Mirren to host Nobel concert

Helen Mirren will host the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway next month.

The British actress, currently filming a drama about US music producer Phil Spector with Al Pacino, will compere a line-up including Evanescence and Glee star Matthew Morrison.

Other British performers will include David Gray and Ellie Goulding.

The concert will be held in Oslo on December 11 -- the day after the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, which this year honours Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, Liberian women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, from Yemen.

Bug helped to halt pandemic

Immunity gained by coming down with a previous, seasonal version of the flu helped temper the severity of the pandemic flu that spread around the globe in 2009, according to a new study.

Texas researchers monitored hundreds of adults throughout the 2009-2010 flu season, and found that those who had had seasonal flu in the past were less likely to catch the pandemic strain, and less likely to be severely ill if they did, than people whose immune systems had not been exposed to earlier flu viruses.

Sacked coach has lung cancer

Legendary Penn State American football coach Joe Paterno, fired in the fallout from a sex abuse scandal at the university, has lung cancer.

The news came on a day when the National Collegiate Athletic Association said it will investigate Penn State's athletic programmes in the wake of charges of sexual abuse of children by Jerry Sandusky, a long-time Paterno deputy. Paterno (84), was diagnosed during a doctor's visit for a bronchial illness.

Amish driver dies in crash

An Amish teenager was killed in Kentucky when the horse-drawn buggy he was driving without a safety reflector was struck from behind by an SUV.

The 18-year-old was thrown from the buggy by the collision and died while being airlifted to hospital. The boy had stopped to give his brother a lift.