MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered US sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking website - more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, North Carolina officials said today.

The UK benchmark index enjoyed a late rally today after benefiting from a strong surge in mining company shares.

TWO New York teenagers were in police custody Wednesday facing charges of illegal computer access and attempted extortion after they allegedly threatened to disrupt the popular teen website MySpace.com unless its operators paid them $150,000 (€117,000), prosecutors said.