FOR adults, the world of teenagers can seem a strange place: volcanic outbursts over the most minor problems; bands and clothes that go in and out of fashion on a weekly basis and friendships that end for the slightest reason. But any parent looking for insight into this difficult-to-comprehend segment of society could do worse than pick up the novel voted by Scottish teenagers as the best children's book of the year.

However, those hoping to find their children enjoying a latter-day Famous Five or the successor to Harry Potter might be horrified to learn that its heroine is a portrait of teenage rebellion. Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy tells the story of a red-headed anti-hero who is viewed by all in authority as a "problem child". She flouts her school's dress code, hates rules or authority, spouts insolence to parents and teachers alike, starts an anti-meat riot in the canteen and get herself expelled.

And that's just the first five pages.

China's Foreign Affairs Ministry on Wednesday suddenly blocked a five-day visit by the giant vessel and its strike group, despite prior approval and weeks of advance planning. Then a day later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that Beijing would relent but said that its change of heart was 'a decision out of humanitarian consideration only.' Eric Hagt, editor of China Security Journal, a defense publication based in Washington, said "It's a little odd, it all seems rather unforeseen."

China's Defense Ministry offered no public statement. Nor did it provide any back-channel explanation, U.S. military officials said. China's turnaround also came too late, said Lt. Cmdr. John Filostrat, a spokesman with the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Kitty Hawk waited as long as it could before logistics forced it to sail away.

The decision wasn't meant as some sort of U.S. countersnub, he said. "It's now en route to its base in Yokosuka, Japan."

The state of emergency "represents a serious violation of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values," the body's Secretary-General Don McKinnon said at a news conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, today.

Pakistan will be barred from attending meetings of the Commonwealth, which represents almost a third of the world's population, and receiving assistance from the group. The U.S., Musharraf's closest ally, has led international pressure for him to lift the emergency decree before Jan. 8 elections and release thousands of political prisoners.

Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Musharraf's re-election last month was valid, clearing the way for him to meet his pledge to take the presidential oath for a second five- year term as a civilian. Pakistan was previously suspended in 1999 after Musharraf took power in a military coup. It was restored to full membership in 2004, although members continued to press for Musharraf to step down as head of the army.

The full report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also provides more details than the summary released last week, showing that China is engaged in a "large-scale industrial espionage campaign" with "scores" of cases involving spies seeking U.S. technology. The full report presents a harsh assessment of China's military buildup and plans for a war against the U.S. if Beijing decided to use force against the island nation of Taiwan.

The report provides evidence countering statements by Chinese officials, and some U.S. officials, who say China's buildup is peaceful. "The Commission concluded that China is developing its military in ways that enhance its capacity to confront the United States," the report stated. "For example, China has developed the capability to wage cyber-warfare and to destroy surveillance satellites overhead as part of its tactical, asymmetrical warfare arsenal."

On Taiwan, the report said tensions between the island nation and China produced an "emotionally-charged stand-off that risks armed conflict if not carefully managed by both sides. Such a conflict could involve the United States," the report said. The U.S. military is "significantly exposed to such attacks," because of its reliance on systems of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the report said.

The jellyfish, covering an area of around 10 square miles, engulfed the Northern Salmon Company's cages off the province's northeastern coast, suffocating 100,000 fish, the firm's Managing Director, John Russell, told Reuters on Thursday. "It was sheer devastation -- I've been 30 years in the salmon industry and I've never seen anything like it," Russell said.

Staff on their way to give the fish their morning feed noticed a "reddish-brown tinge" to the sea and then realized the boats were struggling to make headway through an expanse of jellyfish up to 35 feet deep, Russell said. "A few hours later all our salmon were dead, the bulk of them suffocated."

The attack, by a type of jellyfish known as a "mauve stinger", happened late last week off the coast of County Antrim, an area popular with tourists. The mauve stinger, noted for its purplish night-time glow, is more commonly found in warmer Mediterranean waters.

This will be enough to treat about half the British population - the proportion scientists now believe could be hit by a pandemic. Mr Johnson said the updated plan makes the country one of the most prepared in the world against pandemic flu. Some scientists believe a global flu pandemic could be imminent.

He said the use of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu would be a key defence against pandemic flu in the weeks it would take to develop a vaccine against the culprit virus, but did not say what the financial cost would be. Antivirals do not cure people of the flu but reduce the severity and length of the illness if taken early on.

The government also aims to buy 350 million surgical masks and 34 million respirators for frontline NHS and social care staff. The measures are for a "reasonable worst-case scenario", which would see between 25% and 50% of the UK population infected. Experts predict that up to 750,000 extra deaths could occur in the UK as a result of a pandemic, with up to half the population developing illness.

The Philippines is trying to avoid a repeat of last year's devastating typhoon Durian, which killed 1,200 people and left 120,000 homeless when it crashed through Bicol, the country's typhoon alley.

