Los Angeles  - Last weekend's top-grossing movie, the romantic comedy Four Christmases, had 18.2 million dollars in ticket sales under its tree in its second three-day weekend in cinemas.

The number was good enough to hold onto the North American box- office revenue title for the Friday-Sunday period.

Sao Paulo/Bras

Kuala Lumpur  - A Malaysian woman allegedly slashed her husband to death after he abused her over 300 ringgit (87 dollars), reports said Monday.

The 44-year-old wife from the eastern Sabah state was preparing dinner Thursday evening when she was punched for refusing to give the money to her 44-year-old husband.

The suspect, believed to be a victim of constant domestic violence, grabbed a kitchen knife and slashed the man to death in the living room, the Star daily reported.

Tokyo  - Japan's current-account surplus fell in October by 56.5 per cent from the same month of 2007 to 960.5 billion yen (10.4 billion dollars), the Finance Ministry said Monday in Tokyo.

It was the eighth consecutive month with a year-on-year drop.

Japan's goods and services trade surplus ran a deficit of 131.9 billion yen, against a year-before surplus of 853.5 billion yen, the ministry said in a preliminary report.

Athens - Civil unrest over the weekend shooting of a teenager by police continued early Monday across Greece as hooded youths clashed with riot police for a second straight day.

Two days of rioting left Athens and the northern port city of Thessaloniki resembling war zones as self-styled anarchists torched cars, banks, police precincts, car dealerships, government buildings, private homes and stores and erected blazing barricades.

Despite charges of manslaughter filed against two of the police officers allegedly involved in the shooting, the violence continued unabated.

Entire streets and avenues remained blocked by burned and overturned vehicles, and garbage bins and tear gas filled the air throughout Athens and Thessaloniki.

Washington - US president-elect Barack Obama nominated retired general Eric Shinseki, former US Army chief of staff, to head the US Department of Veterans Affairs, in an announcement Sunday in Chicago.

Shinseki, 66, was Army chief of staff from 1999-2003.

He was forced into retirement shortly after publicly voicing his belief that the looming March 2003 invasion of Iraq would require far higher troop strength than planned, in sharp disagreement with then- defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.