■CHINA
Coal mine blast kills 11
An explosion at a coal mine in Ningxia killed 11 workers, injured seven and left three missing, the State Work Safety Administration said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The incident occurred late on Wednesday at the Dafeng mine in the town of Shizuishan, it said. Workers were using dynamite to blast through rock when the accident occurred, Xinhua news agency reported. Only one person escaped unharmed, it said. An investigation was under way, the agency said, adding that the mine was owned by Shenhua Group, one of the nation’s mining giants.
■HONG KONG
Diet pill dangerous
Health officials issued a warning on Wednesday after a teenage girl became mentally ill after taking slimming pills she bought online. The 17-year-old became paranoid, began hallucinating and having suicidal thoughts after taking the pills named “Show Party,” they said. She was admitted to hospital after she began harming herself, the Department of Health said. Her mental state was said to be unstable. Tests showed the pills to contain a banned ingredient called phenolphthalein, which was once used for treating constipation but has been banned for its cancer-causing effects. The pills also contained a substance called sibutramine, an appetite suppressant that can lead to high blood pressure, psychosis and convulsions.
■CHINA
Senior general to visit US
US defense department spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters on Wednesday that General Xu Caihou (徐才厚), China’s second-highest ranking officer, will visit the US and meet Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People’s Liberation Army Central Military Commission. Morrell said Xu would visit military installations and organizations around the US, including the Naval Academy and the US Pacific Command. Morrell said that the more talks China and the US have, the less “chance there is for a misunderstanding between two very formidable powers on the world’s stage.”
■INDONESIA
Porn star loses role
An Indonesian film production company has canceled a planned visit by a Japanese porn star to Jakarta for the shooting of a comedy after protests from hardline Islamic groups, its producer said. Maria Ozawa was due to arrive on Wednesday for the filming of Kidnapping Miyabi, but members of the Islamic Defenders’ Front threatened to throng the Jakarta airport to force her to return to Japan. Acting Tourism Minister Muhammad Nuh later issued a letter requesting the production company, Maxima Pictures, to cancel Ozawa’s visit. “We’ve decided to cancel the visit because the situation isn’t favorable,” said Oddi Mulya Hidayat, the producer of the film.
■HONG KONG
Man fined for sneak shots
A senior immigration officer claimed that stress from working at the airport had led him to take sneak photographs with his mobile phone up a woman’s skirt, a court report said yesterday. Anthony Lo, 41, was chased and captured by security guards after he was spotted filming under the mini-skirt of a 20-year-old girl at one of the city’s train station exits. Police found four film clips of different women taken the same day with his phone in December. Lo, a married man who has worked in the immigration department for 20 years, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place and was fined HK$4,000 (US$516).
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