Glenn Rabonza, the head of the civil defence office, said about 10,000 people living on the slopes of Mayon volcano in Bicol had already been evacuated and the number was expected to rise to 50,000 in the next 24 hours. "Coastal villages could be slammed by big waves as high as 3 to 10 metres whipped up by strong winds brought by the typhoon."

Mitag, currently a category 1 typhoon with winds of 120 kph (75 mph) and gusts of up to 150 kph (95 miles), is expected to make landfall either late Saturday or early Sunday. Ahead of the storm, workers dismantled advertisement billboards placed along Manila's major roads. Many such billboards collapsed during a storm last year, killing several people.

"The joint exercise, to be held in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, will focus on counter-terrorism measures," the Australian Associated Press quoted Kar as having said Wednesday. "This is important to boost bilateral ties."

"The long-term friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation for common development between China and India will profoundly influence the look of Asia and the world at large," Wen said. "It has been proved that the China-India friendly and cooperative relationship has benefited the two peoples and promoted peace, south-south cooperation and world development."

Corroborating the premier, Singh said India-China ties are beyond and above bilateral matters. They are related to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world beyond. "India and China are not rivals, but friends and partners."

At the time that he claimed to be defending "civilised standards", Rhodesians had already witnessed the flight of Belgian refugees from the Congo; IDI AMIN had trashed Uganda, and MOBUTU SESE SEKO was about to introduce an even more brutal and dysfunctional regime in neighbouring Zaire; immediately to the north of Rhodesia, KAUNDA's Zambia was in a mess, riddled with corruption and economically mismanaged, and Malawi was being similarly misruled by the eccentric despot HASTINGS BANDA. So why, Smith argued, would Mugabe be any different? Why, indeed.

At our meetings, he spoke endlessly about how Rhodesians had been more British than the British, how Churchill - had he been alive - would almost certainly have emigrated from corrupt, liberal England to Rhodesia, and how this small community of decent, fair-minded whites had been BETRAYED by, well, just about everybody he could think of - the Tories, Labour, the Afrikaners, the OAU, the UN. Not surprisingly, he called his ponderous autobiography The Great Betrayal.

IT WAS EASY TO MOCK IAN SMITH, BUT HE WAS RIGHT - BOTH ABOUT THE BETRAYALS AND ABOUT THE QUALITY OF MOST AFRICAN POLITICIANS. Smith had run a successful emerging African country and, although the whites were the main beneficiaries, there was increasing prosperity among the black population. Above all there was a sound, intelligently managed economy, free from the post-colonial blight of corruption.

Today, Zimbabwe is a failed state with a non-functioning economy, a once-flourishing agricultural sector now moribund, and a population on the brink of starvation. According to a UN Development Programme index, life expectancy there today is one of the lowest in the world. So much for liberation.

If you were to go to Harare today and ask ordinary black Zimbabweans who they would rather have as their leader - Smith or Mugabe - the answer would be almost unanimous. And it would not be Mugabe. It is perfectly ironic that Mugabe's deputy information minister, BRIGHT MATONGA, when told of Smith's death this week, described him as a man "who brought untold suffering to millions of Zimbabweans". Those words surely apply more to his own leader than to Ian Smith.

Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve, former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development all said that financial markets are deteriorating as the lending squeeze continues to bite.

Sir John, who is responsible for UK financial stability, signalled he is increasingly worried that the credit crunch could have dire effects on the British economy, while Mr Greenspan said "progress has come to a halt". The blizzard of warnings came as shares in the stricken bank Northern Rock plunged 14 per cent to 84.8p. Northern Rock has now lost more than 93 per cent of its value in the past year.

His fears about the market malaise were echoed by the OECD, which released a grim analysis of the prospects for the world economy. The highly-respected Paris-based watchdog warned world stock markets could be on the brink of a major collapse because of the crisis sparked by a meltdown in America's mortgage market.

Britain's top cancer expert attacks the political correctness that influences too much medical spending. Certain diseases become fashionable in the public consciousness and so attract more political support and attention. Just as the Aids scare in Britain galvanised the bureaucracy of the state into expensive action, so the international agencies, such as the UN, the World Health Organisation and a host of Third World charities, were gripped by a sense of urgency about the need to tackle Aids. YET IT HAS TURNED OUT THAT MUCH OF THIS PANIC, HOWEVER UNDERSTANDABLE, WAS MISPLACED.

In Britain, contrary to all the official propaganda of the Eighties that everyone was at risk, it turns out that THE DISEASE HAS LARGELY BEEN CONFINED TO CERTAIN SPECIFIC GROUPS: GAY MEN, DRUG USERS AND MIGRANTS. All those with HIV and Aids, of course, deserve all the medical support that can be given, but the truth is that the OVERBLOWN PANIC, based more on politics than science, led to a gross misallocation of resources.

