Taipei - Former vice premier Chiou I-jen has been arrested on accusations he embezzled a half-million US dollars during his time as Taiwan's intelligence chief, court officials said Friday.

"When he was secretary general of the National Security Council in 2004, the defendant asked the Foreign Ministry for 500,000 US dollars to finance a secret diplomatic mission, which actually was already completed with no more financial need," said Taipei District Court Judge Huang Chun-ming.

Moscow - Russia watchers were long curious to hear President Dmitry Medvedev's first national address, originally scheduled for October 23. Now, interest has only grown, after a last-minute decision was made to delay it by almost two weeks.

Speculation about the speech, scheduled for November 5, is rampant. For the past eight years, it has been delivered by former president - now Prime Minister - Vladimir Putin.

The president's office provided no reason for the delay. Igor Shuvalov, Putin's chief economic advisor and deputy premier, told daily Vedomosti that Medvedev needed to personally revise the draft.

National media initially speculated that the global financial crisis forced a change to the content of the speech.

Washington - Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama continued their last-ditch attempts to appeal to wavering voters in swing states on Thursday as the US economy took another step toward recession.

Obama planned stops in Florida, Virginia and Missouri and jumped on new government figures that showed the economy contracted 0.3 per cent in the third quarter as proof that a change in approach was needed.

Los Angeles - Barack Obama's 30 minute infomercial was watched by some 30 million viewers Wednesday night and beat the normal ratings of the networks on which it was screened, according to preliminary ratings released Thursday by Nielsen.

The viewing figures showed that for the six networks that aired the programme simultaneously, the spot had a household rating of 21.7 per cent, meaning that 21.7 percent of all households watching television were tuned to the spot. The total of network viewers was 26.3 million viewers, with millions more watching on cable channels which also aired the ad.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev named a new acting president of the Ingushetia region Thursday as news services reported that the old regional president had been dismissed from office.

Murat Zyazikov, 51, a former officer in the Soviet KGB secret police who was elected president of Ingushetia in 2002 with the Kremlin's backing, said Thursday he tendered his resignation in anticipation of a new job in Moscow.

Istanbul - Isolating Iran and Syria is a misguided strategy, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday during an opening speech at the World Economic Forum in Istanbul.

"Dialogue between countries in the region is better than pressure from outside," he said.

Though his speech did not name the United States specifically, his comments were considered to be aimed directly as US policy.