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Matron at Oprah Winfrey's £30m girl school accused of 'sexually abusing pupil' Last updated at 10:23am on 23rd October 2007 Oprah Winfrey made a weekend dash to South Africa amid allegations of sexual abuse at her girls' school. It was the chat show host's second visit in 10 days after serious claims of misconduct were made against a matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a school for underprivileged children near Johannesburg. Chief executive John Samuel said the South African police child protection and sexual offences unit had been told of the internal investigation. Oprah Winfrey at the...

Wall Street ends higher on tech optimism Mon Oct 22, 4:06 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks finished higher on Monday, rebounding from last week's sharp sell-off as investors piled into technology shares ahead of Apple's (AAPL.O) quarterly earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 45.12 points, or 0.33 percent, to end unofficially at 13,567.14. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 5.71 points, or 0.38 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,506.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 28.77 points, or 1.06 percent, to close unofficially at 2,753.93.

Market turmoil sends London stocks plummeting London shares slide as investors react to a weaker US dollar and heavy overnight falls on Asian stock markets Steve Hawkes The value of Britain’s biggest companies plunged this morning with 114 points wiped from the FTSE 100 as investors reacted to growing signs of global market turmoil. The US dollar hovered near a record low overnight and stock markets in Asia suffered their biggest falls for weeks as traders took their lead from the brutal sell-off on Wall Street on Friday. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 114.5 points at 6413.5 after...

12 Turkish troops killed in rebel attack By VOLKAN SARISAKAL, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq early Sunday, killing 12 soldiers and increasing pressure on the Turkish government to stage attacks against guerrilla camps in Iraq. Iraq's president, a Kurd, ordered Kurdish guerrillas to lay down their weapons or leave, but Turkey's deputy prime minister said words were no longer enough: "We are expecting concrete steps from them." The soldiers died when rebels blew up a bridge as a 12-vehicle military convoy was crossing it, less than three miles...

/begin my excerpt Major Health Indicators of Both Koreas(data - S. Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare) indicator N. Korea S. Korea average lifespan(years) male: 61.4 female: 67.3 total: 64.3 male: 74.4 female: 81.8 total: 78.1 average lifespan without sickness or disability (years) total: 52.3(data in 2000) total: 67.8(data in 2005) rate of smokers among 16-year olds(%) 59.9% 21.4% infant mortality rate(per 1000 births) 42 3 rate of anemia(%) 33.8% ~ 35.9% (age: 20~34) 10.3% (all above age 10) /end my excerpt

North Korea on brink of famine after floods: study Thu Oct 18, 10:23 AM ET Destitute North Korea will likely be pushed into famine due to devastating floods this year that wiped out crops and ruined farm land, a South Korean state-run think-tank said on Thursday. "The North's food inventory has almost hit the bottom, so unless there's an extraordinary measure to stabilize supply, there may be a situation next year similar to the late 1990s," a study by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) said. Famine in the late 1990s brought about by flooding, drought and years of mismanagement...

N.Korean, Syrian Officials Hold Talks North Korean Official Holds Talks in Syria on Developing Relations Between the Countries The Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria A high-level North Korean official held talks in Damascus on Saturday with senior officials of Syria's ruling Baath Party on ways to develop relations between the two countries, Syria's official news agency reported. Neither Choe Thae Bok, the speaker of North Korea's parliament, nor his Syrian hosts made any mention of suspicions in Western media that the two countries might be cooperating on a secret nuclear program. The suspicions grew after an Israeli airstrike on a target...

October 21, 2007 Ouch! Hillary Clinton's softer image is clawed over dumped cat Sarah Baxter AS THE “first pet” of the Clinton era, Socks, the White House cat, allowed “chilly” Hillary Clinton to show a caring, maternal side as well as bringing joy to her daughter Chelsea. So where is Socks today? Once the presidency was over, there was no room for Socks any more. After years of loyal service at the White House, the black and white cat was dumped on Betty Currie, Bill Clinton’s personal secretary, who also had an embarrassing clean-up role in the saga of his...

Torin Boyd/Polaris, for The New York Times Though street crime is relatively low in Japan, quirky camouflage designs like this vending-machine dress are being offered to an increasingly anxious public to hide from would-be assailants. October 20, 2007 Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place By MARTIN FACKLER TOKYO, Oct. 19 — On a narrow Tokyo street, near a beef bowl restaurant and a pachinko parlor, Aya Tsukioka demonstrated new clothing designs that she hopes will ease Japan’s growing fears of crime. Deftly, Ms. Tsukioka, a 29-year-old experimental fashion designer, lifted a flap on her skirt to reveal a...

