in hospital for a week suffering from the H1N1 flu strain.
