■ Hong Kong
Food poisoning sickens 73
More than 70 people in Hong Kong fell ill recently from food poisoning linked to contaminated raw sea urchins, the government said. Initial investigations showed that most of the 73 people who fell sick between June 27 and July 3 had eaten sea urchins at Japanese chain restaurants, which all sourced the delicacy from the same supplier, the health department said in a statement late on Friday. The victims, aged 7 to 75, developed symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever hours after eating the urchins, it said. Two were hospitalized but have been discharged, it said.
■ China
Landslides kill 18 workers
Eighteen workers were killed in two separate landslides this week, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Eleven were migrant workers, who were killed when a landslide buried the tent they were sleeping in at an iron mine in northern Shanxi Province, it said. One person survived. Seven workers at an oilfield in northwest Gansu Province were also killed on Thursday by a mudslide caused by heavy rain, the Lanzhou Morning Post said.
■ China
Rivers at risk: experts
Experts voiced fears yesterday that a buildup of greenhouse gases from global warming could sharply reduce the amount of rain ending up in China's rivers, a vital source of water. If greenhouse gases continue to rise as they have been, rain and snowfall in China's Huaihe, Liaohe and Haihe river regions could decline 30 percent by 2040, Xinhua news agency quoted Dong Wenjie (董文傑), director-general of the National Climate Center, saying. The Yellow River could also be affected, he said.
■ Malaysia
Father, son meet same fate
A train has run down and killed a man at just the spot where his father met the same fate eight months previously, a Malaysian newspaper said on Saturday. The 34-year-old man, V. Marathai, was cut in half when a moving train hit him early on Friday in the northern Malaysian town of Ipoh, the Star reported. His father, N. Veerapan, 64, died at the same spot last November when he crawled under a train he thought was stationary. "My father used that tract as a shortcut to his friend's house," the paper quoted V. Chandran, a brother of the bachelor Marathai, as saying.
■ Vietnam
Exam scam uncovered
Police have broken up a ring helping students cheat on high-pressure university entrance exams using mobile phones and bluetooth earpieces hidden under wigs, local media reported yesterday. At least eight people have been arrested in the scheme, in which students paid up to US$3,000 to get live help during the crucial entrance exams, according to the Vietnamese-language news Web site VNExpress. Police said those who paid the cheating ring were given a mobile phone number to call for help during the exams. The students would whisper the questions to their "helpers," who would look up the correct answer and read it back to the exam-taker.
■ Myanmar
Shan surrender weapons
Nearly 900 Shan ethnic rebels have surrendered their weapons to the military regime, turning in hundreds of guns, grenades and mines, state media reported yesterday. The 848 men from a breakaway faction of the Shan State Army relinquished over 800 guns, 55 hand grenades, 63 mines and communication equipment at a ceremony on Thursday in the northeastern Shan States, said the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper. Shan rebels began turning in their arms after a government crackdown on Shan organizations, including the arrests of at least a dozen Shan politicians since February and heavy shelling of the Shan State Army's headquarters in April.
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