Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao and US president-elect Barack Obama have discussed Taiwan and the global financial crisis by telephone, China's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Hu told Obama that bilateral relations could improve if the two sides showed respect for each other's concerns and "properly handle sensitive issues ... particularly the Taiwan issue," the ministry reported on its website.

The ministry quoted Obama as saying late Saturday that resolving the current financial crisis needed the close cooperation of every national government.

Obama said he hoped that China and the United States would strengthen cooperation at the international summit on the financial crisis and the global economy on November 15.

Valletta, Malta - Five bodies recovered at sea in just over two weeks off Malta remained unidentified Sunday, though police were almost certain they were African immigrants who failed to make it to Europe.

The bodies were all in an advanced state of decomposition, indicating that they had been in the water for some time, police said.

Though the gender of the bodies was confirmed in an autopsy, it was very difficult to establish ethnicity.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported police as saying that it was "99 per cent probable that they were all (would-be illegal) immigrants." The autopsy established they had drowned.

Three of the corpses were female and one of them was wearing a life jacket.

Baghdad - Extremists have killed four civilians, a policeman and a US soldier, the US military said Sunday.

London, Nov 9 : Fans inspired by the Lord of the Rings films are making their own movie ‘Born Of Hope’, which has a 25,000 pounds budget, and is being made in the UK.

None of those who are taking part in the making of the movie are getting paid for it, but the Middle Earth subject matter has attracted people from around the globe to join the team, including some of the film''s original cast and crew, Sky News reported.

The low-budget production, which is due for release sometime in November 2009, has according to its backers been well received at many conventions and exhibitions worldwide after a trailer from the test shoot in April 2006 was shown.

New York, Nov 9 : Padma Lakshmi’s friends are rushing to the stunner’s defence after it was reported that she was a gold digger.

The New York Post’s sources had earlier insinuated that the "Top Chef" host used former hubby Salman Rushdie for his fame.

"She does live in the circle of rich, famous people so it would be natural that they are the ones she may date,” the New York Post quoted a pal, as saying.

Kochi, Nov. 9 : V. T. Jolly, a school dropout, in Kochi has acquired a huge collection of discarded pens. Jolly’s passion started three years ago, and till date, he has collected 2,608 pens of over 1050 varieties. 

Though Jolly has failed to matriculate, his is passionate about collecting pens. His passion for discarded pens began at the age of 15. 

He wasn’t well off to buy new pens of different varieties so he opted to collect used or thrown away pens from wherever he could. 

He says this hobby started while painting a house. He noticed a few used pens lying in a dustbin. With the owners’ permission, he took them and then started his collection.