Singer Susan Boyle’s new album makes UK chart history

Singer Susan Boyle’s album is number one after it became the best-selling debut in UK chart history.

Boyle, a runner-up in ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, has so far sold 410,000 copies of her album, I Dreamed a Dream.

Pop mogul Simon Cowell said he was proud of Boyle and added that the success could not have happened to a nicer person.

Boyle, 48, said the news was “fantastic”. Her album is also expected to be a hit in the US.

Cowell said: “She did it her way and made a dream come true.

“In Britain’s Got Talent she opened her mouth and the world fell in love with her, which is why her album has been the fastest selling of any woman making her debut.”

Martin Talbot, of the Official Charts Company, described Boyle’s achievement as “phenomenal”.

Boyle’s spokeswoman added that the singer was outselling Rihanna, Lady Gaga and 50 Cent in the US.
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Iran ‘planning 10 new uranium enrichment sites’

Iran’s government has approved plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants, according to state media.

The government told the Iranian nuclear agency to begin work on five sites, with five more to be located over the next two months.

It comes days after the UN nuclear watchdog rebuked Iran for covering up a uranium enrichment plant.

The White House said the move was “yet another serious violation of Iran’s clear obligations”.

Meanwhile, Britain described the news as “a matter of serious concern” and potentially a “deliberate breach” of UN resolutions.

Western powers say Iran is trying to develop nuclear arms. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
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Mumbai attacks: One year on

Ceremonies are being held in Mumbai to mark the first anniversary of a series of devastating attacks on the Indian city by militants.

A police parade, the inauguration of a memorial, and a candle-lit prayer service are among the events.

The attacks, which began on 26 November 2008 and lasted nearly three days, left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen.

The only surviving attacker, Pakistani Muhammed Ajmal Qasab, is currently facing trial in India.

On Wednesday, a court in Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi – head of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Mumbai gunmen staged co-ordinated attacks at a number of sites, including the CST railway station, two luxury hotels and the Nariman House Jewish community centre.
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From Asian pop star to ‘Ninja Assassin’

(CNN) — South Korean pop star Rain, who stars in “Ninja Assassin,” releasing nationwide on Wednesday, has all the trimmings of an international superstar in the making.

His talent, good looks and charming swagger have captured the devotion of the Asian continent, where tickets to his concerts evaporate in minutes. He was hailed as one of People magazine’s most beautiful two years ago, and, despite being relatively unknown to most Americans, beat Stephen Colbert in a Time magazine online poll of most influential people in 2007.

Yet Rain’s climb from unknown backup dancer to a member of Asia’s A-list wasn’t easy: His lack of Western features caused many music labels to look right past him and getting his footing in the United States has been particularly difficult.

Despite having six albums under his belt and selling out a two-day Madison Square Garden tour in 2006, Rain’s “Justin Timberlake meets Usher” brand of bubble-gum pop never saturated pop charts here as it did in the East.
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Roger Federer beats Andy Murray at ATP Tour Finals

Roger Federer ensured he will end the year as world number one after beating Andy Murray 3-6 6-3 6-1 in the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The Swiss was broken twice as the British number one, who also hit six aces, wrapped up the first set.

But Federer upped his game in the second set and made a decisive break in game six to level the match at 1-1.

Murray’s serve, which had been so dominant early on, faltered as Federer broke three times to wrap up the win.

Murray said: “I served terribly and that was the main difference in the match.

“In the first set, at least when I was behind in games, I was coming up with big serves, being able to dictate the points. But after that I served pants.

“It was probably the most double faults (eight) I served in a match maybe this year.

“You can’t serve at 40% against Roger because you give him so many opportunities to dictate play, but that’s what I did.
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Copenhagen climate summit: 60 heads of state to attend

Hopes for the Copenhagen climate summit in December have been boosted after it emerged that more than 60 presidents and prime ministers plan to attend.

There had been concern that no strong agreement would emerge from the talks in Copenhagen.

But observers say the presence of so many heads of state will radically increase expectations.

The annual UN climate change talks are usually conducted by countries’ environment ministers.

Delegations from 192 countries will be attending the summit, which will attempt to draw up a new global climate treaty to supplant the UN’s 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will be attending, has said a new deal would be more likely if heads of governments put their own reputations on the line.
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The other D-word

Is Japan back in a deflationary trap?

WHILE investors have been fretting recently about Japan’s huge debt, another of the dreaded D-words has come back to haunt them. On Friday November 20th, Japan’s Cabinet Office issued a monthly report that for the first time since 2006 acknowledged that the country was suffering from deflation.

Consumer prices have actually been falling for months, but the pace of decline accelerated over the summer. In September prices slumped by 2.2% compared with a year earlier. This is partly because the country is still loaded with excess capacity after the collapse in exports during the global financial crisis, and partly because oil prices were lower in September than in the same month last year. But there are more structural problems, too. As Japan’s population declines, for instance, retailers are being forced to cut prices to gain market share.
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Cern Large Hadron Collider machine restarts

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment has been re-started after a hiatus of 14 months.

Engineers have now made two stable proton beams circulate in opposite directions around the machine.

If all continues to go well, the team might even try to increase the collider’s energy to record-breaking levels this weekend.

The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel built about 100m beneath the French-Swiss border.

The experiment is designed to smash together beams of protons in a bid to shed light on the nature of the Universe.

Among other things, scientists will search for signs of the Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is crucial to our current understanding of physics. Although it is predicted to exist, scientists have never found it.

Dozens of giant superconducting magnets that accelerate the particles at the speed of light have had to be replaced after faults developed just days after the collider was inaugurated last year.

Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the LHC will create similar conditions to those which were present moments after the Big Bang.
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Google previews Chrome open source operating system

Internet search giant Google has lifted the lid on its operating system, known as Chrome OS.

The free and open source system is initially aimed at low-cost netbooks and does away with many of the features of a traditional program.

All applications are designed to run in a web browser and all the user’s data is stored on Google’s servers.

Engineers from the firm said the first computers running the system would be available before the end of 2010.

“We are trying to offer a choice for users,” said Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, during an event at the firm’s headquarters in California.

“This model of computing is fundamentally different.”

The event follows the recent launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Apple’s operating system upgrade, Snow Leopard.
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‘Fat for cosmetics’ murder suspects arrested in Peru

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before extracting their fat to sell it for $15,000 (£9,000) a litre.

Other suspected gang members, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.

Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in the region.

At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.

One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person’s body tissue removed for sale.

Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters some of the suspects had “declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it”.
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