MOSCOW: Russia has lifted a ban on imports of vegetables from the Netherlands and Belgium, the head of Russia’s state consumer protection watchdog said on Tuesday. Russia banned fresh vegetable imports from the European Union earlier this month because of a deadly E.coli outbreak. “We have so far decided to allow imports from the Netherlands and Belgium,” said head of Russia’s state consumer protection watchdog. (PTI)
Chinese seeks help over stingy wife
Beijing: A Chinese man has sought help from a women’s organisation to deal with his wife who is a penny-pincher.
Chen, 41, and his wife began their lives as immigrant workers in Sizhou, Hubei province, and he rose to become a middle-level manager at a factory.
His monthly income was 4,000 yuan ($617), China Daily cited the Wuhan Evening News as reporting.
Chen said that his wife controlled their income and she would collect all the money he earned. He would then be handed over an allowance of 10 yuan ($1.5) every three days. He also said that his wife would often turn off the water when he was in the shower to save water and spoke harshly to him for using too much shampoo. Chen wants the women’s organization to mediate. (IANS)
Iran plans to send monkey into space
TEHRAN: Iran plans to send a live monkey into space next month, the latest advance in a missile and space programme which has alarmed Israel and its western allies that fear the Islamic Republic is seeking nuclear weapons.
The official IRNA news agency yesterday quoted the head of Iran’s Space Agency as saying five monkeys were undergoing tests before one is selected for the flight on board a Kavoshgar-5 rocket.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last August that Iran planned to send a man into space by 2017.
Western countries are concerned the long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be used to launch atomic warheads. Tehran denies such suggestions and says its nuclear work is purely peaceful. (PTI)
Ox Woman may become richest in world
London: Gina Rinehart, an Australian business woman who inherited a debt-ridden mining company from her father 20 years ago, is predicted to become the world’s richest person, a media report said Tuesday.
Rinehart, 57, is the richest Australian and her fortune has more than doubled in the past year because of a commodities boom report said. She is on course to overtake Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate worth $73 billion, and the Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who is worth $55 billion, Citigroup has estimated. (IANS)