President Mahinda Rajapakse has addressed the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Addressing the assembly President Rajapaksa said that certain factions have come forward to levy challenges against Sri Lanka under the guise of human rights.

The 69th session of the United nations General Assembly commenced at the UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.

The United Nations General Assembly commenced, with the participation of 193 UN member nations.

President Rajapaksa also addressed the World Climate Summit 2014 on September 23 on the sidelines of the UNGA. The President also met with several state leaders following the event.

The Diesel Black Gold show at New York Fashion Week featured the ultimate in Rock Chic.

Rockabilly girls with a touch of New Wave took to the catwalk, showing off a collection filled with the ubiquitous Diesel leather, studs and lace-up details.

High-waisted trousers and skirts were the name of the game – many sprinkled with stars. The looks came in white, black, red and pale blue, contrasting with flickering stage lights for added dramatic effect.

Fashion Week was also a chance for Britney Spears to present her new line of lingerie, unveiled at a special show at the New York Public Library for select members of the press only.

Models dressed in delicate, lacy numbers posed on a set designed to look like a boudoir.

Made up of kimonos, bustiers and lingerie sets named after flowers, the Intimate Britney Spears collection is the pop singer’s latest in a series of product placement and endorsement deals ranging from perfumes to toys.

The 32-year old singer came on stage after the show thanking the audience for attending and saying: “This is something I’ve been working on for two and a half years. I’m really, really passionate about this and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have.”

One of the highlights of New York Fashion Week is Fashion Rocks, where music and fashion come together for a massive charity fundraising event. Jennifer Lopez lived up to expectations with her highly anticipated show, where she performed her aptly-named hit ‘Booty’ clad a micro metallic dress with matching lingerie bottoms.

British singer Rita Ora offered her version of David Bowie’s ‘Fashion’ wearing a British flag jacket and a bustier mini jumper, before veteran US hard rock band Kiss closed the event with their legendary ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’.

Puerto Rico airport officials say passengers have been evacuated from a New York-bound JetBlue flight after a fire was reported in one of its engines. No injuries were reported.

Puerto Rico airport official Rolando Padua says in a press statement that the 186 passengers aboard were evacuated after the pilot halted the aircraft before it could take off.

He says airport firefighters extinguished the fire in the A-320, which had been scheduled to take off at 6:45 p.m. EDT.

-NDTV

The 22-year-old daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore is so upset with Instagram’s policy on censoring female nudity, that she’s posted topless snaps of herself on Twitter, walking down the streets of Manhattan.

Using hashtag #FreeTheNipple, Scout captioned one shot, “Legal in NYC but not on @instagram,” while on another, she wrote, “What @instagram won’t let you see.”

“If you don’t like what you see, simply unfollow me,” she said in one tweet. “My comfort with my body should not be dictated by how others perceive me. However, I don’t wish to force this view on anyone.’”

The snaps were just two in a series of topless images the actress and model added to her Twitter account, including an old photo of singer Cher in a sheer top and a magazine cover featuring a topless Rihanna.

In one post, Scout said she was ‘boycotting’ Instagram, while revealing she was thinking of starting a new account ‘as an experiment.’

She wrote, “Only beautiful artistic nudes. And let’s see how long till I get kicked off.”

(ABC)