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■ NEPAL
Goddess decision reviewed
Authorities are reviewing their decision to strip a 10-year-old girl of the title "living goddess'' after she broke tradition by traveling overseas, an official said yesterday, following a rapturous welcome on her return. Sajani Shakya, who traveled to the US last month to promote a documentary about the centuries-old tradition of the country's living goddesses, was met on her return home on Wednesday by hundreds of her supporters and followers. They held a brief ceremony to welcome her back. Popular support for Sajani has apparently forced officials to review the case.

■ JAPAN
Minister apologizes for gaffe
Foreign Minister Taro Aso was forced to apologize yesterday for joking about Alzheimer's disease -- the latest in a series of gaffes by members of the government. Aso, a right-winger seen as a strong contender to become the next prime minister, made the comment when talking about the advantages of exporting Japanese rice to an audience in Toyama Prefecture. "Ordinary rice is sold at about ?16,000 [US$131] a bag here," he said in a speech. "But it is ?78,000 in China. Even someone with Alzheimer's can see which of 16,000 and 78,000 is the more expensive." Aso said yesterday that his remarks had been inappropriate.

■ INDIA
Grandma thrown in garbage
Authorities in southern state of Tamil Nadu are trying to trace a family who threw a sick 75-year-old grandmother in the garbage. The victim, Chinnammal Palaniappan, told her rescuers that she was taken from her home by her grandsons and woke up on Sunday morning to find herself among a heap of rotting garbage. "We heard some moaning from the dump yard and when we went over we were shocked to find an old shriveled woman lying in filth," said housewife P. Mohanasundari, who rescued the woman. Palaniappan said her daughter had instructed the grandsons to dump her far away, so that she could not find her way back. She did not have the address of her daughter's home.

■ RUSSIA
Ethnic fights break out
Russian and Chinese youths fought each other with knives on a river beach in Siberia on Wednesday night, mirroring similar recent outbreaks of inter-ethnic fighting in European Russia. "During the fight four Russians were wounded and one taken into intensive care," Interfax news agency said on Thursday, quoting a law enforcement source in Khabarovsk where the fight took place. Khabarovsk, population 500,000, is around 30km from the border with China in Pacific Russia. The fight occurred on a beach on the Amur River in the south of the city. Fights between Russians and immigrants have increased over the last 12 months.

■ DENMARK
Iraqi translators evacuated
The government secretly evacuated about 200 Iraqi civilians under an asylum agreement offered to interpreters and aides who worked for Danish troops, Defense Ministry spokesman Jacob Winther announced yesterday. The last of three military planes carrying the Iraqi aides and their families took off before dawn yesterday from Basra, he said. The other two planes arrived in Copenhagen earlier this week. The flights were kept secret because of fears that militants would try to attack the planes, he said.

■ UNITED STATES
Body found in plane
The body of a suspected stowaway was discovered in the landing gear of a United Airlines passenger jet shortly after it landed in San Francisco from Shanghai on Thursday, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. He said a man's body was discovered in the nose gear of United flight 858 by maintenance workers at around 7:30am. Gregor said the death highlighted the perils of attempting to stowaway in the under-carriages of passenger jets. "Most people die because they are crushed by the landing gear, they freeze or they fall out of the plane," he said.

■ SOMALIA
Mortars kill five children
Insurgents targeted a major reconciliation meeting in northern Mogadishu with mortar bombs on Thursday, missing the venue but killing at least five children playing nearby, residents said. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told delegates gathered at a former police compound that the country had to change its reputation as a terrorist haven. "We have lost trust. We need to return Somalia's reputation back to the world," Gedi said in a brief speech. A security source said Gedi left the venue before the mortar attack. The conference, billed as the interim government's best hope of boosting its legitimacy, had resumed amid tight security after explosions echoed across the capital's biggest market in the heaviest fighting in 15 days of non-stop violence.

■ UNITED NATIONS
More talks on Kosovo
Frustrated by Russia's rejection of their Kosovo resolution, Western nations appeared resigned on Thursday to mull options outside the UN Security Council to steer the Serbian province to supervised independence. Russia, which backs Belgrade's opposition to granting independence to the province, appears determined to veto the latest compromise text. Council members were scheduled to hold consultations on the text yesterday. The draft would endorse new talks between Belgrade and Kosovo's Albanian separatists over a 120-day period under the aegis of the Contact Group on Kosovo and the EU. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned on Thursday that Washington was committed to achieving independence for Kosovo.

■ UNITED STATES
Erasable tattoo dye offered
A new dye due to hit tattoo parlors this fall will provide an exit strategy of sorts for people who have wondered if they might someday have regrets if they get a tattoo. The ink is made by storing dye in microscopic capsules that will stay in the skin for good. But the tattoo can be zapped away with a single laser treatment. However, Providence, Rhode Island, tattoo artist George Dietz said he was skeptical that the new ink would last. "If people don't want something permanent," he said, "they shouldn't get a tattoo."
■ IRAQ
Sunni lawmakers return
Sunni legislators returned to parliament after a five-week boycott, raising hopes the assembly can make progress on power-sharing bills demanded by Washington before the lawmakers take a month's break. But the return of the Sunnis and a hardline Shiite faction loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr could also signal problems for many of the bills, including the oil law, which is a top US priority. The 44 members of the Iraqi Accordance Front attended Thursday's session after striking a deal with the Shiites and Kurds to reinstate the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was ousted by the Shiite-dominated assembly last month for erratic behavior.

■ UNITED STATES
Youths asked for sex pics
Four percent of youths online have been asked to send a sexually explicit photo of themselves over the Internet, researchers said in a new study. Of the 65 youths in the study who reported receiving a request, only one actually complied. But that is still a troubling number: With millions of youths online, that projects to potentially thousands across the country. "One of the things we really need to start doing is talk to kids more directly and informing them of the criminal implications of this type of thing," said Kimberly Mitchell, a research professor at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center. The study was published yesterday in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

■ UNITED STATES
Freeway full of fondue
A tractor trailer hauling blocks of cheese erupted into flames early on Thursday, heating some of its precious cargo into freeway fondue. No one was hurt, but hundreds of kilograms of provolone, cheddar, American and other cheeses littered the side of the Interstate 80 freeway north of Sacramento, California. "It went pretty quick," said driver Frank Barker, who pulled over when he saw smoke coming from under his truck. Barker said he initially tried to put out the flames with his truck's fire extinguisher, but the fire was too big.

■ UNITED STATES
Explosion released asbestos
Asbestos has been found in the muddy dirt and debris from a thunderous steam pipe explosion that jolted Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday evening. But no asbestos was found in the air, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others had initially feared. New York City officials said on Thursday that it is unlikely that anyone will have long-term health effects from brief exposure to the asbestos. "Developing an asbestos-related illness after being exposed for a short time -- even at high levels -- is very unlikely," city officials said on Thursday morning. Asbestos is a carcinogen.

■ UNITED STATES
Pentagon rebukes Clinton
The Pentagon has rebuked the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, warning that her questions about how it would mount a withdrawal from Iraq reinforced "enemy propaganda" and unnerved Iraqis. Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman said in a reply to a letter Clinton had sent to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in May: "Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

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