An eccentric South Korean K-pop singer has become a global online hit after a video of his latest song was viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube.

Park Jae-Sang, 34, better known by his stage name Psy, is riding high in the charts inside and outside Korea with Gangnam Style, the title track of his sixth album.

The video featuring Psy performing the so-called “horse dance” – similar to riding a horse – has gone viral and pop stars overseas have tweeted and commented on the wacky performance.

Fans all over the world have created parody versions of the song and posted them on YouTube to share with others.

The song has been number one on Korea’s major music charts for over three weeks and is also high on the iTunes store in the US, Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Denmark.

Nepal bans schools from using western names

Nepal said yesterday it was banning secondary schools from using names like Oxbridge, White House and Nasa over fears that the education system is losing its Nepali culture.

The announcement follows a series of protests by student and youth groups – sometimes violent – outside schools across the country which have chosen foreign names.

“We have informed the schools to change their name to Nepali. This is clearly written in the laws but several schools were found violating them,” Education Ministry spokesman Janardan Nepal told AFP.

“They will be given enough time to change the names. But it should not take long,” Nepal said, without specifying a deadline.

An estimated 250 secondary schools in Kathmandu are named after European and US historical figures, institutions and places, such as Einstein Academy and Pentagon College.

Last month the UN voiced “deep concern” over escalating violence against schools in Nepal by militants it said were endangering children’s lives and jeopardising their right to education.

Fan killed by lightning at Pennsylvania car race

One stock car racing fan was killed and nine others injured, one critically, when lightning struck at a track in Pennsylvania, officials said.

Multiple lightning strikes occurred behind the Pocono Raceway track’s grandstands and outside one of the gates as fans were leaving the Nascar event in Long Pond, spokesman Bob Pleban said.

It was not immediately clear how many of the fans were actually struck by the lightning itself or were injured by related jolts.

“Unfortunately, a member of our raceway family here, a fan, has passed away,” Pocono president Brandon Igdalsky said. He provided no details about the victim but expressed condolences to his family.

Scandinavian sea tremor

A 4.4 magnitude earthquake has rattled the seabed between Denmark and Sweden, Danish geologists said yesterday.

There were no reports of damage or casualties.

Trine Dahl-Jensen, of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said yesterday’s tremor was “pretty strong” by Danish standards and such quakes happen “once or twice” in a decade.

The epicentre was 20 kilometres southeast of the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat Sea. Media in Denmark and Sweden reported that residents in the two Scandinavian countries woke up when they felt the earth shake at 4.57 a.m.