BEIJING: Two children died in northern China after drinking yoghurt which a disgruntled kindergarten owner had injected with rat poison.
The two girls in Hebei province drank the tainted yoghurt after their grandmother found it by a roadside, Xinhua news agency said.
The children’s ages were not given. One died before reaching hospital while the other died on Wednesday.
The yoghurt had been adulterated with rat poison by a female kindergarten owner competing for village students with the owner of a rival establishment.
27th bird flu death in China
BEIJING: The death toll from the H7N9 bird flu virus has risen to 27, state media said yesterday after a man died in central China’s Hunan Province.
The 55-year-old whose surname was given as Jiao died on Wednesday after receiving medical treatment, state news agency Xinhua said, citing local authorities.
More than 120 people have been diagnosed with the virus since it was first reported in late March, with most cases confined to eastern China.
UN slams Papua crackdown
GENEVA: UN human rights chief Navi Pillay yesterday expressed deep concern over a police crackdown on demonstrators in the Papua province of Indonesia in recent days that has reportedly left several people dead.
“These latest incidents are unfortunate examples of the ongoing suppression of freedom of expression and excessive use of force in Papua,” Pillay said in a statement.
Media reports show that police shot and killed two protesters in the city of Sorong who were preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of Papua becoming part of Indonesia, while at least 20 demonstrators were arrested in the cities of Biak and Timika on May 1.
Textile factories resume work
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s garment firms re-opened and rushed to complete delayed orders for their Western clients yesterday after an eight-day shutdown caused by the deaths of at least 433 people in a building collapse.
Millions of staff returned to production lines around the capital Dhaka that make clothing for retailers such as Walmart and H&M, which have come under huge pressure to review their contracts in the accident-prone country.
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