Taipei  - A city councilman who allegedly incited a mob to attack a visiting Chinese official last week claimed Tuesday that he was beaten by gangsters linked to China.

"They punched me twice in the chest and demanded that I apologize to Zhang Mingqing or I would be killed," Wang Ting-yu, a city councilman of the southern city of Tainan, said in a news conference in Taipei.

He said he received a phone call from an acquaintance identified as Huang Ju-yi, who asked for a meeting in Taipei last Thursday. When he went to Huang's office, he was taken to another room where some 20 men who he said looked like gangsters surrounded him.

Islamabad, Oct 28 : The Pakistan Senate has reportedly condemned the alleged ‘honour killing’ of a girl in Sindh by her father-in-law, while charging that the child was illegitimate.

In the horrifying incident, the 17-year-old Taslim Solangi, who was eight-month pregnant who was thrown to dogs and was forced to give birth to her baby prematurely by her father-in-law.

Condemning incident, Senator Semeen Siddiqui demanded an inquiry into the incident.

PML-Q senators staged a token walkout in protest against the incident, while others joined the protest.

Washington, Oct 28 : Hollywood actress Natalie Portman is all set to act in “ Love and Other Impossible Pursuits”, a film adaptation of an Ayelet Waldman novel that will be directed by Don Roos.

The flick will feature Hollywood actor Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan alongside Portman.

The flick is based on a young woman, played by Portman, who finds the key to recovering her marriage in her relationship with her precocious stepson.

The project is the first ever flick funded by Incentive Filmed Entertainment, the financing entity, which was unveiled by William Morris at the Cannes film fest.

New York, Oct 28 : A website called mccainpalinhalloween. com is reportedly offering 500 dollars to the best Sarah Palin look-alikes on the eve of Halloween.

The folks behind the website will select the pictures, and will post them on the site to be voted by readers.

They are also offering the same prize money for a best look-alike of Republican John McCain.

"We think this Halloween will capture a political zeitgeist the likes of which the world has never seen before," the Daily News quoted site creator David Snow as saying.

Washington, Oct 28 : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is leading in virtually every national poll, but his margin fluctuates wildly -- suggesting that in some cases, the numbers do in fact lie.

Obama has been leading his rival John McCain in almost every national poll since late September, and it may seem like he’s got the election all sewn up.

London, Oct 28 : A British couple convicted of having sex on Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach may be jailed for a longer term, with prosecutors filing an appeal against their sentence.

The Court of First Instance had sentenced Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors to a three-month term in jail, fined 1,000 dirhams, and issued with deportation orders earlier this month.

However, according to their attorney Hassan Matter, the prosecutors have lodged an appeal against the sentence, saying it was “not enough”.