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World News Quick Take

■ CHINA

Next space mission planned

China plans to launch its third manned space mission as well as 15 rockets and 17 satellites this year, state media said yesterday. Shenzhou 7, the country's third manned space mission, is a priority for this year, Huang Qiang (黃強), secretary-general of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. The trip is to carry three astronauts into space and will feature China's first space walk.



■ CHINA

Experts list addiction genes

Scientists have identified about 400 genes that appear to make some people more easily addicted to drugs, opening the way for more effective therapies and addiction control. Experts believe genetic factors account for up to 60 percent of a person's vulnerability to drug addiction, with environmental factors accounting for the remainder. The researchers focused on four addictive substances -- cocaine, opiates, alcohol and nicotine -- and mapped out five main routes, or "molecular pathways," that lead to addiction, they wrote in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.



■ JAPAN

Tokyo taxis go smoke-free

Tokyo's two largest taxi associations implemented a smoking ban on Monday that made nearly all of the cabs operating in the country's capital smoke-free. The ban was implemented by the Tokyo Taxi Association, whose member companies operate 34,000 cabs, and the Tokyo Independent Taxi Association, which has some 17,500 owner-operated taxis, association officials said. The two associations account for around 95 percent of Tokyo's taxis, Transport Ministry official Yoshinori Takahashi said. The 3,000 or so unaffiliated taxis in the city are also expected to go smoke-free, media reports said. The move brings the number of Japan's 47 prefectures with taxi smoking bans to 15, Takahashi said.



■ PAKISTAN

Voter rolls safer in Canada

A list of some 80 million eligible voters in Pakistan's upcoming presidential election is being stored on computers in Canada for safekeeping, the company stashing the data said on Monday. The computers are nestled in a nondescript block along the busy Trans-Canada highway in Montreal, said Hayee Bokhari, president of Cronomagic, which was contracted by the Election Commission of Pakistan to create an online database. "Infrastructure in Pakistan is not secure enough because electricity over there is a big thing," said Bokhari, who was born in Pakistan. "For them to make it run 24-7 without interruption, that was only possible either in the United States, in Canada or in Europe."



■ CHINA

Confiscation data released

Authorities confiscated nearly 149 million magazines, video disks and other publications last year for being pornographic, pirated or otherwise unauthorized, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. About 136 million of the confiscated items were pirated, while close to 4 million were pornographic and nearly 3.4 million were smuggled, Xinhua reported, citing the National Office for Cleaning Up Pornography and Fighting Illegal Publications. It said that a recent campaign to fight "harmful" information online had led to the closure of 44,000 pornographic Web sites run from within the country's borders and 14,000 such sites run by people abroad.



■ ISRAEL

Negotiator delayed

Israeli authorities held up the chief Palestinian negotiator for an hour at a West Bank crossing on Monday, a delay he claimed was politically charged. Negotiator Ahmed Qureia, also known as Abu Ala, said Israel tried to subject him to unspecified security procedures he resisted, a statement from his office said. "We construe such acts as targeting the political positions of Abu Ala and the negotiations," Qureia's office said in a statement. Qureia was crossing into the West Bank from Jordan, for a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team.



■ RUSSIA

Search for life planned

Russia plans to participate in a European mission to investigate Jupiter's moon Europa and search for simple life forms, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, quoting a senior researcher. The head of the Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, said a project to explore the giant gaseous planet Jupiter would shortly be included in the program of the European Space Agency (ESA) for the years 2015 to 2025. "The main task is to explore its satellite Europa, on which under a thick layer of ice, a liquid water ocean has been detected," Zelyony said. "Where there is an ocean, life could arise," Zelyony said.



■ Uae

US Navy jets crash

Two US Navy fighter jets crashed on Monday in the Persian Gulf, but the three pilots on board ejected safely out of the aircraft, the Navy said. The three pilots were brought back after the crash to the USS Harry Truman, the aircraft carrier they were operating from, and are in good condition, the US Navy's 5th Fleet said in a written statement. Teams from the Truman rescued the pilots who ejected after their F/A-18 Super Hornets crashed during operations in the Gulf, the statement said. The Navy said the cause of the accident was under investigation.



