“Jon & Kate Plus 8″ will continue without Jon Gosselin, TLC has announced.

Kate plus eight minus Jon equals TLC.

“Jon & Kate Plus 8″ will continue without Jon Gosselin, TLC has announced.

The breakup of Jon and Kate Gosselin’s marriage this year changed the composition of the reality show’s November relaunch, the network announced Tuesday.

“Given the recent changes in the family dynamics, it only makes sense for us to refresh and recalibrate the program to keep pace with the family,” TLC President Eileen O’Neill said.

After 10 years of marriage, the couple announced their separation and divorce filing on a special one-hour episode of their TLC reality series “Jon & Kate Plus 8” in June.

“I’m tired of smiling on the outside while I’m crying on the inside,” Kate said in June. “I’ve been doing that for a long time.”

TLC says the new show, which debuts November 2, will be “Kate Plus 8.”

“The family has evolved, and we are attempting to evolve with it,” O’Neill said. “We feel that Kate’s journey really resonates with our viewers. Additionally, the network is in development on a Kate project for 2010.”

The new show will take “a deeper focus on Kate’s role in the family and her journey as a single mother building the next chapter in her life.”

Jon Gosselin will still appear, “but on a less regular basis,” the network said. TLC will keep its “exclusive relationship” with him, it said.

“The series will continue to chronicle the Gosselin family as they go on outings and tackle daily challenges and adventures,” the network said. “It will also document Kate’s journey as a newly single mother raising 5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins.”

The eight children have continued living in their Wernersville, Pennsylvania, home. Their parents have rotated in and out of the home during their time with them

Actor and musician Will Smith is to host the Nobel Peace Prize concert with actress wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

The US pair said the opportunity to host the event, which takes place after the prize-giving, would be “an awe-inspiring experience”.

The concert, which takes place in Oslo, Norway on 11 December, will feature performances from Wyclef Jean, Donna Summer and Toby Keith.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on 6 October.

‘Humbled’

The honour is bestowed on 10 December every year, which is the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said they were “excited” to have the Hollywood couple as concert hosts.

“Together they’ve had a global impact on the arts and philanthropy and will be excellent ambassadors for peace.”

The pair added that they are “humbled and honoured” to have been given the opportunity to host the event.

Smith’s numerous film credits include Hancock and I Am Legend. Pinkett Smith has appeared in screen hits including Madagascar and The Matrix Reloaded.

Chicago police asked the public for help Tuesday in finding three more people believed connected to last week’s videotaped fatal beating of 16-year-old Derrion Albert.

“We need the public’s help, your help,” Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis told reporters.

With four teens already arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killing, “we are continuing to look for three additional people in connection with Derrion’s murder,” Weis said.

Weis said he has asked the U.S. Secret Service to try to enhance the video of the beating so that others can be identified.

Weis pleaded with anyone who may have information not to withhold it.

“The culture of ‘no-snitch’ is unacceptable,” he said. “A young man with a promising future lost his life to senseless violence, yet few have come forward.”

Authorities are considering charging people who participated in the fight but did not come into contact with Albert, he said.

Prosecutors said Albert was a bystander who ended up in the middle of a street fight Thursday between two factions of students from Christian Fenger Academy High School, on Chicago’s South Side.

A video recorded by a witness, which has been broadcast widely, showed the attack unfolding. A local TV station that received the video turned it over to police.

When school let out at 2:50 p.m. Thursday, Albert was nearly six blocks away — on his way to a bus stop — when two groups of students converged on the street, Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney, said Monday.

The factions, one that lived near the Altgeld Gardens housing development and one in an area known as “The Ville,” began fighting after a shooting earlier that day that police called gang-related.

Albert was approached by a person later identified as 16-year-old Eric Carson and an unidentified person, both members of the “The Ville” faction, Simonton said. Carson struck Albert in the head with a piece of a wooden railroad tie, and the second person punched him in the face, Simonton said.

After being knocked unconscious briefly, Albert regained consciousness and tried to move from the fight but was then attacked by a second group, Simonton said.

That group, composed of five members from the opposing faction, then took their shots at Albert, Simonton said.

He was struck in the head by Eugene Riley, 18, with the piece of railroad tie, a rectangular piece of wood used as a base for railroad tracks, Simonton said.

Once Albert was on the ground again, 19-year-old Silvanus Shannon was seen “stomping on his head repeatedly,” Simonton said.

Albert was taken to Roseland Community Hospital and then to Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Simonton said the first three suspects arrested in Albert’s death — Shannon, Carson and Riley — were seen on the videotape attacking Albert and were charged with first-degree murder and held without bail. All three were charged as adults, she said.

A fourth person, Eugene Bailey, 17, was arrested Monday and faces the same charge, authorities said.

“We have the four most egregious offenders,” Weis said.

Weis said Chicago police will beef up their presence around the school before and after classes.

The top military commander in Iraq says the U.S. is on track to end its combat mission in Iraq by next year.

The United States will withdraw another 4,000 troops in Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in prepared testimony for a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The top military commander in Iraq says the U.S. is on track to end its combat mission in Iraq by next year.

U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno is expected to tell the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that there has been a significant drop in violence in Iraq recently, according to the statement obtained by CNN.

President Obama has said the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010. Obama also said he plans to keep a range of 35,000 to 50,000 support troops on the ground in Iraq after combat troops are out.

“We have approximately 124,000 troops and 11 Combat Teams operating in Iraq today. By the end of October, I believe we will be down to 120,000 troops in Iraq,” Odierno said in the remarks.

Odierno said statistics show violence has dropped in Iraq.

“Overall attacks have decreased 85 percent over the past two years from 4,064 in August 2007 to 594 in August 2009, with 563 in September so far,” Odierno said. “In that same time period, U.S. military deaths have decreased by 93 percent, Iraqi Security Force deaths have decreased 79 percent.”

Odierno said there were still security questions.

“Although security is improving, it is not yet enduring. There still remain underlying, unresolved sources of potential conflict,” Odierno said.

Odierno pointed to the August 19 bombings in Baghdad that targeted the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs that killed more than 100 people as an example of ongoing challenges in Iraq.

However, Odierno gave a vote of confidence to the Iraqi forces who had taken over security for Baghdad after U.S. forces handed over control.

“The Iraqis wanted to be in charge; they wanted the responsibilities; and they have demonstrated that they are capable,” he said.

A tsunami triggered by a strong quake in the South Pacific has killed more than 100 people in several islands.

At least 77 people were reported dead in Samoa, more than 25 in American Samoa and at least six in Tonga.

Residents and tourists fled to higher ground as whole villages were destroyed. Boats were swept inland and cars and people out to sea.

The 8.3-magnitude quake struck at 1748 GMT on Tuesday, generating 15ft (4.5m) waves in some areas of the islands.

The Samoa islands comprise two separate entities - the nation of Samoa and American Samoa, a US territory. The total population is about 250,000.

A general tsunami warning was issued for the wider South Pacific region but was cancelled a few hours later.

Separately on Wednesday a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck a different fault line off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The prime minister of Samoa, Tuila’epe Sailele Malielegaoi, said the latest death toll there was 77, including four overseas visitors, with 150 more people being treated in hospital.

He said he was shocked at the devastation.

“So much has gone. So many people are gone,” he told Australia’s AAP news agency.

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He said there had been extensive damage but that hospitals were coping well and that he was considering aid offers from New Zealand and Australia.

“Had it happened in darkness, there could have been more disaster in terms of the number of those who died or are missing,” he said.

US President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in American Samoa, enabling federal funding to be made available to help victims. He pledged a “swift and aggressive” government response.

False alarm

American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono said the effects of the tsunami would touch everyone.

“I don’t think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster,” he said.

Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa in the US Congress, said the waves had “literally wiped out all the low-lying areas in the Samoan islands”.

He said the tsunami had struck too quickly for a full evacuation.

Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni told AAP that the ocean had receded, heralding the oncoming tsunami, “within five minutes” of the quake.

“With the location and the intensity… I don’t know if anything better could have been done.”

Officials at the Samoa Meteorology Division said many of those who died were killed by a second wave after they went to gather fish that had been washed up after the first.

Sirens reportedly blared out across the Samoan capital, Apia, again late on Tuesday but the warning was thought to be a false alarm.

Dr Lemalu Fiu, at a hospital in Apia, said the number of casualties was expected to rise as people arrived from coastal areas bringing reports.

Mr Telefoni said there were fears the major tourism areas on the west side of Upolu island - the eastern of the two main Samoan islands - had been badly hit.

“We’ve had a pretty grim picture painted of all that coast,” he said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd confirmed the death of two Australians - a six-year-old girl and a 50-year-old woman.

Samoan officials say it could take a week before the full extent of the damage is known.

Homes gone

A government official in Tonga said at least six people had been killed there and four more were missing.

High waves damaged property and swept cars out to sea

But New Zealand’s acting Prime Minister Bill English said Tongan officials had told him a “considerable number of people” had been swept out to sea.

Mr English added: “Over the next 12 hours the picture could look worse rather than better.”

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) said the quake struck at a depth of 33km (20 miles), some 190km (120 miles) from Apia.

Radio New Zealand quoted Samoan residents as saying that villages were inundated and homes and cars swept away.

Graeme Ansell, a New Zealander near Apia, told the radio station the beach village of Sau Sau Beach Fale had been “wiped out”.

“There’s not a building standing. We’ve all clambered up hills, and one of our party has a broken leg. There will be people in a great lot of need around here,” he said.

Witnesses have reported scenes of destruction.

“It’s horrible… The village is gone and my once beautiful beachfront villa has now been submerged in water,” Josh Nayangu told the BBC after fleeing the area on a small fishing boat with his wife and son.