Miramshah, Jan. 15 : Taliban militants shot dead today a man accused by it of spying for the US security forces.

The deceased was abducted from Miramshah, the main town of the northern Waziristan, a month ago after the US drone attack targeted a militant hideout in the area.

"He was gunned down before dawn and his body was dumped on a roadside near Miramshah," The Dawn quoted a Pak official, as saying.

A note left by the militants near the body described him as a `US spy.''

New York - US banking giant JP Morgan Chase has posted a positive result for the final quarter of 2008, despite heavy investment banking losses due to the ongoing financial crisis, the company announced on Thursday.

In a statement, the bank said that it posted a net income of 702 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with 3 billion dollars in the same period of 2007.

New York - The economic crisis has hit the personal computer market, with sales figures in the fourth quarter of 2008 stagnating for the first time in five years, two US research companies reported Thursday.

Sales figures compared by Gartner Inc to the previous years showed a slight quarterly increase of 1.1 per cent to 78.1 million units.

Meanwhile, analysts from IDC identified a shrinking of the market by 0.4 per cent in the quarter.

Washington , Jan 15 : President George W. Bush has revealed that the lowest point of his presidency was "being called a racist" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In the days following the disaster caused by Katrina, Bush was criticized for what most say was a slow federal response to aiding victims, especially in the heavily African-American, Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

"I think being called a racist because of Katrina was a low point," Politico. com quoted Bush as telling CNN's Larry King.

New York, Jan 15 : A bar in Austin, Texas, which has been running a `Stripper Idol' competition, has been sued by the producers of the `American Idol' show.

The bar has been running its `Stripper Idol' contest ever week, in which patrons dance topless for a cash prize of 500 dollars, but FremantleMedia North America, which owns the popular TV show, wants it to quit.

According to The Dallas Morning News, FremantleMedia cited in its lawsuit that the contest is a trademark violation, and wants to stop the contest at Palazio Men''s Club in Austin and to seize its profits.

Washington, Jan 15 : O. J. Simpson's former criminal attorney, Robert Shapiro, has revealed that he thinks the retired American football player is a sociopath.

Shapiro, who had led the "Dream Team" in 1994-95 that got Simpson acquitted of double murder, was asked about his former client at Mickey Rourke's party.

"He's a sociopath," Fox News quoted him as saying.

Shapiro was told that F. Lee Bailey was still defending Simpson, who is presently in prison, though not for murder, and also asked if he had always thought Simpson was a sociopath.