PLANS ARE IN THE WORKS TO CLOSE 120 SEARS AND KMART STORES

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers.

The closings are the latest and most visible in a long series of moves to try to fix a retailer that has struggled with falling sales and shabby stores.

In an internal memo Tuesday to employees, CEO and President Lou D'Ambrosio said that the retailer had not "generated the results we were seeking during the holiday."

Sears Holdings Corp. said it has yet to determine which stores will close but said it will post on http://www.searsmedia.com when a final list is compiled. Sears would not discuss how many, if any, jobs would be cut.

BOGOTA COLUMBIA HAS WORLD'S LARGEST OUTDOOR ESCALATOR

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Officials in Colombia's second-largest city on Monday inaugurated a giant, outdoor escalator for residents of one of its poorest neighborhoods.

For generations, the 12,000 residents of Medellin's tough Comuna 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside, have had to climb hundreds of large steps authorities say is the same as going up a 28-story building.

Now they can ride an escalator Medellin's mayor says is the first massive, outdoor public escalator for use by residents of a poor area.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY JAIL HAS MANY MISTAKEN INDENTITY CASES

An investigation by the Los Angeles Times reveals that, in recent years, cases of mistaken identity and other errors have resulted in hundreds of people being wrongly detained in L.A. County jails.



The findings by the Times reveal that it’s not uncommon for mistaken identity errors to occur, leading to wrongful incarcerations. This has reportedly happened at least 1,480 times within the past five years, with some mix-ups taking days or weeks to clear up.

The Times reports that some of the mistakes are due to identity theft or many sharing the same names as criminals.

Other errors were the result of authorities utilizing incomplete records, according to the newspaper.

Officials with the sheriff’s department state that the number of mistaken identity cases is small as compared to with county’s volume of inmates and that it’s the department’s policy to investigate whenever an inmate claims to be innocent, the Associated Press reported.

WILL NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA REUNITE ?

THE sudden death of Kim Jong-il is forcing North Korea's prosperous southern neighbour to confront a class divide deep in its midst.

People like Son Jeong-hun, a defector from the north struggling to fit in modern, bustling Seoul, hope the dictator's demise signals a light at the end of the tunnel for their backward homeland. Others like South Korean-born Kim Chi-guk, who sells imported chocolate at an exclusive department store, are afraid a train is barrelling straight for them - maybe bristling with weapons, maybe jammed with millions of unwashed cousins who will cost them a lot of money.

In Seoul, just an hour's drive from the demilitarised zone, no one wants a war with North Korea, or to see its people continue to die of hunger. Still, well-established and prosperous South Koreans are unlikely to wish for dramatic change.



But the 20,000 northern defectors in South Korea and those who share their concerns - particularly Christians eager to convert the North Koreans - are a distinct minority.

Many others instead fret over their personal security and wallets. For years, North Korea has kept an arsenal of weapons aimed at their homes, schools and businesses. And what ruin will befall South Korea's bustling economy, they ask, if the Korean peninsula is reunited and millions of impoverished North Koreans come streaming across the demilitarised zone?

According to an estimate made earlier this year by South Korea's Unification Ministry, stitching the two countries together would cost between $US1 trillion and $2.5 trillion.