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World News Quick Take

■ CHINA
School meal illnesses soar
The number of children hospitalized with food poisoning after eating school meals at a kindergarten in the northwestern part of the country has risen to 307, up from an earlier figure of 260, state media said yesterday. The children, all from the same kindergarten in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, suffered fever, vomiting and stomach aches after having porridge and buns for breakfast at school on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Authorities were investigating the cause of the incident and the children were being treated at four different hospitals, it said. Mass food poisonings are frequent events in the country, often triggered by the unsafe handling of food. China has also been plagued by a spate of international food safety scandals in the past few months.

■ CHINA
Baby dinosaur fossils found
Scientists said on Friday they had found fossils belonging to six baby dinosaurs that died in a volcanic mudflow 125 million years ago. The fossils, excavated in Liaoning Province, were unusually well-preserved because they were buried right after the eruption, said Zhao Qi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The dinosaur fossils are of the type psittacosaurus, which is easily recognizable because of its parrot-like beak. They were aged from one-and-a-half to three years old when they died, he said. The scientific significance of the find is that the six baby dinosaurs belonged to at least two different clutches, suggesting the dinosaur lived in herds much earlier than previously believed, he said.

■ JAPAN
Elderly physically abused
Thousands of elderly people are physically abused at home by relatives, news reports said yesterday, as the country faces a rapidly aging population. More than 12,600 cases of elderly abuse were reported last year, almost all of them at home, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry survey released on Friday. About 50 cases involved abuse inflicted by staff at nursing homes. Eighty percent of the victims were women aged 80 or older, while forty percent suffered from dementia. Sons were the top abusers in the reported cases at 37 percent. Daughters-in-law were responsible for abuse in 10 percent of the cases.

■ MALAYSIA
Ambassador apologizes
A diplomat has apologized to the Iraqi embassy for mistaking a gift parcel of sweet pickles as anthrax powder, a news report said yesterday. Zakaria Sulong, the newly appointed ambassador to Germany, sent a fax to the Iraqi mission offering his "sincere and deepest apologies" for the misunderstanding, which he "deeply regretted," the New Straits Times said. The Iraqi embassy sent the parcel to Zakaria as a gift on Sept. 13 to mark Ramadan. He only saw white powder when he opened it and fearing it might be anthrax, placed the box in a barrel outside his house and called the police, the newspaper said.

■ PAKISTAN
Toxic liquor strikes again
Another 13 people have died after drinking toxic liquor, taking the death toll from a batch of bad homemade booze to 40, police said yesterday. A total of 55 people were rushed to Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, the nation's biggest city, after falling unconscious on Thursday. Twenty-seven died on Thursday and on Friday and 13 were declared dead yesterday, city police chief Javed Bukhari said. Some of the remaining 15 people were listed in critical condition, he said. Bukhari said police have arrested several men in a series of raids for illegally preparing and selling the alcohol.

■ INDIA
Official in trouble over leaks
Police on Friday charged a former top official from the country's external intelligence agency for allegedly disclosing state secrets in a book he wrote after retirement, officials said. Federal detectives from the Central Bureau of Investigation also raided the home of V.K. Singh after slapping him with charges under India's tough Official Secrets Act, which would carry a minimum prison term of seven years. "The searches are still continuing and he has been booked under Section Five of the act," which prohibits publication of classified information, bureau spokesman G. Mohanty said.

■ PHILIPPINES
Soldiers face murder trial
The military is preparing to try at least 13 soldiers for their alleged role in the murder of left-wing activists, the first cases to be brought before new tribunals set up to hear human rights complaints. The military chief said on Friday the soldiers were undergoing pre-trial investigation for four cases of murder, including that of a female radio talk show host on Mindanao, since 2005. "We want to be thorough about it," General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters, adding it would take some time before the cases would go to trial.

■ FRANCE
Town won't hang portrait
Defying an age-old tradition, a small village in central France said on Thursday it had voted not to hang a portrait of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the village hall. "The question arose when we were offered a portrait of the president," said Henri Sauthon, an 81-year-old retired farmer and mayor of Sannat, a village of 380 inhabitants. "During our meeting on Tuesday, some said they were against hanging the picture, so we had a vote -- which ruled against by five to four. Maybe we are rebels. Maybe we're a bit hard-headed. Not everyone is a yes-man," he said. Sauthon said that while it is traditional, it is not compulsory to hang a portrait of the president in French town halls and other government buildings.

