BUKIT MERTAJAM (Malaysia) - PAS retained the Permatang Pasir state seat in the by-election on Tuesday when its candidate, Mr Mohd Salleh Man, 52, polled 9,618 votes to win by a majority of 4,551 votes.
The Penang PAS commissioner beat Mr Rohaizat Othman, 38, of the Barisan Nasional (BN) who garnered 5,067 votes in the straight fight.
WASHINGTON - THE White House on Tuesday said US unemployment would be higher and the budget deficit larger than earlier thought, which could slow President Barack Obama's drive to push through a major healthcare overhaul.
The White House deficit projections now lie closer to those of the independent Congressional Budget Office, but these latter will also be updated later on Tuesday and could paint an even grimmer picture.
OAK BLUFFS (Massachusetts) - PRESIDENT Barack Obama on Tuesday awarded Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke a second term, saying his bold 'out-of-the-box' thinking would help steer the US economy out of the worst slump since the 1930s.
Mr Obama suddenly interrupted his vacation on the resort island of Martha's Vineyard to make the announcement, praising Mr Bernanke's battle against 'one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world have ever faced.'
HONG KONG - CELEBRITY chef Jamie Oliver is planning to launch 30 Italian family-style restaurants in Asia, with the first one set to open its doors to his gastronomic followers in Hong Kong early next year.
The move marks the first step in taking his chain Jamie's Italian - which now has five eateries in England - outside his hometown, to a region which takes pride in its rich diversity of international cuisine and where the economy is picking up faster than anywhere else in the world.
