Rally against Taiwan's new school curriculum

TAIPEI • Nearly 1,000 people rallied outside Taiwan's education ministry yesterday, demanding the minister's resignation and the scrapping of what they described as a "China-centric" high school curriculum.

The protesters, who police estimated at 800, ripped up the new versions of textbooks printed under the new curriculum guidelines.

The turnout was the largest since July 24 when 30 protesters, many of them students, broke into the ministry to protest against the changes.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Suu Kyi's party rejects 1988 protest activists

YANGON • The party of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected bids by 17 members of Myanmar's respected "88 generation" to join its ranks and contest November's election, a controversial omission of a group that was expected to galvanise its bid to dominate the ballot.

The National League for Democracy selected only one member of the popular crop of activists, who suffered years of persecution after leading student protests in 1988 that were brutally crushed by the ruling military.

REUTERS

China probes 'Viagra added to liquor' scare

BEIJING • Chinese police are investigating if two distillers in the south-western region of Guangxi added impotence treatment drug Viagra to their liquor in the latest food scare.

Officers have confiscated 5,357 bottles of the suspect products, 1,124kg of raw alcohol and a batch of white powder labelled Sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra, in a case worth more than 700,000 yuan (S$155,000).

REUTERS

100 in HK protest over 'breast assault' case

HONG KONG • Dozens of activists including men wearing bras staged a protest in Hong Kong yesterday after a woman was sentenced to 3-1/2 months' jail for assaulting a policeman with her breasts.

Around 100 people gathered for the light-hearted "breast walk" protest outside police headquarters in Wan Chai, with some wearing bras over their tops and others holding them up.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE