Dalai Lama in Japan after health scare

NARITA, Japan (AFP) — Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday started a week-long visit to Japan for talks on spirituality, his first trip overseas since a health scare.

The 73-year-old Nobel Peace laureate began his tour days after saying he saw no hope in current dialogue with Beijing, despite a new round of talks due to begin soon between his envoys and Chinese officials.

The Dalai Lama smiled and waved as he was welcomed at Narita airport near Tokyo by dozens of Tibetan expatriates, Japanese well-wishers and fellow Buddhist monks.

“I’m very happy to be once more in this country and to have the opportunity to meet all my friends,” he said.

Some 50 plain-clothes police officers kept watch and escorted the Dalai Lama into a waiting car as Tibetans chanted “Free Tibet.”

29 Chinese miners trapped after gas explosion

BEIJING (AP) — A gas explosion in a mine shaft at a coal mine in northern China has trapped 29 miners, a state news report said Thursday.

The mine blast occurred late Wednesday in a shaft at Yaotou mine in central Shaanxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Emergency workers launched a rescue effort immediately after the blast, Xinhua said.

China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, with numerous fires, floods and other disasters killing an average of 13 miners a day. Many accidents occur in small mines with low safety standards or in mines operated illegally.

Reporters love the reporters in "Frost/Nixon"

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Get ready to read a lot of favorable pieces about “Frost/Nixon,” which opens December 5.

That’s not because Ron Howard’s movie about a series of encounters between British journalist David Frost and former president Richard Nixon is flawless (it’s good, with strong performances and cultural tonalities and a powerful sense of justice, but not flawless), but because no movie flatters the press like this one.

You have to go back to 90’s entertainments like “The Paper” to see even traces of this kind of moral elevation, and all the way back to “All the President’s Men” to find a heroism so comprehensive. Most journalistic movies in the past thirty years have been informed by more cynical conceptions: opportunism, (“The Insider”), naivete (“Absence of Malice”) cheating (“Shattered Glass”) shallowness (“The Devil Wears Prada”), and all of the above (“Broadcast News”).

A quick summary on F/N: The movie, based on Peter Morgan’s play, takes a look at the verbal sparring — more like a lopsided UFC match until the inevitable final-round comeback — between Nixon (Frank Langella) and Frost (Michael Sheen) in the months shortly after Nixon’s resignation. But the real drama is between Frost and his team: he comes from a slick talk-show background, and they are relentless (though not entirely humorless) truthseekers.

Reports: Japan to announce new stimulus package

TOKYO: The Japanese government has agreed on an economic stimulus package with 5 trillion yen ($50 billion) in fresh spending to buoy the country’s flagging finances, news reports said Thursday.

The package, to be unveiled by Prime Minister Taro Aso later Thursday, will also include tax cuts for homeowners, support for small- and mid-sized businesses, and reductions in highway tolls, major newspapers and broadcasters reported.

Aso, who took office in September, is also expected to announce he will postpone dissolving parliament and calling lower house elections, which had been widely expected, to deal with the economic crisis.

The Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment on the reports, and declined to reveal details of Aso’s upcoming speech.

Tokyo stocks have hit 26-year lows and the surging Japanese yen is punishing the country’s exporters by making their products more expensive in the United States and other markets at a time when the crisis is slashing sales.

Shakira to lobby Latin presidents on child welfare

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – Latin pop star Shakira, showing she can move more than her hips, will lobby Latin American presidents this week to start a regional project to pump money into children’s health and education.

The singer will address a summit in El Salvador of Ibero-American leaders, including the presidents of Brazil and her native Colombia, over the need to feed and educate poor children, especially amid a global economic slowdown.

“There are difficult times coming in Latin America. Thousands and thousands of children will die if governments do not organize ways to distribute food during this crisis,” Shakira told Reuters.

“I grew up in the developing world and I have witnessed the lack of opportunities that children have to live with,” she added, speaking by telephone from Miami.

Strong quake hits Pakistan, at least 100 killed

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A strong earthquake struck villages in southwestern Pakistan before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 100 people, injuring scores more and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise as reports arrived from remote areas of Baluchistan province, an impoverished area bordering Afghanistan.

“It will be much more,” Sohail ur Rahman, a top civilian official in one of the affected districts, told Dawn News television.

Zamaruk Khan, the minister for revenue and rehabilitation, said “more than 100″ people have been found dead so far and the government is readying food, shelter and medical care for survivors.

A reporter for AP Television News saw dozens of bodies and injured in a hospital in Zaras, in the Ziarat district. A doctor there, Mohammed Irfan, said the hospital was unable to cope with the injured it was receiving.

Regis Philbin’s Cape Breton fling stirs kilt talk

Talk-show host and entertainer Regis Philbin will soon have a little bit of Nova Scotia with him in New York City after his recent visit to the province.

In fact, the suave half of the hour-long Live with Regis and Kelly daytime program should have a kilt as well as a Nova Scotia tourism film on his desk by Friday, according to tourism officials.

Philbin was in Halifax earlier this month to perform his nightclub act at Casino Nova Scotia, where he told the audience he would like to bring his show, also featuring bubbly Kelly Ripa, to Nova Scotia for an on-location broadcast.

On an episode broadcast after his visit, Philbin boasted about spending time at popular tourist sites like the Citadel and the Keith’s Brewery.

China egg firm says sorry for melamine

HONG KONG (Reuters) – An egg supplier in northeastern China has apologised after tests in Hong Kong detected high levels of melamine in a batch of products exported to the city, local media reported on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of Chinese infants have fallen ill with kidney problems after consuming milk that had been mixed with melamine, an industrial compound used to cheat quality tests. At least four children have died.

Tests found melamine in a variety of Chinese-made products from milk and chocolate bars to yoghurt exported around the world, including egg products in South Korea, leading to items being pulled from shop shelves.

“We solemnly apologise to consumers and distributors. We solemnly state here that my company had never purchased melamine or added melamine to feeds or products,” Han Wei, of the egg supplier Hanwei Group in Dalian province, said.

Reuters evacuates NY newsroom in powder scare

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York newsroom of Reuters News was evacuated for nearly three hours on Monday after receiving an envelope with a “puff of powder” in it, Reuters spokeswoman Jolie Hunt said.

Police told staff to evacuate the 19th-floor Times Square newsroom after Brian Rhoads, the company’s managing editor for the Americas, opened an envelope and a “puff of powder” came out of it, Hunt said.

Police isolated the envelope, and Rhoads, and then told the 140 members of staff to leave as a precautionary measure while they investigated. Staff made arrangements to ensure the company could put out a news file from other offices.

Nearly three hours later, Hunt said authorities told Reuters the powder was harmless and workers returned to the desk.

Thailand denies damaging Cambodian world heritage temple

BANGKOK (AFP) — Thailand’s foreign ministry on Monday denied Cambodian claims that Thai soldiers had damaged the ancient Preah Vihear temple with rocket fire during a border shoot-out earlier this month.

In a statement, the ministry said Thai soldiers had only fired rifles, and instead accused Cambodian troops of using rockets during the clashes on disputed land on October 15, which left three Cambodians and one Thai dead.

“In accordance with strict orders, Thai troops have not used heavy firearms or rocket launchers near the temple of Pra Viharn (Preah Vihear) and never fired at the temple,” the ministry said in the statement.

It said that a number of grenades landed in Thailand’s national park near the 11th century Preah Vihear and injured two Thai troops, adding that two unexploded Cambodian rocket rounds had been kept for evidence.