London - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson moved on Tuesday to play down reports linking forward Carlos Tevez with a move to Real Madrid.

The Argentina international has seen his first-team opportunities at the Premier league champions limited this season by the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov, and has been linked with a number of clubs.

Ferguson, though, was adamant he would not be selling, and especially not to Real Madrid, whose lengthy pursuit of winger Cristiano Ronaldo he saw off this summer.

Washington, Nov. 25 : Louisiana’s 37-year-old governor Bobby Jindal is the rising star of the Republican Party, an unnamed senator of the party has said.

In an interview with the website Politico. com, the GOP senator also threw up the names of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and Charlie Crist.

He rather forlornly said: “I don’t think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see. We have the same gridlock.”

“We need someone who speaks from the center,” he said, adding that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was not the voice of the party.

Brussels - The European Union's executive on Tuesday gave the green light to a Latvian state bail-out of the country's largest locally-based bank, Parex Banka, saying that it was "necessary to avoid a serious disturbance in the Latvian economy."

The 200-million-lats (350-million-dollar) bail-out is "limited in time and scope to the minimum necessary to restore the financing, require an adequate fee level and provide safeguards to minimize distortions of competition," a press release from the European Commission said.

Washington, Nov 25 : A new study has found that telephone counselling may be as effective as face-to-face counselling when it comes to weight loss maintenance.

According to researchers, face-to-face and telephone follow-up sessions appear to be more effective in the maintenance of weight loss for women from rural communities compared with weight loss education alone.

London, November 25 : A Colorado judge has found a unique way of dealing with noise polluters – forcing them to listen to Barry Manilow.

Judge Paul Sacco enforced the music ‘therapy’ after finding too many repeat offenders returning to his courtroom in the small town of Fort Lupton, 25 miles north of Denver, reports the Telegraph.

As per the unconventional punishment method, the violators are made to sit in a room and listen to an hour of music they detest, such as hits from Barry Manilow and Barney, the purple dinosaur and Joni Mitchell''s ‘Chelsea Morning.’

Athens/Nicosia - Cyprus on Tuesday said it will push ahead with oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean despite the harassment by Turkish warships which threaten to disturb ongoing reunification talks.

"We will defend the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus and we have reported the provocative actions of Ankara to the United Nations and the European Union," said Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias.

Nicosia on Monday said it has launched a complaint with the United Nations after claims that a Turkish warship harassed vessels exploring for oil and gas earlier this month.