In The 'Big Surprise' Department

CIA interrogation techniques used on al-Qaeda suspects "constituted torture", according to a leaked report by the international Red Cross.

The findings were based on testimonies by 14 so-called "high-value" detainees who were held in secret CIA prisons.

They were interviewed after being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.

President George W Bush denied torture had happened and President Barack Obama has banned US agents from carrying out such practices.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has an international role in monitoring standards for prisoners and trying to ensure compliance by governments with the Geneva Conventions.

It was denied access to the prisoners until their transfer to Guantanamo Bay.

Source: BBC News

Bone tests on teenage athletes in south China have shown that thousands had faked their age, often in order to keep competing in junior events.

Tests on nearly 13,000 athletes found that more than 3,000 were older than their registered age, according to the Sports Bureau of Guangdong Province.

At least one athlete was seven years older than their stated age, but most were said to differ by a year or two.

The news comes as Guangdong prepares to host the 2010 Asian Games.

The investigation is the latest in a number of initiatives by the Chinese authorities to crack down on the practice of age-faking, which many experts believe is rampant.

Source: BBC News

And finally...

A vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer, a UK study suggests.

Analysis of data from 52,700 men and women shows that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did.

But surprisingly, the researchers also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer - a disease linked with eating red meat - among the vegetarians.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the team said the findings were worth looking into.

Although it is widely recommended that people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to reduce their risk of cancer and other diseases, there is very little evidence looking specifically at a vegetarian diet.

Source: BBC News

Farrow: "Spielberg Could Become Leni Riefenstahl of Olympic Games"

Actress Mia Farrow has condemned director Steven Spielberg for aiding China's staging of the 2008 Olympic Games, warning he could become known as "the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games." Farrow, a United Nations UNICEF goodwill ambassador, launched an impassioned appeal on behalf of African victims in the over-spilling Sudan crisis earlier this month. And The Omen star, 62, is astonished so many big names and corporations like Coca-Cola and McDonald's are also readily lending their support to what they have dubbed 'The Genocide Olympics', because China openly supports the government of Sudan. She writes in a Wall Street Journal article, "That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg - who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies - to sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" Farrow went on to warn the Schindler's List director that he risked becoming a modern version of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Riefenstahl, who is famed for her 1936 Berlin games film Olympia. She writes, "Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games? Do the various television sponsors around the world want to share in that shame? Because they will. Unless, of course, all of them add their singularly well-positioned voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur." According to official United Nations figures, more than 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been displaced since the rebels and government forces first clashed in Dafur in 2003.