■ Russia
Official heads to China
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was set to fly to China yesterday for three days of meetings including talks with defense ministers from a regional security body, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The visit comes amid strengthening political and military ties between Moscow and Beijing. The two nations held unprecedented military exercises in northern China last August and China is now the largest buyer of Russian military hardware and a growing consumer of Russian oil. Ivanov will meet with counterparts from the Russia- and China-dominated SCO.
■ United Kingdom
Officers to entrap pedophiles
Police officers will trawl online chatrooms posing as children to entrap pedophiles as part of a plan launched yesterday to tackle child abuse over the Internet. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center -- which will work in partnership with the recently-set up Serious Organized Crime Agency -- will operate 24 hours a day. The new unit, staffed by specialist police officers, computer experts and child welfare officials, will also create fake Web sites that will pretend to offer child porn.
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