Lady Gaga cancels concert after 'passing out

Singer Lady Gaga has apologised to fans after being forced to cancel a concert in Indiana due to ill health.

"Can't apologise enough for how sorry I am," she said, via micro-blogging site Twitter, revealing she had collapsed due to exhaustion and dehydration.

"An hour before the show I was feeling dizzy and having trouble breathing," posted the 23-year-old, renowned for her flamboyant stage performances.

The show at Purdue University will now take place on 26 January.

Lady Gaga - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - is scheduled to return to the stage on Saturday in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

I hope you can forgive me. I love my little monsters more than anything Lady Gaga

Last year she failed to appear as a support act at two Take That concerts in Manchester, citing ill health.

The singer tweeted that she had been "crying for hours" as a result of Thursday's cancellation.

"My stage has complicated mechanical elements," she said. "Everyone was concerned I'd be in danger during the 2hr show, since I had passed out earlier.

"I have performed with the flu, a cold [and] strep throat," she went on. "I would never cancel a show just based on discomfort.

"I hope you can forgive me. I love my little monsters more than anything, you are everything to me."

Lady Gaga - who recently topped the UK singles chart with Bad Romance - had the best-selling UK single of 2009 with Poker Face.

Her tour is due to hit the UK in Manchester on 18 February.

Doctor Who finale watched by 10.4m as Tennant bows out

David Tennant's final outing as Doctor Who was watched by 10.4m viewers on New Year's Day, according to early overnight figures.

At the climax of the episode, a total of 10.8m tuned in to see the Time Lord regenerate into his 11th incarnation, 27-year-old actor Matt Smith.

Tennant's final words on the show were, "I don't want to go".

Smith, meanwhile, uttered the immortal line, "legs! I've got legs!" as he made his screen debut as The Doctor.

The 75-minute episode ended with the Tardis in flames, plummeting towards Earth - setting up Smith's first full episode, due later this year.

It was the highest-rated programme in its time-slot. ITV1's Coronation Street took second place, with 8.6m viewers.

However, both had lower ratings than the day's second episode of EastEnders, which attracted an audience of 11.6m at 1945GMT.

Emotions

Critics were generally appreciative of Tennant's final episode, which also marked the end of head writer Russell T Davies' tenure on the show.

The story saw The Doctor battle against his nemesis, The Master (John Simm), who took possession of the body of every human on the planet, paving the way for the return of the Time Lords - who planned to end time itself.

In The Guardian, television critic Mark Lawson likened the episode to Hamlet - a role which Tennant played with the Royal Shakespeare Company last year.

"In common with the prince of Denmark, the Time Lord from Gallifrey agonised aloud over whether it would be right to kill a man (the Master) after a painful encounter with his mother, played by Claire Bloom, whose Shakespearean roles include Hamlet's mother, Gertrude," he wrote.

Writing on Cult TV website Den Of Geek , Simon Brew felt that, by allowing Tenant to revisit the characters he met during his four-year tenure as the Doctor, Davies had given new emotional depth to the process of regeneration.

"We've never had this: 20 minutes or so for a Doctor to deal with his impending demise, with no threat to see off to get in the way.

"Usually, the emotions are dealt with afterwards, as the new Doctor gets used to his new body. Here, an outgoing Doctor got to face the ramifications of what was about to happen, and it was explored exceptionally well."

Meanwhile, in The Times, Caitlin Moran dissected Smith's debut .

"As if to remind us of how huge the Doctor Who Universe is, and how fast it gallops on, Smith wasted no time mourning his previous, dead self. Instead, feeling his delicately featured face, he started in alarm, and shouted: 'Argh! I'm a girl!'"

A preview for the new series has been made available on the official Doctor Who website.

It shows Smith facing vampire-like creatures, hitting a Dalek with a mallet, and shouting what seems set to become his catchphrase: "Geronimo!"

The trailer also hints at the return of Alex Kingston as River Song - an archaeologist who had appeared to have had an intimate relationship with The Doctor.

Her character was created by Steven Moffat, who has taken over from Davies as the head writer of the sci-fi franchise.

The new series is due on BBC One in the spring.

Brazil's 'needle boy' out of danger after operation

Doctors in Brazil say a two-year-old boy who was pierced with at least 31 sewing needles is out of danger following a third successful operation.

Surgeons in Salvador de Bahia have decided to not remove the remaining few needles left in the boy for now.

The boy's stepfather Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, 30, has confessed to inserting the needles into the boy's body as part of a black magic ritual.

He said he did it as a means of taking revenge on his wife.

Doctor Roque Aras said the remaining needles were small and posed no significant threat, the Associated Press news agency reported.

'Happy ending'

However the unnamed boy may still have to undergo more operations in the future.

On Monday, doctors took out four needles from the child's neck.

In an earlier three-hour operation, surgeons took out 14 needles piercing the boy's liver, bladder and intestines.

Four needles which had come perilously close to his heart and lungs were removed during an initial operation last week.

Surgeon Jose Siqueira said he was optimistic following the third surgery, AFP reported.

"We think that this child's story will have a happy ending", he said.

Mr Magalhaes told Brazil's Globo TV that he inserted the needles one at a time, up to three times in a month.

He said he got the boy drunk before driving the needles in.

Mr Magalhaes, 30, and his lover Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos have been formally charged with attempted murder.

Police said Mr Magalhaes, a bricklayer, told them his mistress had urged him to ritually kill the child to take revenge on his wife.

The boy's mother had taken him to hospital in the north-eastern state of Bahia, suffering from stomach pains and vomiting.

She suspected the child had been the victim of a black magic ritual after she found suspicious objects in the home she shared with Mr Magalhaes - her husband of six months - and her six children.