Taipei - Taiwan stocks plunged almost five per cent in mid-session Thursday due to the worsening global recession and a decline in the island nation's December exports.

By 12:19 pm, the TAIEX index had fallen 234.42 points, or 4.89 per cent, to 4,555.42.

Analysts blamed the fall on the continued global recession, a drop in oil prices, the overnight fall of US stocks and a record 41.9 per cent slump in Taiwan's December exports.

London, January 8 : John Travolta will bid his late son, Jett, a final goodbye in a private Scientology memorial service.

The actor's 16-year-old son, who had Kawasaki Syndrome, a rare condition that can lead to heart disease, died from a seizure on January 2 during a family holiday in the Bahamas.

He was cremated on January 5.

Perth, Australia  - Nicolas Kiefer was taken off in a wheelchair on Thursday, victim of a freak ankle injury as Slovakia reached the final of the eight-nation team competition when Germany could not go on.

Kiefer, 31, was watching a return from Dominik Hrbaty sail out over the baseline when he put his weight wrongly on his right ankle and crumbled to the court at the Burswood Dome.

The German, leading 3-1 and with advantage in the fifth game, lay there in pain until he was taken away for treatment.

Wellington  -

New York, Jan 8: MTV has placed an ad looking for women who are not happy with their twin assets.

The ad featuring in Backstage is seeking "real women" for an upcoming documentary called "True Life: I Don''t Like My Breasts."

"We are not looking for girls who just want to get boob jobs . . . mainly we are looking for girls who seek nonsurgical solutions," The New York Post quoted the ad as stating.

Bangkok  - China's home-appliances giant Haier on Thursday opened a new 170-million-baht (4.9-million-dollar) factory in Thailand to produce air conditioners for the domestic and export markets, company sources said.

The new factory, situated in Prachin Buri, 70 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, has a capacity to produce 500,000 air conditioners a year, of which 30 per cent will target the local market and 70 per cent will be exported to Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.