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Washington, Jun 17 : Singer Stacy Ann Ferguson a. k. a. Fergie has revealed that she and actress Penelope Cruz had to gain 17 pounds before shooting of musical `Nine' began.

The two had been asked by the movie's director to put on the weight, and they were very happy to oblige.

"We were eating our brains out. We ordered everything fried and full of fat and salty," Us magazine quoted Fergie as telling the July issue of Allure.

The Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) has expanded its MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) telecom services in West Bengal.

Launched in Kolkata last month, MTS will offer its services on CDMA platform in 250 towns of West Bengal.

According to the SSTL, the MTS, which is currently present in five circles of the country, has crossed the one million subscriber base mark

Set up in 2008, the joint venture between Shyam Telelink of India and Sistema of Russia – SSTL got the pan-India license to provide CDMA services in the country.

Hanoi - An oil tanker exploded and sank early Wednesday at a port in southern Vietnam, leaving three crew members missing, state media reported.

Vietnam News Agency said that just after 2 am (1900 GMT), a series of explosions occurred on board the 1,800-ton tanker Nhat Thuan while it anchored some 6 kilometres off the harbour of Vung Tau. The ship had been scheduled to dock at 10 am.

Crew members said the tanker sank 30 minutes after it was hit by three large explosions.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia plans to make it mandatory for foreign maids to be given a day off every week, following calls for new laws to protect domestic staff, officials and news reports said Wednesday.

Currently, days off for maids are not a requirement.

Under the new ruling, all foreign maids would only have to work six days in a week, with errant employers facing a fine of up to 10,000 ringgit (2,700 dollars) if caught denying their domestic helpers a day off, Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam said.

Sydney - Charities, hospitals and sports clubs may have to return donations from a 27-year-old Australian who allegedly defrauded insurance companies by claiming he had a terminal illness.

Clint Elford faced a Sydney court Wednesday on charges that he bilked insurance companies of 500,000 Australian dollars (395,000 US dollars) and stood to gain 13 million Australian dollars through deception if multiple life insurance policies were paid out.

London - Iran is mastering nuclear technology and believes firmly in having the option of a nuclear weapon, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, said in a BBC interview Wednesday.

"It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons," ElBaradei said.

He urged western countries to engage with Iran to remove the incentive for making a bomb.