■ 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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese