The U.S. on Monday applauded Panama’s overwhelming vote in favor of widening its canal, an eight-year project that will cost $5.25 billion and should lower prices for shoppers on the East Coast buying goods from Asia. The U.S., which built the waterway in the early 1900s, had been mum on the plan so as not to sway Sunday’s referendum.
Yellow River turns red
A half-mile section of China’s Yellow River–a source of drinking water for millions–turned “red and smelly” in Lanzhous after an unknown discharge was poured into it from a sewage pipe, state media said Monday. Environmental officials took samples and were trying to determine whether the sewage was toxic, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Official: Flu shots are safe
The Israeli Health Ministry said Monday that a French flu vaccine did not kill four people who died shortly after being inoculated, and ordered resumption of vaccinations. Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri demonstrated his faith in the vaccine by getting a flu shot on live TV at the end of his news conference.
AND FINALLY
When animals attack other animals
A wild bear attacked three racehorses on a practice run in central Sweden but was forced to retreat into the forest with a broken leg and a bruised ego, news reports said Monday. Coachman Bjorn Johansson was taking the three horses for a run on a country road Sunday when the bear came charging at them from behind, he told tabloid Aftonbladet. The horses soon got the upper hand, he said, furiously kicking the bear.
