Britney Spears cancels Europe, South America tour

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Teenage pop idol Britney Spears has canceled her promotional tour of Europe and South America, Australian Associated Press reported on Saturday.
"After much thought and deliberation it is with great regret that I have decided to cancel my planned European and Latin American promotion trips," AAP quoted a weekend statement from her record company Jive as saying.

Spears arrived here last week on the last flight to leave the United States for Australia just before the devastating attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.
Her announcement meant she would not take her promotional tour to Cologne in Germany and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil this month and would instead return to be with her family in the United States.

Film star Keanu Reeves and Australian tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt were on the same flight as Spears and they were only told of the hijacked aircraft attacks after they touched down in Sydney.

"We arrived in Australia (on Wednesday) and, only then, heard of the terrible tragedies that had occurred in New York and Washington," Spears was quoted as saying.