■ TURKEY
Five Kurdish guerillas killed
Five Kurdish guerillas were killed in an operation by thousands of Turkish troops near the Iraqi border, an army official said on Friday. Turkish troops backed by helicopters are chasing a group of up to 40 guerillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party in southeastern Sirnak Province. Ten guerillas and a soldier have been killed so far this week in operations against guerillas operating in the mountains of eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Army sources said the operations would continue.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Teacher's car explodes
A device exploded in a teacher's car at a school in the northwestern city of Liverpool on Friday, police said. No one was injured in the blast but police said the device could have caused considerable damage and injury. "There was no indication whatsoever as to why anybody would target this vehicle or the person that owned the vehicle," Superintendent Ian Pilling told reporters. "If they had actually been inside the vehicle they would have been seriously injured or possibly killed," he said. Pilling, who called the attack "a despicable offense," said there were children leaving the school at around the time the car exploded.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Former MP Gilmour dies
Lord Gilmour of Craigmillar, a rebel Conservative lawmaker who was a constant thorn in then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's side has died, his son said. He was 81. The former Sir Ian Gilmour was the first Cabinet minister to be sacked by Thatcher after he warned her hardline tactics would lose voters' support. He died in West Middlesex Hospital, west of London, after a short illness, said his eldest son, David Gilmour. After being fired as deputy foreign secretary in 1981, he declared Thatcher was steering "full speed ahead for the rocks" and for his next 11 years in the House of Commons he relentlessly attacked Thatcher's dismantling of the welfare state.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Foot-and-mouth confirmed
A new case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in cattle on a farm in southern England on Friday, officials said. It was the fourth new case in nine days. Britain's environment department confirmed the sixth case of foot-and-mouth in an area close to a medical research laboratory since the initial outbreak on Aug. 3. As a precaution, authorities had already begun slaughtering around 40 cows on the farm, which was inside a 3km protection zone set up close to the latest reported cases in Surrey, south of London.

■ UNITED STATES
Britney faces charges
Britney Spears' legal woes mounted as prosecutors charged her with counts of hit-and-run and driving without a valid driver's license after she allegedly smashed her car into another car in a parking lot last month. If convicted, the singer could face up to six months in jail and a US$1,000 fine for each count, said Nick Velasquez, spokesman for the Los Angeles attorney's office. The accident occurred on Aug. 6, Velasquez said on Friday. Spears, 25, was filmed by paparazzi steering her car into another vehicle as she tried to turn into a parking spot. After assessing the damage to her own car only, she was seen on video walking away.

■ UNITED STATES
False teeth stolen
A man accused of snatching another man's false teeth straight from his mouth during a fight has been charged with robbery in Yorktown, Indiana. Robert Henry Stahl, 62, was charged on Thursday with felony robbery and battery causing bodily injury, a misdemeanor. Billie Townsend, 56, told police he went to a bar on July 27 to pay Stahl money he owed him, then Stahl asked him to go outside and started punching him repeatedly. During the fight, Stahl allegedly put Townsend in a headlock and removed his false teeth. "He said, `You ain't getting these back,'" Townsend told police.

■ UNITED STATES
Clooney breaks a rib
George Clooney and his companion were injured when their motorcycle collided with a car on a road across the Hudson River from New York City. Clooney suffered a broken rib and scrapes while his passenger, Sarah Larson, broke her foot in the collision on Friday afternoon. The two were treated at a hospital and released, Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said. Clooney and Larson were traveling north on Boulevard East and sped up to pass on the right a car that was preparing to make a right turn, Weehawken, New Jersey, police said.

■ UNITED STATES
Sex video scandal at Yale
A Dane studying at Yale University is facing criminal charges for allegedly showing his four roommates a video of himself and his then-girlfriend having sex. Casper Desfeux admitted to police that he recorded the incident without the woman's knowledge using a camera on his laptop, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The woman found out about the video from one of Desfeux's roommates, police said. Police say the woman brought the charges to prevent the video from being spread around the university or on the Internet. Desfeux was arraigned on Thursday, officials said.

■ UNITED STATES
God answers lawsuit
"God" has responded twice to a lawsuit filed by a Nebraska lawmaker, and one filing seems to have dropped in from the heavens. "This one miraculously appeared on the counter," said John Friend, clerk of the Douglas County District Court in Omaha. The response was one of two to a lawsuit filed against God by state Senator Ernie Chambers. Chambers said in his lawsuit that God has caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization." Signed by "God," the response filed on Wednesday argues the defendant is immune from earthly laws and that the court lacks jurisdiction over God. St Michael the Archangel is listed as a witness, Friend said. Chambers filed his lawsuit to prove a point about frivolous suits, he said.


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