Premier dismisses nuclear allegations ACCUSED: KMT Legislator Su Chi claimed that an unnamed DPP central executive committee member had told him the president was looking to develop nuclear weapons By Mo Yan-chih STAFF REPORTER Saturday, Oct 20, 2007, Page 1 Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday dismissed allegations by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government was developing nuclear weapons to confront China's military threat and as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the US. Chang made the rebuttal on the legislative floor during a question-and-answer session with Su. Su said that President...

Monument to Che Guevara destroyed by Venezuelans ETHAN MCNERN A GROUP of Venezuelans shattered a glass monument to Cuban hero Che Guevara built by the government of leftist President Hugo Chavez, an area mayor told state TV yesterday. Jesus Espinoza, a municipal mayor in the mountain state of Merida, said: "A group from outside the municipality inconsiderately destroyed the monument to Che Guevara." Local media said a group identifying itself as the Patriotic Command of the Plateau took responsibility for ruining the 8ft glass monument inscribed with a message to honour the icon of Cuba's 1959 revolution. "We do not...

China's Hu in control of rapidly modernising military by Dan Martin Fri Oct 19, 10:45 PM ET After five years in power, President Hu Jintao has finally gained unquestioned control of China's massive military while transforming it into wealthy, high-tech fighting force, analysts said. Although Hu was named Communist Party chief in 2002 and president in 2003, he did not inherit the mantle of commander-in-chief until a year later and questions had lingered over who commanded the allegiance of the country's rapidly modernising, 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army. But key military appointments by Hu in the run-up to the five-yearly Communist...

What will Olympics bring to Beijing? By Boxun Oct 7, 2007 - 9:15:30 AM China are growing Olympic pigs, Olympic vegetables and Olympic fruits for international visitors. Official report said that Olympic pigs walk out 2-3 hours a day to keep healthy. They have special meals. They are in secret farm and no other pigs can get in. Olympic vegetables and fruits receive similar treatment, they are fed with organic nutrients. It has been a traditonal practice for Chinese communist: to give special deal to foreigners, such as foreign private companies always first get the permission to invest in industries...

Chinese Communist elite foresee challenges ahead www.chinaview.cn 2007-10-19 20:11:24 Print Special Report: 17th CPC National Congress By Xinhua writer Cheng Yunjie BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- China has ushered in its best period of time over the past century marked by robust economic growth and expanding global clout, but on everyone's lips at the ongoing national congress of the governing Communist Party of China (CPC) is "vigilance in peaceful time". Delegate Wei Jiafu, president of the China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company talks to a Reuters reporter in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2007. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>> The sentiment of preparing...

Carbon health warnings for all new cars Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent All advertising for new cars will have to carry cigarette-style “health warnings” about their environmental impact, under a European plan to force manufacturers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Companies that produce the most polluting cars will also have to pay penalties of up to £5,000 per vehicle, with the proceeds used to reduce the cost of the most efficient cars.Advertisements in newspapers and magazines, will have to devote at least 20 per cent of the space to details about fuel economy and CO2 emissions. At the moment manufacturers have...

70 punished in accidental B-52 flight By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 3 minutes ago The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions. "There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations. Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident...

China halts rail freight to N Korea By Anna Fifield in Seoul and Richard McGregor in Beijing Published: October 18 2007 23:06 | Last updated: October 18 2007 23:06 China suspended key rail freight services into North Korea last week after 1,800 wagons carrying food aid and tradeable goods crossed into Kim Jong-il’s hermit state but were never returned. Absconding with Chinese wagons would be a strange move for North Korea because Beijing is Pyongyang’s closest political ally and biggest provider of food, goods and oil. Analysts monitoring North Korea said Chinese officials had privately complained to them that the...

N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il is seeing off Nong Duc Manh, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at an airport in Pyongyang, according to KCNA

Indonesia on top alert for volcanic eruption Thursday, October 18, 2007 By Heri Retnowati, Reuters KEDIRI, Indonesia -- Fears of an imminent eruption prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents near Indonesia's Mount Kelud on Wednesday, but many flouted the order and stayed at their homes around the rumbling Javanese volcano. The alert on the volcano, one of Indonesia's deadliest and located 90 km (55 miles) southwest of its second-largest city, Surabaya, was raised to maximum late on Tuesday, meaning it could erupt within 24 hours. Authorities had ordered the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from a 10-km (6-mile)...

Credit crunch to test oil-proofing of world economy Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:17am EDT By Brian Love - Analysis PARIS (Reuters) - With world oil prices close to $90 per barrel, memories of war, recession and runaway inflation are coming back to haunt the world economy. Nobody seems to be talking seriously of a return to stagflation, the toxic combination of economic stagnation and rampant inflation that plagued the world after the oil crises of 1973 and 1979-80. But what gives some economists cause for concern is that oil, now just shy of the all-time high it hit in 1980...