■ CHINA
Viral disease infects children
At least 121 children and one adult have been infected by hand, foot and mouth disease in the past two weeks in Inner Mongolia in northern China, state media reported. Xinhua news agency, quoting Health Ministry figures, said late on Thursday that by late last month 5,459 cases of the disease had been reported around China, a jump of 120 percent compared with the same period last year. The viral disease, which is common in children, has infected students at kindergartens, primary schools and in private homes in Erdos city in central Inner Mongolia, Xinhua said. All have been quarantined and are in stable condition, it said.
■ INDIA
Old man fails exams again
This year, like the past 39 years, Shivcharan Jatav tried to pass his 10th grade high school exams -- and failed again. The 73-year-old from western India was undeterred, vowing yesterday to try again next year, in the hope that an education would improve his job and marriage prospects. Jatav, a farmer from the desert state of Rajasthan, who had no formal education as a child, said he had being trying to pass the exams since 1969, when an army recruiter told him it would improve his chances of being accepted into the military. Jatav passed only one subject, the ancient language of Sanskrit, and scored just 103 out of a total of 600 in the examinations, he said.
■ CHINA
`Feudal' products banned
Chinese health foods will no longer be allowed to make exaggerated claims about their effects or have names that are too long, too confusing or "feudal," new government rules stipulate. The use of foreign languages and romanization of Chinese are banned and health foods cannot be named after human organs, the State Food and Drug Administration said. "You cannot use words tainted with vulgarity, feudalism or superstition," the watchdog said in rules posted on its Web site. "You cannot use false, exaggerated or absolute language, such as `the most effective, fastest acting, latest generation,'" it added.
■ AUSTRALIA
Three-leg dog saves family
A three-legged dog has saved a family from their burning home, police said yesterday. The dog's persistent barking woke the family, allowing them to escape from a fire that destroyed their timber home in Dalby, a town west of Brisbane in Queensland state, police said. They said the property's owner and her two children, aged four and two, escaped with their savior Jack, a blue heeler-cross who lost his front left leg in a car accident five years ago. The fire is believed to have been sparked by a faulty heater.
■ BELGIUM
EU orders cash declaration
Travelers in and out of the EU must declare cash amounts of 10,000 euros (US$13,300) or more under new European rules which went into effect yesterday to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. "The new rules will make it more difficult for terrorists to enter or leave the Community with the cash required to finance their illegal actions," European Taxation and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said. Under the new rules customs officials are empowered to search people and their luggage. Penalties will be up to member states to decide but should have "a deterrent effect."
■ RUSSIA
FSB probes spy allegation
Russia's security agency said yesterday it had opened an espionage case in connection with claims made by Andrei Lugovoi, the suspect named by Britain in the radiation poisoning death of former agent Alexander Litvinenko in London last year. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, did not name any suspects. Last month, Lugovoi claimed that both Litvinenko and his associate, Boris Berezovsky, had contacts with Britain's foreign intelligence agency, and that Berezovsky had given British intelligence sensitive information about Russia.
■ AUSTRIA
Coca cultivation down
Areas of coca cultivation grew in Peru and Bolivia last year but decreased in Colombia, a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime published on Thursday said. Cultivation of coca grew 8 percent in Bolivia and 7 percent in Peru but fell in Colombia by 9 percent, said the report, which looked at cultivation in the Andes, the main cocaine-producing region in the world. A total of 156,900 hectares were used to grow the plant last year in the region, down from 159,600 in 2005, or 2 percent, the report said. "Colombia remains the world's biggest coca grower and is responsible for 62 percent of the world's supply of cocaine," UN office chief Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement.
■ FRANCE
Japanese student critical
A 31-year-old Japanese student found unconscious in the center of the western French city of Nantes on Monday night is in a highly critical condition, doctors said on Thursday. Kayo Nomura, who was studying French at Nantes university, was found lying on the pavement shortly before midnight. She was vomiting blood and had a skull fracture. Doctors said her condition has since deteriorated. Police have appealed for witnesses and are questioning Nomura's acquaintances.
■ FRANCE
Chirac may face probe
Former French leader Jacques Chirac's dream of a quiet retirement devoted to saving the planet may be dented today when his presidential immunity expires as he may face questioning in a corruption probe. The 74-year-old this week faced further trouble when he was accused of "treason" for allegedly helping the government of Djibouti cover up the truth behind the suspicious death of a French judge a decade ago. A justice official said in March it was "most probable" Chirac would be questioned as a witness in the probe into a kickback scheme in which workers for Chirac's former party, the Rally for the Republic, had salaries paid for by Paris city hall or companies that won contracts there.
■ UNITED STATES
Car to be unearthed
A car that was placed in a crypt beneath the Tulsa courthouse lawn in 1957 to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood is set to see the light of day, in time for the centennial. But it might be a little rusty. Workers unearthing the now-classic Plymouth Belvedere, a two-door hardtop, found the car sitting in water in a concrete vault that had been touted as strong enough to withstand a nuclear attack. Still, an organizer was optimistic that the car might be "90 percent solid" because it had been wrapped in a rust inhibitor, a special coating and a huge plastic bag.
■ UNITED STATES
Nations told to pay up
India and Mongolia must cough up millions of dollars in unpaid property taxes to New York city after losing a Supreme Court case over the diplomatic status of their UN buildings on Thursday. The top court found that the buildings could not be exempt from taxation, because they housed apartments for junior diplomats below the rank of UN ambassador. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, only an ambassador's residence or an embassy itself is clearly exempt from city taxes, justice Clarence Thomas said for the majority in the split seven-two verdict. The case hinged on a lien taken out by the New York city government in 2003 against the buildings.
■ UNITED STATES
Smelly box causes stink
A foul-smelling package that led to the evacuation of a post office next to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum contained two cans of spinach and a dirty diaper, authorities said. "No wonder it smelled," said Deborah Yackley, a spokeswoman for the US Postal Service. "I don't know why it was being mailed." A postal worker alerted police shortly before 11am on Thursday after spotting the smelly package sitting on a counter with no one around to claim it, authorities said. The package had no postage or address. District of Columbia police bomb technicians X-rayed the package and a hazardous materials team inspected it before determining that it contained nothing dangerous.
■ CANADA
No girlfriend for three years
A judge has ruled that a 24-year-old Peterborough, Ontario, man is not allowed to have a girlfriend for the next three years. The ruling came after Steven Cranley pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges stemming from an assault on a former girlfriend. Cranley, who has been diagnosed with a dependent personality disorder, attacked his girlfriend in an argument after their breakup. He tried to prevent her from phoning the police by cutting her phone cord and punched and kicked her. He finally stabbed himself with a butcher knife, puncturing his aorta. Doctors say Cranley has difficulty coping with rejection and runs a high risk to re-offend if he becomes involved in another intimate relationship.
■ UNITED STATES
Wife of Billy Graham dies
Ruth Graham, the wife of prominent evangelist Billy Graham, died on Thursday at her home in North Carolina, her husband said. She was 87. She had slipped into a coma after months of illness, and when she died she was surrounded by her husband and their five children. "Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Graham, 88, said in a statement. "I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in heaven," he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema