News In Brief

Koreas agree to re-open key industrial zone
Afp, Seoul

North and South Korea agreed yesterday to reopen the jointly-run Kaesong industrial park on a trial basis from next Monday, five months after it was shut during soaring military tensions.
The reopening date was settled after a marathon, 20-hour negotiating session, and marks a tangible step forward for recent efforts to improve cross-border relations.

Toxic liquor kills 12 in Pakistan
Afp, Multan

Toxic liquor has killed at least 12 people in central Pakistan, police and health officials said yesterday.
The deaths occurred near the farming town of Rahim Yar Khan, where the men were drinking locally made liquor at a party.
Eight of them died on Monday while four more succumbed on Tuesday.
"At least 12 people have died after drinking toxic liquor," local police station chief Mohammad Yasin Gujjar told AFP.

China has more than 300 billionaires
Afp, Beijing

The number of dollar billionaires in mainland China has passed 300 for the first time, an annual ranking of wealth in the world's second-largest economy showed yesterday.
The Hurun Report, a luxury magazine publisher, named property tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's new richest person, saying he had more than doubled his worth to $22 billion.

UK deputy speaker quits on rape charge
Afp, London

A deputy speaker in Britain's lower house of parliament quit on Tuesday after the public prosecutor announced that he will be charged with offences including rape and sexual assault.
Nigel Evans, 55, a lawmaker in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, was initially arrested in May on suspicion of committing rape and sexual assaults between 2009 and March this year.

3 astronauts back on Earth from ISS
Afp, Moscow

Three astronauts returned to Earth yesterday on board a Russian Soyuz capsule after a half-year mission on the International Space Station (ISS), landing in Kazakhstan, mission control in Moscow announced.
Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin landed on schedule at 8:58am Kazakh time (0258 GMT) in the Kazakh steppe, along with American Chris Cassidy.