UN: Uzbeks face torture, abuses in Kyrgyzstan

The United Nations says it has received reports of torture and other atrocities by Kyrgyzstan forces against ethnic Uzbeks in the Central Asian nation.

Hundreds of Uzbeks are being imprisoned because of their ethnicity, and there are reports of forced confessions, beatings, police intimidation of families and extortion, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement Tuesday.

Hundreds of minority Uzbeks were killed in rampages last month by ethnic Kyrgyz and hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks fled their homes ahead of arson mobs. Tensions are still noticeable in the southern part of the country.

Pillay said local authorities are …

PNC moves into York County with private banking

PNC Bank Corp. is charging into York County full steam ahead after nibbling at the edges from branches in Lancaster, Adams, Cumberland and Dauphin counties.

In January, PNC will open a new 3,200-square-foot office at the York Executive Center, 2555 Kingston Road, that combines private banking services for individuals and corporate banking services, along with another subsidiary, PNC Mortgage.

The new office is designed to provide customized packages of loan and investment services to affluent customers. But PNC officials recoil at the suggestion that their new office will be a branch.

"Technically it's a branch, but operationally it's not," said Rob Rutz, PNC Bank …

Denmark names new chief of staff, military intelligence boss

NATO-member Denmark on Tuesday named Fleet Rear Adm. Tim Sloth Joergensen as its new military chief of staff.

Sloth Joergensen will replace retiring army Gen. Hans Jesper Helsoe as the top military commander of Denmark's armed forces on Aug. 1.

Denmark, which withdrew combat troops from Iraq last year, has some 600 troops in Afghanistan, most of them based …

Silver Circle; TV Academy honors all-star lineup for contributions on and off the air

An all-star class of Chicago TV veterans -- including a belovedand iconic clown, a respected lawyer and a brilliantly creativeexecutive -- will be inducted this spring in the industry's SilverCircle.

Bestowed by the regional chapter of the National Academy ofTelevision Arts and Sciences, the honors single out those who havecontributed significantly to Chicago broadcasting over 25 years ormore.

The 2008 recipients are:

- Bob Bell (posthumously), legendary children's show host andstaff announcer at Tribune Co.-owned Channel 9, who played Bozo theClown for 23 years. He died in 1997.

- Renee Ferguson, "Unit 5" investigative reporter for …

passion for prevention

Health and lifestyle tips from nutritionally oriented physician and author Mark Moyad, MD, MPH

Mark Moyad, MD, MPH, is the Jenkins/Pokempner director of preventive and alternative medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. His job is a combination of research, seeing patients, and teaching medicine at home and abroad. His position is supported by an endowment funded by grateful patients, enabling him to carry out independent research and to treat patients in a more comprehensive way than is typical in today's insurance-driven health care system.

Moyad's interest in nutrition began in college, when the results of his first nutrition-oriented study …

North Korea Says Nuclear Test Successful

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea's official news agency said …

Mistras Group shares rise on first day of trading

Mistras Group Inc. stock rose Thursday, its first day of trading, after the engineering services company priced its initial public offering of shares at a price below its initial target.

The Princeton Junction, N.J., company said Wednesday that 8.7 million shares will be offered at $12.50 per share. That would raise $108.8 million before expenses related to the offering.

Mistras initially indicated it would price its shares at $14 to $16 per share, which would have yielded up to $139.2 million before expenses.

The company provides nondestructive …