Journ. 134: Prof. Craig: Headlines

1. LONDON -- A shattering train collision near Paddington Station during rush hour Tuesday morning killed at least 26 people and injured scores.
   
   Police said more bodies were still trapped in the tangled wreckage of the crash, which happened in Ladbroke Grove in west London, about a mile (1.2 km) from the Notting Hill neighborhood.
   
   Eighteen of the injured were seriously hurt, officials said. Officials said at least 160 people were injured, with 124 sent to area hospitals. Dozens of "walking wounded" were treated without hospitalization for minor injuries.
   
2. NEW YORK -- In a deal that breaks all corporate buyout records, MCI WorldCom Inc. agreed Tuesday to buy rival telecommunications company Sprint Corp. for $129 billion, creating a powerful rival to long-distance industry leader AT&T and showing that the frenetic merger activity in the telecom sector shows no sign of slowing.
   
   The all-stock transaction, which would easily top Exxon Corp.'s (XON) planned $80 billion purchase of Mobil Corp. (MOB), links the second- and third-largest U.S. long-distance carriers. The new company, to be called WorldCom, would control about 32 percent of the estimated $90 billion U.S. long-distance market.
   
3. TOKYO -- Japanese investigators on Monday continued an investigation into the cause of the nation's worst-ever nuclear accident, working late into the night after raiding the offices of the nuclear plant's operators.
   
   The questions focus on whether Thursday's incident was caused by simple human error -- as has been previously suggested by the management of the uranium processing plant -- or whether there was a systematic violation of regulations which led to the release of a massive burst of radiation.
   
4. NEW YORK CITY -- Ho! Ho! Ho! 
   
   After demonstrating they could bellow these words with a level of holiday cheer expected from Santa Claus, 40 students prepared on Tuesday to leave the Sidewalk Santa Training School for Manhattan's streets. 
   
   The students -- dressed in traditional Santa suits of black boots, red velvet pants, and red velvet coats stuffed with padding -- also had to recite the eight reindeer names. 
   
5. MINNEAPOLIS -- According to a poll released today, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's approval rating has plunged since a controversial interview in Playboy magazine.
   
   A Minneapolis Star Tribune poll found 54 percent of Minnesotans approve of Ventura's overall job performance, compared with 73 percent six months ago. Almost three out of five Minnesotans said they do not think the governor is a good role model.
   
   In the interview, the former pro wrestler called organized religion "a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people," and suggested that the perpetrators in the Navy's Tailhook sexual harassment scandal were misunderstood. Ventura also told Playboy that he would like to be reincarnated as a size 38-DD brassiere.
   
6. DENVER, Colorado -- City officials want to relocate a herd of buffalo to the grassy plains near Denver International Airport to give travelers a taste of the West when they visit. 
   
   "Look at the appeal of the buffalo herd on I-70," says Robert Albin, a local businessman and former chairman of the Greater Denver Chamber of Commerce, who is pushing the bison proposal. "It's almost a mystical link to our Western past." 
   
   Albin and other business leaders met with Mayor Wellington Webb this month to discuss the bison habitat, and Webb authorized the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation to study locating the animals near the airport between
   Pena Boulevard and Buckley Road.  The project will take as long as two years to implement and could cost as much as $3 million. The largest cost will be to fence off 422 acres near the historic barn off Pena Boulevard. 
   
7. ATLANTA -- Spacing your kids 2 1/2 years apart may be ideal for producing healthy, full-term babies, according to a study that found a sound medical basis for what many women are doing already, for altogether different reasons.
   
   A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while having babies too close together can be bad for an infant's health, having them too far apart may be even worse.
   
   Both situations raise the risk that the new baby will be premature or small, which can cause long-term health problems, even death.
   
8. NEW YORK -- A new product claims to be able to more realistically cover bald spots than wigs, weaves, implants and hair-in-a-can.
   
   Made from wool fibers, Topik is sprinkled onto the scalp with a shaker. The fibers adhere to thinning hair with static electricity and create a fuller look. It costs far less than other remedies, and the manufacturers claim that it will adhere until shampooed out.
   
9. JOHANNESBURG -- Fleeing from police, Isaac Mofokeng ran blindly into the local zoo and jumped over a low wall into one of the enclosures. Big mistake.
   
   For the pen belonged to Max the gorilla, who did not appreciate the sudden invasion of his privacy.
   
   "The first thing the gorilla did was rip my jeans and bite me on the buttocks," Mofokeng told a Johannesburg court on Wednesday. "I thought my last hour had come."