Sydney  - Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon was fighting to keep his job Thursday after admitting he failed to declare trips to China paid for by family friend and prominent local businesswoman Helen Liu.

"This was a mistake, and for that, I apologize," the embattled minister said after being carpeted in Canberra by Education Minister Julia Gillard, who is standing in for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while he tours abroad.

Oslo - Russian-born Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov of France was Thursday named winner of the Abel Prize, sometimes known as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics."

Gromov was cited for "his revolutionary contributions to geometry."

The 65-year-old Gromov became a French citizen in 1992 and is a professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques at Bures- sur-Yvette, France.

New Delhi, Mar. 26 : The Editors Guild of India today expressed its shock over the brutal murder of Anil Mazumdar, Editor the Assamese daily Aji on Tuesday night by gunmen.

In a statement, the Guild said that it has regularly expressed its deep apprehensions about the safety of editors and journalists in Assam as many of them function under the shadow of threats.

Hanoi - Vietnam's economic growth rate dropped to an annualized 3.1 per cent in the first three months of 2009, but local experts said Thursday that they were happy with the figure.

The new gross domestic product (GDP) figures released by Vietnam's government Wednesday were much lower than the 7.4-per-cent growth recorded in the same quarter in 2008.

Bangalore, Mar 26 : Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone on Thursday announced that a ten-kilometer marathon would be held here on May 31, 2009.

Padukone, who is promoting the marathon, said she would try to run as much as she could in the marathon.

"I have been practicing yoga for the past few years. I don't know how much that is going to help me. Maybe not in terms of endurance but definitely in terms of metal strength. In flexibility, I think I have a decent stamina. So, I will try and run as much as I can," she said.

Geneva - Air passenger traffic in February dropped by 10.1 per cent, following a trend of declines in recent months, The International Air Transport Association said Thursday.

A 5.9 reduction in capacity last month, deemed by the association to be "the most aggressive since the crisis began," was not able to keep pace with the continued decline in passenger travel.

Also, international freight volumes were 22.1 per cent below 2008 levels, the third consecutive month of such steep declines.