VIRUS RESURFACES: Indonesia has launched a massive campaign to immunize 5 million children after a 20-month-old toddler was confirmed to have the disease
The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that it had detected a case of the crippling polio virus in Indonesia, indicating that an outbreak rooted in Africa has leapt the Indian Ocean.

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A gas explosion at a building housing an ice-cream factory in eastern Pakistan early yesterday killed at least 25 people and wounded 20, police said. Rescue workers were sifting the rubble for about a dozen others feared trapped inside.

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PRESS FREEDOM DAY: Reporters in Asia and elsewhere held ceremonies and marches to back demands for an end to censorship, jailings, kidnappings and killings
Philippine journalists yesterday vowed to defend their profession on World Press Freedom day, despite the country's description by an international media watchdog as the "most murderous" for reporters in the world.

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Investigators searched yesterday for the cause of a huge explosion at a warlord's secret underground arms cache in Afghanistan as officials said the death toll had risen to 29, as villagers searched for more survivors and buried their dead.

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BEANS AND ELVIS: No-hope candidates in tomorrow's polls include `Captain Beany', an orange superhero who pledges daily bean quality checks
"It's election fever!" yells Captain Beany, the bright orange superhero hoping to be Britain's first elected baked bean.

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A man who ordered a pint of frozen chocolate custard in a dessert shop got a nasty surprise inside -- a piece of severed finger lost by an employee in an accident.

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CHORE ENFORCER: The new machine uses fingerprint recognition technology to ensure that the same person isn't unfairly forced to do the laundry two times in a row
A high-tech washing machine called Your Turn could soon enforce gender equality in every British household.

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Iran announced yesterday it will resume certain nuclear activities suspended as part of a deal with the EU but stick to a freeze on uranium enrichment and continue talks with the EU.

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The government has told Gaza Strip settlers they could move en masse to an environmentally sensitive area in southern Israel, a senior Cabinet minister said yesterday.

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US President George W. Bush, stunned when John Bolton's nomination for UN ambassador hit a Republican road bump, is working hard to avoid a political setback at the outset of his second term when senators hold a showdown vote next week.

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■ Australia
Fish flattens fisherman
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