BBC News with Charles Carroll

The United States has welcomed an announcement by North Korea that it will halt its uranium enrichment programme and suspend nuclear and

long-range

missile tests. Washington described the measures as a positive first step towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Steve Kingstone reports.

This announcement follows talks between American and North Korean officials in Beijing. In a written statement, Victoria Nuland of the US State Department said the North Koreans had agreed to suspend uranium enrichment at the Yongbyon nuclear plant and to allow UN inspectors to return to the site. In return, the US is offering 240,000 tonnes of food aid. It's come two months after the death of North Korea's

long-standing

leader Kim Jong-il. The question now is whether his son and successor Kim Jong-un will engage in broader talks about

disarmament

.

The South African youth leader Julius Malema has been expelled from the governing African National Congress. Mr Malema says he's been

persecuted

for advocating that the party should adopt a policy to nationalise mines and replace his former ally President Jacob Zuma as ANC leader. Milton Nkosi reports from South Africa.

In a statement, the chairman of the party's

disciplinary

committee, Derek Hanekom, said the 30-year-old youth league leader violated the ANC's constitution. The controversial youth leader was sentenced to a five-year suspended sentence in November last year, but he