Shopping mall collapses on South African ice rink

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Part of the roof of a shopping center collapsed Thursday onto an ice rink crowded with children, police said. At least 50 people were injured, some seriously.

About 300 police and soldiers joined the rescue effort, looking for people feared trapped beneath the rubble. Ambulances rushed to the scene along with police and military helicopters.

The South African Press Association said at least 21 people, mostly adults, had been taken to hospitals with injuries that included fractures, concussions and lacerations. Many of the injured were hurt by shards from a shattered glass wall at the rink.

"It was much like the World Trade Center, dense dust and people running," said Dr. George Michael Scharfs, who was nearby with his wife and children when the first floor of Kolonnade Shopping Center fell onto the skating rink.

Measles nearly eradicated in West, officials say

ATLANTA -- Measles has been all but wiped out in the Western Hemisphere, dropping from 250,000 cases in 1990 to fewer than 500 so far this year, health officials said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pan American Health Organization attributed the dramatic drop -- more than 99.5 percent -- to an international push to get children vaccinated.

Through Dec. 8, just 469 cases had been reported this year in the 41 nations from Canada to Argentina. Ninety-five of those cases -- none fatal -- were in the United States, and almost all of them can be traced to other nations where measles is more common.

U.N. conference examines child sex industry

TOKYO -- More countries are working to protect children from exploitation -- but progress isn't coming fast enough, delegates said Thursday in wrapping up a U.N. summit on the global sex trade in children.

Delegates urged countries to implement anti-exploitation laws, and to ratify international conventions aimed at freeing some 250 million children trapped in smuggling and prostitution rings and at punishing the perpetrators.

Conference officials acknowledged that more governments are protecting children from the multibillion-dollar industry of child prostitution, pornography and trafficking since 1996, when the summit held its inaugural meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.

Castro welcomes U.S. oil companies to Cuba

HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro says he would allow U.S. companies to prospect for petroleum off the coast of Cuba -- even though U.S. law would probably forbid it.

"We would not deprive Americans of the possibility of investing in these resources," Castro said late Wednesday in a three-hour live television appearance on the government's nightly "Round Table" program.

"If tomorrow anyone wants to participate in the search, we would provide them with the same possibilities of those already looking," he added.

The long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba would seem to bar American companies from prospecting for petroleum off the island's coast.

GM asks government to require daytime lights

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. has asked the federal government to require daytime running lights on all vehicles sold in the United States.

GM said Thursday that the headlights -- which shine at low intensity during the day -- improve safety by making vehicles more conspicuous to other drivers and pedestrians. The automaker began installing daytime running lights in 1995.

A study last year, funded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found 3.2 percent fewer multi-vehicle daytime crashes for vehicles with running lights.

However, Clarence Ditlow, who heads the Center for Auto Safety, said running lights are only marginally beneficial.

-- From wire reports