■ UNITED KINGDOM

Prince trains as pilot

Prince William started a four-month pilot course with the Royal Air Force (RAF) on Monday, the latest phase of training to prepare for his future role as symbolic head of the armed forces. The 25-year-old, who is second in line to the throne, is temporarily leaving his army role for the attachment, which sees him following in the footsteps of his father Prince Charles who did likewise in 1971. He was initially to take to the skies with an instructor to earn his wings at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, eastern England, in a shortened version of a course which would normally take three or four years.



■ ITALY

Army battle trash mountain

Italy's army shifted mountains of rubbish from schools and streets around Naples on Monday to ease a two-week-old garbage crisis that has triggered violent protests by residents. As there is no room left in the area's dumps, people have had no choice but to dump household waste on ever growing piles in the streets. Italian media reported on Monday that some 110,000 tonnes of garbage had accumulated. A combination of political incompetence, corruption and organized crime has scuppered efforts to solve the crisis. A massive incinerator which was supposed to open at the end of last year is not ready. Many schools, due to reopen on Monday after the Christmas holidays, remained closed amid public health concerns.



■ BRAZIL

Aborigine killings rise

The number of Aborigines killed rose sharply to 76 last year, mainly because of increased disputes with farmers and ranchers, a local rights groups said on Monday. The Indian Missionary Council blamed the killings, which rose from 48 in 2006, on conflicts between indigenous groups and farmers and ranchers who continue to expand their lands into indigenous territory across the country. "It's beyond comprehension that this cruel process of extermination continues ... without measures being taken to stop it," the Catholic Church-backed council said in a news release. Brazil's 730,000 indigenous people belong to about 220 different ethnic groups and speak 180 languages.



■ CANADA

Ottawa blocks Web sites

A case involving teenagers who allegedly killed a pet cat by microwaving it during a home burglary last month has provoked outrage among Internet users, leading authorities to block some Web sites, police said on Monday. Police shut down local Web sites over the weekend that breached a Canadian law banning the identification of young people charged with a crime, or that promoted vigilante justice, inspector Lee Foreman said. "I think people like that should be shot," said one message posted on the social networking Web site Facebook. "I would say these monsters should be tortured."



■ MEXICO

Boys glues hand to bed

A 10-year-old boy dreaded returning to school after Christmas break so much that he glued his hand to his bed. Sandra Palacios spent nearly two hours on Monday morning trying to free her son Diego's hand with water, oil and nail polish remover before calling authorities, police chief Jorge Camacho said from outside the northern city of Monterrey. "I didn't want to go to school because vacation was so much fun," the Reforma newspaper quoted the boy as saying. Palacios said Diego sneaked into the kitchen in the early morning to get the industrial glue, which he then slathered on his right hand.



■ UNITED STATES

Man gets catchy new name

You can refer to him officially now as Mr Experience. Daniel Michael Miller II is history. The former Dan Miller, 24, has legally changed his name to "The" Dan Miller Experience. His first name is "The" Dan, with the quotation marks. His middle name is Miller and his last name is Experience. About 300 people petitioned the Summit County Probate Court last year to change a name and Experience was one of the few who was called in to explain why he wanted an unusual name. The Akron musician and rapper did so, and last month the change became official.



■ UNITED STATES

Teacher charged over pics

A high school teacher was charged with sending nude pictures of herself and sex-related text messages to the cellphone of a 14-year-old student. Beth Ann Chester, a 26-year-old health and physical education teacher at Moon Area High School in suburban Pittsburgh, was charged with sexual abuse of children, statutory sexual assault and related counts. On Dec. 22, Chester sent three pictures of herself, two of them naked, to the boy's cellphone, police said. The student replied with a naked picture of himself, authorities said. The boy's parents discovered suggestive text messages on Dec. 26. Chester has tendered her resignation, citing personal reasons.
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