New York, Mar 27 : Robert Pattinson might be one star who has girls swooning over him, but the ladies might soon be running in the other direction if the actor doesn't start taking a shower.

According to reports, the hunky actor doesn't score much when it comes to personal hygiene, and doesn't even take his daily bath.

The actor used to smell bad on the sets of `Twilight', and the same stink continued while he was filming its sequel-`New Moon'.

New York - The two most prestigious newspapers in the United States both announced job cuts Thursday in a dramatic sign of how the recession and the rise of the internet is eroding the newspaper industry.

The New York Times said it was eliminating 100 positions and lowering the salaries of all non-union employees by 5 per cent for the rest of the year, due to sharply declining revenues. All the job cuts are administrative, but the company warned that it would be forced to eliminate newsroom positions if the union did not agree to similar pay cuts.

New York  - US stock indices continued their strong monthly showing on Thursday on some positive company earnings reports, the latest in a string of better-than-expected economic news in the midst of the US recession.

US electronics chain Best Buy Co, food producer ConAgra Foods Inc and drinks maker Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc led a 4-per-cent rally in consumer shares.

General Motors Corp surged 14 per cent after about 7,500 workers accepted the company's buyout offer, helping the US carmaking giant reduce labour costs.

New York  - Khartoum's expulsion of major international humanitarian groups from Darfur has caused serious deficiencies in healthcare services and shelter for hundreds of thousands of people in the region, the top UN humanitarian coordinator said Thursday.

New York  - Sudan said Thursday it will not allow the 13 humanitarian organizations expelled from the troubled Darfur region to resume their work there.

"It is not reversible because we did it for our national interests," Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Mohamad told reporters while the UN Security Council was holding a closed-door discussion on the situation in Darfur.

New York  - New Zealand's former Prime Minister Helen Clark was appointed on Thursday the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which holds the largest purse in the UN system to assist developing countries.

Clark, who will replace Kermal Dervis of Turkey, was selected from a short list compiled by a senior appointment panel headed by Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro.