Indian equities opened on a bright note tracking hopeful worldwide signals.

Metal, consumer durables and realty stocks, among the severely hammered in recent weeks, were among the top gainers this morning.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 2% and 1.86% respectively.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday celebrated Diwali at evening when the index posted a sharp 547-point gain taking back some eagerness among investors after last Friday’s slaughter.

Washington, Oct 29: Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis'' song ‘Cruisin'' in the film ‘Duets’, which once topped Australian charts, has been voted as the top flop duet of all time, by an online music magazine.

In a poll by Spinner. com, the duet that once reached the number one spot in Australia, has been declared as the worst vocal collaboration till date.

Standing second in the list is Paula Abdul''s pairing with MC Skat Kat for ‘Opposites Attract’, reports Contactmusic.

Washington, Oct 29 : Erstwhile James Bond star Sir Sean Connery has signed up to star in ‘Quest of Sheherzade’, based on the legendary 1001 Arabian Nights tale, alongside Orlando Bloom, according to reports.

The 78-year-old, who had turned his back on acting in recent years, has been missing from the big screen since 2003''s ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’.

However, now the actor is back with a bang, and the news was revealed by the film''s female lead, Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley, who will play an Iranian princess.

"Sean Connery is there in the film and recently Orlando Bloom was also signed,” Contactmusic quoted her, as telling British publication The London Paper.

Nairobi - The top United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo has appealed for more soldiers as rebel forces threaten to overwhelm government and UN peacekeepers in the eastern part of the Central African nation.

UN helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles have been supporting Congolese troops north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's troops press toward the town.

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has reportedly driven the Congolese army back from the town of Kibumba, which lies about 20 kilometres north of Goma.

Ramallah - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 68-year-old Palestinian Wednesday morning in the village of Yamoun, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to the official Voice of Pa

Washington, October 29 : Americans who claim that they have yet not decided whether to cast their votes in favour of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama or his Republican counterpart John McCain might actually have implicitly made their choices, even though they have not realized it so far.

This suggestion comes from a team of researchers from the University of Virginia, Harvard University, and Tony Greenwald of the University of Washington.