The tobacco industry on Tuesday threatened to slash the price of cigarettes if Australia goes ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging, saying more people will end up smoking.

Last month, Australia unveiled the world's toughest laws on tobacco promotion that would see cigarettes sold in drab olive-green packets plastered with graphic health warnings.

Two leading makers of lighting products are showcasing LED bulbs that are bright enough to replace energy-guzzling 100-watt light bulbs set to disappear from stores in January.

Their demonstrations at the LightFair trade show in Philadelphia this week mean that brighter LED bulbs will likely go on sale next year, but after a government ban takes effect.

Syria's opposition called for a general strike Wednesday in defiance of a government campaign to crush pro-democracy protests, as the army pressed its siege of the restive town of Tall Kalakh, the latest target of its violent crackdown.

"Wednesday will be a day of general strike in Syria," said a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group that has been a motor of protests that erupted two months ago.

Dubai's government unexpectedly intervened Monday to take over Dubai Bank, a cash-strapped lender jointly owned by the Dubai ruler's investment company and the developer of the world's tallest tower.

The government, in a statement issued by the city-state's media office, vowed to immediately pump an undisclosed amount of fresh funds into the bank. The announcement is a reminder that while Dubai may be recovering from the economic downturn, it is far from being in the clear after its biggest conglomerate was forced to re-negotiate the terms on about $25 billion in debt.

The customer known only as "Cesar of Huizache" had an odd request for shoemaker Dario Calderon: He showed him a cell-phone photo of a sequined cowboy boot with pointy toes so long, they curled up toward the knees. He wanted a pair, but with longer toes.

"I thought 'What's up with this dude?'" Calderon said at his shop in Matehuala, a northeastern Mexican city of farmers and cattle ranchers accustomed to a more stoic cowboy look. The boot in the photo measured 60 centimeters (23 inches) "but we made him a pair that were 90 centimeters (35 inches) long."

A Hong Kong performing arts school will offer a Cantonese opera degree in the latest effort to preserve the traditional art form designated as a key cultural heritage.

The Academy for Performing Arts said its program will combine theory and practice to prepare students for Cantonese opera careers as performers, educators or arts administrators.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's reputation with women earned him the nickname "the great seducer," and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country.

Police said the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup. Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.

NBC is betting on the Playboy club, Chelsea Handler and a raft of romantic comedies among the dozen new series it has ordered in its latest attempt to come back from a long slump that has made it television's fourth-place broadcast network.

The network outlined its fall plans on Sunday, opening a hectic week in which broadcasters unveil their fall schedules to advertisers in hopes they will make multimillion dollar commitments to buy commercials. It was the first new schedule formulated by NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, appointed when Comcast took over NBC Universal.

Egypt's ex-first lady Suzanne Mubarak has responded well to treatment for "a panic attack" she suffered after being told she would be detained by the government for further questioning on corruption allegations, a hospital official said Saturday.

The official said the 70-year-old wife of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak was visited Saturday by a cardiologist who found "noticeable improvement in her condition."

A Christian man in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has been kidnapped and is being held for a $100,000 ransom, police said Saturday.

Kirkuk deputy police chief Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman said the victim is a construction worker who did not come home from work Friday night. When officials called his mobile phone on Saturday, the kidnappers answered and demanded the money.