World Briefs

CHINA A teenage boy sneaked into the cargo hold of an Emirates passenger plane in China and made it all the way to Dubai before being apprehended, the airline and Chinese media said yesterday. The Dubai-based airline, the Middle East’s biggest, said the stowaway was found in the cargo hold of Flight EK303 from Shanghai on Friday, May 27. “We are cooperating fully with authorities in Dubai and as this is a police matter,” the airline said in an emailed statement.

CHINA A 28-year-old transgender man who goes by the name of “Mr. C” has become the public face of the fight for job equality in China, where sexual and gender minorities are only beginning to emerge from virtual invisibility.

HONG KONG Chinese residents pumped a record amount of money into Hong Kong insurance in the first quarter even as the mainland government tightened restrictions on the purchases, which serve as a popular tool for skirting the nation’s capital controls.

CHINA-RUSSIA Russian foreign minister says President Vladimir Putin’s planned trip to China will give powerful new impulse to ties between the two nations. Speaking yesterday at a Moscow conference, Sergey Lavrov (pictured)described expanding ties with China as Russia’s top foreign policy priority.

KOREAS A North Korean missile launch likely failed yesterday, South Korea’s military said, the fourth in a series of high-profile failures that somewhat temper recent worries that the North is pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America’s mainland.

AFGHANISTAN Amnesty International says more than 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to flee their homes due to violence in the past three years and urges the Kabul government and the international community to tackle the country’s growing crisis of refugees internally displaced by war.

THAILAND Wildlife officials remove 40 of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple in western Kanchanaburi province following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.

UNITED NATIONS The UN health agency says “plain packaging” on tobacco products has shown to be an effective complement to health warnings, advertising restrictions, and curbs on misleading packaging to help save lives. The World Health Organization released yesterday an 86-page report on “plain packaging,” hoping to decrease the lure of smoking on “World No Tobacco Day.”

CAPTAIN COOK If the ship legendary explorer Capt. James Cook used to sail around the world is found at the bottom of Newport Harbor, Rhode Island will own it outright because of a legal maneuver it took nearly two decades ago based on an obscure, centuries-old maritime practice.