Beijing - The foot injury that forced China's star hurdler Liu Xiang to withdraw from this year's Olympic Games is looking more likely to need surgery that could keep him out of competition for six months, Chinese media said on Friday.

Liu, 24, returned to China on Wednesday after consulting US medical experts but had still not made a final decision on whether to opt for surgery, the official China Daily and other media said.

Islamabad - At least 13 people were killed on Friday in a suspected US aerial strike in Pakistan's north-western tribal region close to the Afghan border, officials said.

Two missiles believed to be fired from drones targeted a compound in Kamsham village, around 30 kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, which is considered a hotbed of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Ramallah  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Ramallah early Friday afternoon for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, a day after the US conceded that Israel and the Palestinians will not reach a peace deal by their end of year deadline.

Rice had landed in the region Thursday ahead of a crucial briefing in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday on the peace process.

Munich  - Amid a continuing economic downturn, Germany luxury carmakers Daimler AG and BMW on Friday reported a major slump in sales for October.

Daimler said sales plunged 18.1 per cent to 93,900 vehicles compared to October 2007.

Sales of its core model Mercedes-Benz were down more than 20 per cent to 80,250 vehicles, while those of the subcompact Smart were up 11.3 per cent to 11,300.

The company said the biggest declines were in Western Europe and the United States.

New Delhi - Japan's Daiichi Sankyo had completed its acquisition of Indian pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories, the companies said in a joint statement Friday.

It was announced in June that the Japanese firm would be acquiring a controlling stake of 63.92 per cent in Ranbaxy, India's largest pharma firm, in an estimated 4-billion-dollar deal.

In a regulatory statement, the firms announced Friday that they had closed the deal with the final transfer of remaining equity shares of the promoters of Ranbaxy, the Singh family.

London, Nov 7 : Owing to the uproar over his swearing on TV, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has decided to mind his language.

The 41-year-old foul-mouthed chef has said he wants to be known for cooking rather than cursing.

His telly show ‘F Word’ is named after his frequent ‘F-word-laden’ outbursts

And his abusive antics have affected his image, so much so, that at recent book signings he was inundated with fans wanting him to scrawl the message: “F*** off, Gordon Ramsay.”