South Korea stunned by ex-president Roh Moo-Hyun's suicide

Medics said Mr Roh died from massive head injuries resulting from the fall

Mr Roh, 62, was killed in a fall from a mountain near his home. His spokesman said he had left a brief suicide note.

President Lee Myung-bak said the news was truly unbelievable and deeply sad.

Mr Roh came from a humble farming family, but rose to the highest office on a platform of clean government and reconciliation with the North.

The North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has expressed condolences to Mr Roh's family, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported.

Tiger vs Human

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It is a video about a tiger gets into human village and blah blah blah...

Indonesian Military Plane Crash Kills At Least 97

An Indonesian military plane has crashed, killing at least 97 people. As Daniel Schearf reports from

The military transport plane crashed into homes near an air force base Wednesday morning as it was coming in for a landing.

Over one hundred military personnel and their families were on board the Hercules C-130 plane when it went down in an area of East Java.

Rescuers search for victims at the wreckage of a crashed military C-130 cargo plane in Magetan, East Java, Indonesia, 20 May 2009

Witnesses reported seeing parts of the plane falling from the sky and hearing explosions.

Indonesian television showed burning wreckage scattered across rice paddies. The tail was the only section of the plane left intact.

First Marshal Bambang Sulistyo is a spokesman for the air force. He says there is an investigation under way to determine what caused the crash.

He gives the death toll and says it may rise, but so far there are 15 survivors.

Indonesian authorities said the plane, which had been scheduled to fly on to Indonesia's Papua province, was almost 30 years old.

Indonesia's air force has suffered a series of deadly crashes.

In April, 24 military personnel died when their Fokker aircraft crashed into a hangar at an air base in West Java.

Indonesia's commercial aircrafts have also in recent years suffered deadly crashes.

The poor safety record led the European Union to ban Indonesian airlines from its airspace.

Iran 'test launches' medium-range missile

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Sajjil-2 missile used "advanced technology" and had "landed exactly" on the unspecified target.

He was speaking in Semnan, from where the missile, with a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles), was reportedly launched.

Correspondents say the test may be seen as provocative by Iran's Arab neighbours and its enemies in the West.

"The defence minister [Mohammed Najjar] told me today that we launched a Sajjil-2 missile, which is a two-stage missile and it has reached the intended target," Mr Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the northern town.

He said the missile used solid fuel and was "able to go beyond the atmosphere then come back and hit its target".

Solid-fuel missiles are reputedly more accurate than liquid-fuel missiles, which make up the majority of Iran's long-range arsenal.

Preparedness is All

Swine flu is still out there, spreading sickness and notching up fatalities. There is no case for panic, but every need to remain alert to the danger

Three new cases of swine flu confirmed in Scotland

Three new cases of swine flu were confirmed in Scotland, each of which were contracted by person-to-person transmission.

The three cases, all in Greenock, included a 45-year-old mother and her five-year-old son and a 16-year-old girl. They were among five probable cases that led to the closure of a nursery and primary school in Greenock this week.

They bring the total number of confirmed cases in Scotland to eight. Test results are due for two probable cases, a three-year-old boy and his mother, while a further 11 possible cases are under investigation.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, said: “While this level of person-to-person transmission remains very limited, it is important that we continue to work to contain the virus.”

The 16-year-old girl could prove to be the first community transmission case in Scotland. A health official said that the teenager was not known to be connected to any confirmed or probable cases.

Government signs up for 90 million doses of vaccine

Ministers have signed agreements to secure up to 90 million doses of swine flu vaccine despite the fact that a pandemic has not yet been declared, it was announced today.

The deals with pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Baxter will secure “early supplies” of a vaccine for the newly identified H1N1 strain.

Enough “pre-pandemic” vaccine has been ordered to protect at least half of the population by December, at an estimated cost of £100 million.

This is in addition to the purchase of 500 million doses of anti-viral drugs that have already been stockpiled to help treat illness and deals to procure vaccine in the event of a pandemic.