The same can be true of the Third World. For all the concentration on HIV, by far the biggest killer in the world is dehydration, which is responsible for 12 million deaths a year, mainly in Africa. Simple, cheap improvements in water supplies would seriously cut that number.

The feeling of imbalance is just as telling when we look at LUNG CANCER. All too often, there is A NASTY SENSE OF BLAME ATTACHED TO THIS KILLER, because so many of its sufferers have a history of smoking. So lung cancer gets nothing like the support of other killer conditions, though POLITICALLY CORRECT CAMPAIGNERS WOULD NOT DREAM OF INDULGING IN THE BLAME GAME TOWARDS DRUG USERS OR GAY MEN WHO HAD ACQUIRED AIDS.

Similarly, the care of the elderly is a seriously neglected cause. In contrast to breast cancer, there is no icon like Kylie Minogue or Linda McCartney to win the backing of the fashion or pop industries. The suffering of the old and infirm continues on a scale that would not be tolerated if the victims were younger, more glamorous or came from a certain favoured minority. This approach not only reeks of injustice, it is also irrational in terms of resources.

Their offices are crammed with unopened post and paperwork spills out of filing cabinets to lie on the floor. A survey of HMRC employees revealed 72 per cent believed their department was changing for the worse. But until the personal details of 25million people were "lost" after the disappearance of two computer discs in the post, no one seems to have taken any notice.

An employee in the North-East offices, who cannot be identified, said: "The new kids who apply to work here don't have to have any GCSEs. It used to be that you had to have five but lots don't have one." Indeed, HMRC says on its website: "If you have no formal educational qualifications, you can still apply if you are willing to take a test as part of this selection process."

The worker said the test involved recruits reading a letter and rewriting it and doing simple sums. "These are the people you are giving your bank details to, your address, your date of birth, your national insurance number. You are handing over all the details of your life to someone with no qualifications." One man, who left after more than ten years' service, said: "The problems with Child Benefit are only the tip of the iceberg. Mistakes happen continuously. Rooms full of unopened post are not uncommon."

The USS Kitty Hawk group and its crew of 8,000 airmen and sailors had been expected in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but will now spend the holiday on the South China Sea. Hundred of relatives of crew members of the Kitty Hawk had flown to Hong Kong to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. Hong Kong, especially its Wanchai bar district, has been a regular port of call for U.S. sailors on "R & R" (rest and recuperation) since the Vietnam War.

The Chinese move comes as a surprise just weeks after a visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, which he said he hoped would lead to a long-term dialogue. There are several issues that may have prompted Beijing's action, including U.S. plans to sell Taiwan a $940 million upgrade to its missile system and last month's meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who Beijing considers a traitor. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment.

UPDATE Quote - "It is a decision out of humanitarian grounds only" - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman LIU JIANCHAO on Beijing's decision to allow the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group to spend Thanksgiving in port in Hong Kong, hours after the ships had been refused entry

European Union quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that vessels can bring back to port, but there is no restriction on the amount of fish they actually catch. As a result, boats fishing in the "mixed fishery" of the North Sea often catch a species or size of fish which is above their quota and have to throw the "discard" back. The EU estimates that between 40% and 60% of fish caught by trawlers in this area is dumped back into the sea.

Many Scottish and English fishermen say they have seen a huge increase in the number of cod in the North Sea this year and now want an increase in the quota level for cod and other white fish they catch. But environmentalists, who have for years been sounding the alarm bell over the decline of North Sea fish stocks, say now is not the time to increase the amount being caught.

Oliver Knowles, a campaigner for Greenpeace, also believes quotas are not working for the UK's mixed fisheries. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "By the government's own figures, of the 186 million fish caught in UK waters last year, 117 million of them were thrown away dead as waste. That's actually 63% of the catch, so it's clear that we do need to do something about this."

EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg - who is instrumental in setting the laws and limits - agreed that discarding fish was "immoral" but said there was no clear solution. "The problem is when we come to work out the details of how to eliminate discarding but at the same time have sustainable fisheries - that is the big problem."

The cave believed to be the Lupercal was found near the ruins of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine hill. The 8m (26ft) high cave decorated with shells, mosaics and marble was found during restoration work on the palace. According to mythology Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf after being left on the River Tiber's banks.

The twin sons of the god Mars and priestess Rhea Silvia are said to have later founded Rome on the Palatine in 753 BC. The brothers ended up fighting over who should be in charge of the city, a power struggle which ended only after Romulus killed his brother. In Roman times a popular festival called the Lupercalia was held annually on 15 February.

Presenting the discovery, Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said, "Italy and Rome never cease to astonish the world with continual archaeological and artistic discoveries, and it is incredible to think that we have finally found a mythical site which, by our doing so, has become a real place."