■ China
Tainted milk recalled
Authorities in southern China ordered an emergency recall of a company's milk powder after it sickened more than 150 school-children, state media reported. Children at three kindergartens in Guizhou province suffered vomiting, diarrhea and fever earlier this month after drinking milk made from the powder, which contained staphy-lococcus bacteria, the reports Monday said. China has been cracking down on low-quality milk powder after at least a dozen infants died from malnutrition blamed on counterfeit baby formula. In Guizhou, health authorities urged buyers to immediately stop drinking Shanhua-brand milk.
■ Singapore
Gory graphics for smokers
Every time smokers in Singapore reach for a cigarette, they will see graphic color images of a cancerous lung, a dying baby, a brain oozing blood or a patient on his deathbed in the latest drive to cut smoking, a newspaper said yesterday. Starting in August, the six images, to be printed on cigarette packages, will also include diseased gums and a family suffering secondhand smoke in silence, the Straits Times reported. Tobacco com-panies were given a year to implement the new rules after they were passed in parliament in August. Below the images will be written health warnings such as "Smoking can cause a slow, painful death" and "Smoking harms your family."
■ Australia
Appeal fails in alcohol suit
A woman who went to a club for a champagne breakfast but ended up staying the whole day and getting drunk lost an appeal to hold the club responsible for an accident that befell her on the way home. Rosellie Cole, 45, failed in her appeal that said the South Tweed Heads Rugby League Football Club was not responsible for what happened once she left the club. Cole, whose blood-alcohol count would have put her five times over the legal limit for driving, was hit by a car while walking home from the club and seriously injured. She had claimed compensation, saying the club should have refused to serve her after it was obvious she was drunk.
■ Thailand
Sex tycoon acquitted
A court yesterday acquitted Thailand's best-known sex tycoon on charges of employing underage girls as prostitutes in his massage parlors, handing him a legal victory ahead of his election bid for Bangkok mayor. The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict Chuwit Kamolvisit, who shot to prominence last year by going public with claims he had plied the police for years with expensive gifts and free services as payoffs to stop them from harassing him. Chuwit hoped to turn his popularity -- stemming from the embarrassment that the largely disliked police were put through -- by starting a political party and later announcing he would run for mayor in August elections.
■ India
Sikkim has highest ATM
An Indian bank, which operates what it bills as the world's highest ATM in Sikkim, is hoping the cash dispenser will ring in business once a trade route to China is reopened. The automatic teller machine, set up at an altitude of 4,023m along the route that links the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to Sikkim's capital, Gangtok, runs on a generator when its fuel is not frozen. In its six months of operation, only soldiers deployed on the border have used the ATM.
■ United States
Japanese astronauts ready
Three Japanese were among NASA's newest crop of astronauts, the first class selected in four years. On Monday, the Japanese and 11 Americans were sworn in at the Johnson Space Center. Basic flight instruction, which will be taught at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, is the first portion of their training program. The Japanese astronauts said they want to contribute to an international project to build a space station. "We, as Japanese, want to make a contribution,'' Naoko Yamazaki. 33, told Kyodo News by telephone after attending the ceremony.
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