Los Angeles  - The Screen Actors Guild, the dominant union representing Hollywood's actors, on Wednesday moved a step closer to a strike that could cripple TV and film production in the US entertainment capital.

SAG announced that it would be sending strike ballots to its 120,000 plus members on January 2, seeking the 75 per cent approval rating that would allow the union to call a strike. The votes will be tabulated on January 23, the union said in a press release.

Wellington  - A New Zealand judge told a teenage girl who turned up in court to face a drunk-driving charge wearing a T-Shirt proclaiming she was "Miss Wasted" to go home and change, news reports said on Thursday.

When Keisha Lee Kubala, 18, returned to the Gore District Court on Wednesday, she pleaded guilty to driving with a breath-alcohol level of 349 micrograms, more than double the legal limit of 150 mcg for a driver under the age of 20.

Monaco  - Formula One teams and the international motorsport federation FIA reached agreement Wednesday on cost-cutting measures for the sport from next year.

Their proposals at a meeting in Monaco will be put forward to the FIA World Motor Sport Council on Friday.

A joint statement from FIA and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) gave no details of the proposed savings, saying full details will be released following Friday's meeting.

Athens  - A Greek court on Wednesday ordered two policemen charged in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy last Saturday to be held in jail until trial.

San Francisco  - Google is teaming up with dozens of publishers to index old magazines and make them available online, according to a blog posting by the company.

The move is another facet of Google's ambition to organize the world's information and comes two years after the tech search giant embarked on a scheme to scan and index millions of books. In September, the company launched a project to digitize newspaper archives, making millions of old newspaper articles searchable online.

Geneva - Colombia's Vice President Francisco Calderon defended his country's human rights record on Wednesday, saying crackdowns on drug runners and paramilitary groups continued and "impunity is being reduced."

Speaking after he appeared for a periodic review of his country, under the auspices of the UN's Human Rights Council, Calderon also said he hoped the United States would enter into a free trade deal with Colombia.