New York, Oct 23 : Newlywed Ellen DeGeneres is shelling out 100,000 dollars of her own money in hopes of quashing Sarah Palin-backed California''s Proposition 8, which seeks to ban same-sex marriages.

DeGeneres, who wed partner Portia di Rossi this summer, has released a short video through NoOnProp8. com urging Californians to vote against the controversial measure, and has now made a media buy to create a longer television commercial.

"I got to do something this year I never thought I''d ever be able to do," the New York Daily News quoted DeGeneres in her video, as saying.

Tokyo, Oct 23: While addressing the reception hosted by Japan-India Association and Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has thanked Japan for providing development assistance for India''s industrial modernization.

"In the next phase of our relationship, we seek to exploit the opportunities offered by globalization and by the synergies in our economies to expand flows of trade, technology and investment," Dr. Singh said.

He said that there are around 15000 strong Indian Diaspora in Japan largely involved in the technological professions and have toiled to make a mark in the Japanese society.

Washington, Oct 23: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he would order a surge of US troops - perhaps 15,000 or more - to Afghanistan as soon as he reached the White House.

“We’re confronting an urgent crisis in Afghanistan. It’s time to heed the call ... for more troops. That’s why I’d send at least two or three additional brigades to Afghanistan,” said Obama, the Democratic contender and now clear front-runner to replace George W. Bush.

Vienna  - The Vienna Stock Exchange AG is expanding its reach in Central and Eastern Europe, as it has agreed to take over a majority of the Prague Stock Exchange.

"We agreed on the general terms of sale," Beatrix Exinger, spokeswoman of the Vienna bourse, was quoted by Austrian news agency APA on Wednesday.

The Prague stock exchange is valued at between 200 million and 400 million euros (268 million to 537 million dollars), but Exinger said the sale price was still to be negotiated.

Vienna could take over up to 90 per cent of the Prague exchange, according to Czech media reports.

Melbourne, Oct 22 : Irish rock band U2 has signed a billion-dollar deal with concert promoters Live Nation, which could earn them more than 500 million dollars in shared revenue.

The deal, which is for 12-years, entitles them to 1.56 million shares in the company worth around 10 million, and it would mean their frontman Bono will be 60-years-old before he finishes touring.

Along with handling the band’s tours, Live Nation will also handle merchandising, digital and branding rights and run their website and fan club.

The company first worked with The Joshua Tree hitmakers in Toronto in 1980, and have been organising their live events since 1997.

Cairo - Egyptian Human Rights activist and long-term democracy advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim said he would meet the new US president on December 6, with a delegation that represents several continents.

The sociology professor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview that "it has been agreed with the teams of both Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama and his Republican rival John McCain to hold a meeting with whoever wins the election."

Representatives from Europe, China, Africa, Latin America and the Arab world will meet the next president, with former US president Jimmy Carter and current incumbent George W Bush, to discuss US foreign policy and present the group's diversified points of view.