Melbourne, Jan 15 : Australian cricketer Michael Clarke and his fiance Australian model Lara Bingle have dismissed rumours that their relationship is going through a rough patch.

Rumours of trouble in the couple's fairytale romance emerged after Bingle was spotted leaving a business in Sydney not wearing her sizeable engagement ring and hiding her face, reports News. com. au.

London, Jan 15 : Actor Ricardo Montalban, best known for his role as Mr. Roarke in the popular US TV show `Fantasy Island' of the 1970s-80s, has died aged 88, a Los Angeles city official says.

The Mexican-born actor passed away at his home, the official said, reports BBC.

Montalban was also well known for playing the villain in `Star Trek', both on television and in a feature film.

The actor''s friend David Brokaw described him as a "very courtly, modest, dignified individual."

London, Jan 15 : In a new research, scientists have found that the earliest known bird, the magpie-sized Archaeopteryx lithographica, was able to hear like a modern emu.

According to a report by BBC News, the research was part of an analysis in which scientists tested whether the length of the cochlear duct (part of the cochlea - the organ of hearing in animals, which lies in the inner ear) could be used to infer hearing ability in a group of modern birds and reptiles.

"In modern living reptiles and birds, we found that the length of the bony canal containing the sensory tissue of the inner ear is strongly related to their hearing ability," said Dr Paul Barrett, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum.

Jerusalem, Jan. 15: A forum of Israeli human rights organizations has called on the country''s political and military leadership to launch a domestic probe into "suspected war crimes" committed during Operation Cast Lead.

Kolkata, Jan 15: Thick fog disrupted normal life and delayed air and rail traffic in Kolkata.

General visibility at the city airport dropped to low impermissible levels resulting in rescheduling of many flights.

Altogether 47 domestic flights could not take off while 13 flights could not land as the visibility dropped to almost zero around midnight due to fog at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport.

Many trains were also running late from their schedule timings due to the fog.

Residents, who were out for a morning walk, said that visibility was extremely poor and they could not see a person even within the walking distance.

Jerusalem, Jan. 15 : Fighting escalated in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) tightened its grip on Gaza City, pushed deeper into the Shati refugee camp and killed close to 30 Hamas gunmen.

The combat continued despite predictions in the defense establishment that a cease-fire would be implemented in the coming days, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Senior officials in the defense establishment, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, believe the military operations have exhausted themselves and that the time has come for a cease-fire.

It is still unclear whether Israeli forces will immediately withdraw from Gaza once a cease-fire is in place.