■ China
Students steal `state secrets'
China plans to charge students with stealing state secrets over a scheme to sell answers to the national university entrance exam, official media said yesterday. The ring allegedly obtained questions from students who left the exam hall during the test. The answers were then looked up and sent by mobile phone text message to students in the test hall. Reports said about 20 students were detained last week at the Zhenping No. 1 High School in the central province of Henan after the highly competitive exams. Five were still being held in a local jail and another suspect, a second-year university student in the northwestern province of Gansu, had also been detained.
■ Japan
Mishap briefly shuts airport
The Narita international airport had to close one of its two runways for nearly an hour yesterday after an incoming plane ended up facing an outgoing aircraft on the taxiway, airport officials said. The two planes -- a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines passenger aircraft arriving from Amsterdam and a South Korean Asiana Airlines plane preparing to depart for Incheon -- were taxiing toward each other, the officials said. They did not collide. The runway at Japan's main international air hub just north of Tokyo was closed for about an hour while workers removed the planes, they said.
■ Singapore
Shrine visits irk future leader
Singapore's leader-to-be slammed Japan's prime minister yesterday over his regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors that country's war dead, saying they are an "unnecessary aggravation" angering Asian neighbors. "It riles everyone up -- it doesn't necessarily rile me up -- but he's made his calculations," Lee Hsien Loong was quoted as saying in The Straits Times yesterday. Lee, the elder son of Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, is set to assume the prime ministership himself later this year when Goh Chok Tong steps down.
■ China
Red tides threaten seafood
Two giant toxic red tides engulfed parts of the sea off northeastern China over the weekend, and officials were monitoring seafood for contamination, the China Daily reported yesterday. Marine experts said so far shellfish and other seafood were safe to eat, the newspaper quoted the State Oceanic Administration as saying. "All seafood from the red tide-polluted areas will be strictly examined before entering the market," said Wang Shicheng, a Shandong fisheries official. Red tides are caused by plankton reproducing because of nutrients provided in part by sewage and industrial waste.
■ China
Police told to get in shape
Police in the northeastern city of Harbin have been ordered to lose weight or lose their jobs, state media reported yesterday. Police there are considered too fat and a new regulation has been passed by the city's Public Security Bureau stating that those with waistlines more than 90cm (36 inches) would be laid off. The Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said the regulation was aimed at encouraging police to do more physical exercise so they can better perform their duties. Policemen under the age of 30 are required to keep their weight under 70kg and their waistlines within 83cm. Those under 40 are cut more slack, being allowed to weigh up to 75kg and have waistlines up to 90cm. No details were given for those over 40.
■ United Kingdom
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