In Brief

BANNED – A Chinese man selling condoms with the image of Lei Feng, a communist hero model worker from the 1960s, has been told to stop, state media reported yesterday.

Zhang Zhiwen from the Ningbo municipality of eastern China’s Zhejiang province put a photo of Lei Feng holding a gun on boxes of condoms he obtained in Guangdong province and advertised them for sale on his Web site, Xinhua news agency said. * DISCUSS – The Vatican is encouraging negotiations to obtain the “denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula, Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday.In a speech to the new Japanese ambassador to the Vatican, Benedict referred to the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme.* BLAST – At least 24 miners were killed and 10 others trapped yesterday by an explosion in a coal mine in northern China, state media reported, the latest in a string of fatal incidents to hit the country’s dangerous mining industry.The blast occurred at the Nanshan coal mine in Shanxi province’s Lingshi County, China Central Television said in its midday broadcast.* WIMPS – Men may or may not suffer more from influenza than women, but according to a survey yesterday they moan more, spend more on remedies and take more time off work when they are ill.A poll of 2 000 men and women on winter ailments revealed that 64 per cent of men said they had suffered a viral infection last winter that caused them to miss work, compared with 45 per cent of women.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP* DISCUSS – The Vatican is encouraging negotiations to obtain the “denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula, Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday.In a speech to the new Japanese ambassador to the Vatican, Benedict referred to the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme.* BLAST – At least 24 miners were killed and 10 others trapped yesterday by an explosion in a coal mine in northern China, state media reported, the latest in a string of fatal incidents to hit the country’s dangerous mining industry.The blast occurred at the Nanshan coal mine in Shanxi province’s Lingshi County, China Central Television said in its midday broadcast.* WIMPS – Men may or may not suffer more from influenza than women, but according to a survey yesterday they moan more, spend more on remedies and take more time off work when they are ill.A poll of 2 000 men and women on winter ailments revealed that 64 per cent of men said they had suffered a viral infection last winter that caused them to miss work, compared with 45 per cent of women.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP