Today's other stories in brief
50 radiation sources found in quake area
BEIJING - China has found what it termed 50 "hazardous sources of radiation" due to last week's earthquake, a senior official said yesterday, although he insisted the situation was under control.
But Wu Xiaoqing, vice-environment minister, said there had been no accidental releases of radiation. "Thirty-five of the radiation sources have been recovered, and the location of another 15 has been confirmed but they have not yet been recovered," Mr Wu told reporters in Beijing.
"Three are buried in rubble and another 12 are in dangerous buildings which staff cannot go into," he said.
"At present, tests from the scene show that there has yet to be an accidental release of radiation."
The disaster area is home to China's chief nuclear weapons research lab, as well as several secretive atomic sites, but no nuclear power stations. - (Reuters)
Emissions from G8 states fell in 2006
OSLO/LONDON - Greenhouse gas emissions by all of the Group of Eight industrial nations except Russia fell in 2006 in the broadest dip since the world started trying to slow climate change in 1990, a Reuters survey showed yesterday.
Rising oil prices, measures to curb warming and a milder winter in the US contributed to an overall 0.6 per cent dip in G8 emissions in 2006 from 2005. - (Reuters)
Violence spreads to Cape Town
CAPE TOWN - Anti- immigrant violence has spread to South Africa's second-largest city, Cape Town, where mobs attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans and looted their homes and shops, police said yesterday.
Hundreds of migrants were evacuated overnight from a squatter camp near Cape Town. - (Reuters)
Texas appeals ruling in polygamy case
SAN ANTONIO - The state of Texas yesterday appealed a court ruling that said the state's child protection agency overstepped its authority by removing roughly 460 children from a polygamous compound. - (Reuters)
Humpbacks make comeback
Once hunted to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have made a dramatic comeback in the North Pacific Ocean over the past four decades, a new study shows.
The study by Splash, an international whale watchers' organisation, estimates there were 18,000-20,000 humpbacks in the North Pacific in 2004-2006. - (AP)