Miss California USA officials want Carrie Prejean to repay $5,200 they say she borrowed to have her breasts augmented last year. The demand was a response to a lawsuit filed by Prejean in which she claimed pageant officials violated the former beauty queen's privacy by acknowledging to reporters that her breasts were fake. The truth about Prejean's breasts "ceased being private during the swimsuit competition of the nationally televised Miss USA pageant, in which Ms. Prejean walked the stage in ...

Raj Rajaratnam, the New York-based billionaire and hedge fund manager charged in an alleged insider trading scheme on Friday, was funding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is considered a terrorist group by the US, the Sri Lankan government claimed on Sunday. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, spokesman for the Sri Lankan defence ministry, told the Financial Times that the government had been monitoring Mr Rajaratnam for several years. "[Sri Lanka-born] Raj Rajaratnam was involved in several schemes funding the LTTE. ...

A bomb detonated in the border city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 11 people one day after a series of deadly militant attacks rocked Pakistan. The optimism reflected what the company said was an across-the-board recovery in online advertising, with even the struggling financial services sector showing a return to growth. While search engine advertising has held up better than most other forms of online media in the downturn, Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said the advertising revival ...

China ranks second only to the United States in the number of billionaires, according to an annual report of the 1,000 richest people in the country. The Hurun Rich List counted 130 billionaires in China this year, up from 101 a year ago and none in 2003. An additional 825,000 people had personal wealth of more than $1.5 million, said Rupert Hoogewerf, an accountant who has compiled the list since 1998. "You can double the real number of billionaires in ...

President Obama will visit New Orleans on Thursday for the first time since taking office, to address rebuilding efforts in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. During his trip, Obama will visit a charter school and host a town hall meeting to hear residents' concerns, the White House said. The president's visit will focus on efforts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including cutting red tape and easing funding so residents can become self-sufficient. "The president made ...

Leslie Elder's eyelids fluttered open, and through the fog of pain medication, she saw the emergency room doctors pull back the curtain in her room. She could tell that the news was bad. "They didn't have to say a word. I knew from their faces that something wasn't right," said Elder, 60, who hours earlier had stumbled into the ER with a stabbing pain in her abdomen. "Then one doctor said, 'Your right kidney ... it's breaking apart. You have ...

When Sam Antar was cooking the books for his company, he used a number of complicated accounting tricks to dupe auditors. But some tactics were simple. "These auditors from the Big Four accounting firms are usually single kids just a few years out of school. What do kids in their 20s think about all the time Sex," said Antar, who was at the center of a multi-million dollar fraud 20 years ago. So Antar would pair "cute hot female" employees ...

Greek voters head to the polls Sunday to elect a new government, two years before the elections were originally scheduled. Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis called the early elections in response to pressure from the opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement. The party threatened to block the election of a president in February if there was no general election first. The Greek constitution requires the two major parties to agree on the election of a president, giving either party an effective veto. Karamanlis ...

Supporters of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics were shocked Friday by news that the city was the first of four finalists to be eliminated from consideration. The news from the International Olympic Committee came mere hours after President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama delivered personal appeals to the selection committee, praising the virtues of their hometown. "I'm totally stunned. I thought we had a great opportunity," NBA great Michael Jordan told CNN. Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls ...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday. It is the first time South America will host an Olympics event. The city has budgeted $14.4 billion to the effort, the largest amount of any of the four finalists, according to IOC figures. The final vote was down to Rio and Madrid, Spain. In earlier voting, Chicago, Illinois, and then Tokyo, Japan, were eliminated from contention. After the cities made their presentations ...