NEW YORK - New York gold futures topped $1,100 an ounce for the first time ever as investors continued to funnel funds into safe-haven gold amid the slumping world economy.
Most-active gold for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division climbed to $1,101.90 before ending at $1,095.70, up $6.40 and a record closing high. The contract ended higher for five days in a row.
---------- Death toll from new influenza tops 6,000: WHO
GENEVA - More than 6,000 people have died worldwide from new influenza since the disease was first reported in April, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The latest death toll, standing at 6,071 as of Nov. 1, represented an increase of 359 from a week earlier, the WHO said.
---------- U.S. mulls Bosworth's visit to N. Korea by year-end: sources
WASHINGTON - The United States has entered the final stage of arranging a visit to North Korea by the end of the year by Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korean policy, sources close to six-party nuclear disarmament talks said Friday.
One source said the move followed a recent U.S.-North Korean agreement to have Bosworth and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju meet in Pyongyang within the framework of the six-way negotiations.
---------- Speed skating: Nagashima comes 3rd in season-opening World Cup 500 meters
BERLIN - Japan's Keiichiro Nagashima finished third in the men's 500 meters in the season-opening Berlin meet of the speed skating World Cup circuit.
Nagashima clocked 35.13 seconds to place third -- well behind South Korea's Lee Kang Seok, who won the title in 34.80.
---------- Oct. U.S. jobless rate at 26.5-yr high of 10.2%, nonfarm jobs down 190,000
WASHINGTON - The U.S. jobless rate shot up to 10.2 percent in October, the highest in 26 years and six months, as employers cut 190,000 nonfarm jobs amid the protracted recession for the 22nd straight month of decline, the Labor Department said Friday.
The jobless rate, the highest since April 1983 when it also hit 10.2 percent, compares with 9.8 percent in September, 9.7 percent in August and 9.4 percent in July. The rate surpassed the 10 percent threshold for the first time since June 1983, when it hit 10.1 percent.
---------- U.S. Senate cuts budget for moving Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 70%
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has cut spending earmarked in a fiscal 2010 budget bill for the relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 70 percent, congressional sources said Friday.
The sharp cut from about $300 million earmarked for the transfer of the Marines comes at a time when the new Japanese government led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has been unable to reach a conclusion on the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station.
---------- Woman's head found on Hiroshima mountain confirmed that of missing student
MATSUE, Japan - The head of a young woman found in a mountainous area of Hiroshima Prefecture on Friday has been confirmed to be that of a missing 19-year-old student in Shimane Prefecture, police said early Saturday.
Around 25 kilometers from the area, Miyako Hiraoka, a first-year student at the University of Shimane in Hamada, Shimane Prefecture, had been missing since failing to return to her dormitory after finishing her part-time job on the evening of Oct. 26.
---------- Defendant in Akihabara rampage sends letter of apology
TOKYO - The man indicted for a fatal stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district last year has sent a letter of apology to one of the victims, saying, "My crime deserves death," informed sources said Friday.
In the letter to Hiroshi Yuasa, a 55-year-old former taxi driver who sustained serious injuries, Tomohito Kato, 27, said, "I believe I will be executed, but I want to explain everything without becoming defiant."
