■ China
Mayor steps up demolition
Beijing's mayor has called for a speeding up of the demolition of impoverished neighborhoods in China's capital as part of preparations for the 2008 Olympics, the state-run Beijing Daily reported yesterday. On a tour of one area in the process of being razed on Friday, Mayor Wang Qishan (王岐山) told officials and construction workers that demolishing the dilapidated neighborhoods is essential and that it must be accelerated, the newspaper said. Beijing is undergoing a thorough makeover for the 2008 Games, spending an estimated US$40 billion to put up sporting venues, lay down new roads and subway lines, build residential communities in the suburbs and beautify the often gray, polluted capital.
■ China
Blind activist missing
A blind rural activist whose campaign against coercive family planning policies stirred international concern has been missing since last month, his wife, who is under house arrest, said by telephone yesterday. Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), a self-taught legal expert in his mid-30s, drew international attention last year to accusations that officials in Linyi City in the Shandong Province had been enforcing late-term abortions and other coercive family planning measures. "It has been 40 days" since Chen was apparently taken into police custody, Yuan Weijing (袁偉靜) said. There had been no news of his whereabouts and no official notification, she said. Authorities have jammed signals to and from her cellphone but could not block calls yesterday due to a power failure.
■ United Kingdom
Kids getting fat fast
More than a quarter of children in English secondary schools are clinically obese, almost double the proportion a decade ago, an official survey released yesterday showed. Colin Waine, chairman of the UK's National Obesity Forum, said that the figures showed a "public health timebomb" in the making: Children who were obese in their early teens were twice as likely to die by the age of 50, he said. The figures, based on 2,000 children, come from the National Health Survey for 2004, and have alarmed doctors as well as casting doubt on the government's ability to achieve its target to halt the rise in childhood obesity.
■ Italy
`Baby bonuses' recalled
It all started with a pre-election letter by Italy's prime minister to more than 600,000 newborns. "Best wishes for your arrival, do you know that the budget has put aside 1,000 euros for you? Big Kiss. Silvio Berlusconi," read the letter telling the parents of babies born last year how to receive a 1,000 euro (US$1,230) "baby bonus" from the state. Trouble is, the letter was sent in January to all families with a new-born, including immigrants, even though the cash bonus was meant only for Italian babies. The Economy Ministry is now asking all those who claimed the money but were not entitled to it -- at least 3,000 immigrant families, according to one estimate -- to pay it back.
■ United Kingdom
Tories blast Blair hair bill
It emerged on Friday that the British Labour party had footed a ?7,700 (US$13,700) bill for Cherie Blair's hairstylist during last year's UK general election. The Tories were quick to remind journalists that the comparable charge for Sandra Howard, wife of former leader Michael, had been a snip at just ?65 for a one-off visit to a salon. Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle complained that Blair's hair care had cost more than twice the cash spent campaigning in his constituency in Liverpool in the northwest of England, but most of his colleagues seemed to share the feelings of the party's spokeswoman: "So what?"
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