■ South Korea
Legislator asked to quit
Parliament voted on Thursday to ask one of its legislators to quit for grabbing a reporter's breasts, the first time it has ever taken such action. The national assembly voted 149 to 84 for a legally non-binding resolution calling for the resignation of Choi Yeon-Hee, former secretary general of the main opposition Grand National Party. Choi, 62, apologized for touching the local newspaper reporter's breasts during a drinks party in February but he has rejected calls from the public to give up his seat in parliament. "We urge Choi to resign as he cannot fulfill his duty because of sexual misconduct," read the resolution.
■ China
131 students poisoned
A group of 131 public school students suffered ricin poisoning after eating castor beans during a government-organized activity to plant the beans, a news report said yesterday. The incident occurred early on Thursday in Jingyang County in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the poisoned elementary and junior high school students were receiving medical attention but didn't give any details of their condition. Castor beans are cultivated to produce castor oil for laxatives, soaps and other products. But the ricin in the beans also is a deadly toxin.
■ China
Bomb detonated in court
A man detonated a homemade bomb in a court in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, killing himself and seriously wounding a judge, provincial authorities said yesterday. Xia Yukai detonated the bomb in the Guangyuan courthouse on Wednesday, apparently in revenge for a series of court rulings that did not go in his favor, according to a statement on the Sichuan government Web site. Xia, 59, had been involved in litigation over a mine operation that he once owned, but later contracted out to other companies, the statement said. The 55-year-old judge was seriously injured, but no other details about his condition were given.
■ India
Bus crashes into river
Two people were killed and at least 58 were feared dead after a bus swerved off a mountain road and hurtled into a fast-flowing river in Indian Kashmir yesterday, police said. Rescuers recovered two bodies from the accident site where only the top of the bus was visible in the icy waters of the Chenab River, police said. The bus traveling from the remote town of Gulab Ghar to Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir, was believed to be carrying at least 60 passengers, said police superintendent Gulbir Singh.
■ Sweden
Duck pond goes `Brokeback'
In the middle of mating season, a couple of male ducks returned to a park in southern Sweden, for the third consecutive year, ignoring the siren calls of all the lady ducks around them. Far from the torments of bird flu and temptations of the opposite sex, the two common shelducks appear only to have eyes for each other -- in a sort of ducky gay marriage. "We can state that they act exactly like a couple [composed] of a man and woman, the bigger one always defending the smaller duck," Lennarth Blomquist, in charge of bird management in the southern city of Malmo, told the TT news agency. "Shelducks mate for life," he said.
■ United States
Ring around Uranus is blue
The newly discovered outer ring of Uranus is bright blue, for the same reason the Earth's sky is blue -- it is made up of tiny particles, astronomers said on Thursday. It is "strikingly similar" to Saturn's outer ring, which astronomers last month confirmed was probably generated by one of the planet's moons, Enceladus.
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