China: Rat poison suspected in mass food deaths

Hundreds of people fell ill after eating food laced with rat poison at a snack shop selling fried dough, sesame cakes and rice in the Chinese city of Nanjing, and police opened a criminal investigation into the poisonings on Monday.

Authorities refused to release a death toll, but state media said more than 200 people were sickened and suggested dozens, including many children, might have died.

China has reported numerous cases of food poisoning in which restaurants tried to save money by using toxic industrial salts instead of table salt or cooks mistook rat poison or other chemicals for food ingredients.

In July, a noodle shop owner in southern China was arrested on charges that he poisoned customers at a rival business by putting rat poison in its soup.

Indonesia: U.S. embassies reopen after terror warnings

U.S. embassies in Malaysia and Indonesia reopened Monday after closing because of terror warnings ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.

But the missions in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, remained closed until further notice, embassy officials said. The U.S. consulate in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has reopened.

After briefly reopening last week, the embassy in Vietnam was shut again Friday while its “security posture” was further evaluated, the embassy said in a statement released Monday.

In Indonesia, the U.S. consulate in Surabaya also reopened. But embassy officials warned U.S. citizens to avoid embassy facilities as information about a security threat “remains serious and compelling.”

Canada: West Nile virus patient dies

One of three men with confirmed cases of West Nile virus in Canada has died, a health official said Monday.

David Jensen, a spokesman for Ontario’s health ministry, confirmed the unidentified patient’s death but couldn’t say whether the cause was the mosquito-borne virus that has killed dozens in the United States or other health problems the victim suffered.

Another six people in Canada are being tested for the illness.

Illinois, the state most afflicted by West Nile, reported Monday that its death toll from the mosquito-borne virus had risen by two to 18.

North Korea: Summit with Japan a first

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met North Korea’s leader today in a first-ever summit aimed at tackling deep disagreements between the Asian neighbors.

His talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, which began at a guesthouse a couple of hours after his arrival in Pyongyang, were expected to address such security issues as the North’s missile development and suspected nuclear weapons program. The summit was to span most of the day, divided into morning and afternoon sessions.

North Korea and Japan have never forged diplomatic relations. Koizumi has expressed hopes that discussions with Kim will produce a breakthrough toward resuming normalization talks, which broke off two years ago, and prod the reclusive regime toward greater cooperation with the rest of the world.