Beijing

S. Korea, China to seek solution to crisis in N. Korea

North Korea’s closest neighbors, South Korea and China, pledged Thursday to cooperate in seeking a diplomatic solution to end the standoff between the United States and North Korea about the resumption of the secretive regime’s nuclear program.

Beijing is North Korea’s biggest source of food and fuel aid, and Seoul remains committed to South Korean President Kim Dae Jung’s “sunshine policy” of engagement with the North. The two countries share a common disapproval of the Bush administration’s diplomatic efforts to isolate and pressure North Korea.

Beijing and Seoul were alarmed last month by North Korea’s decision to restart its plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon complex, a facility that experts say could produce material for nuclear weapons. Pyongyang froze the plant in 1994 as part of an agreement with the United States.

Washington, D.C.

Groups receive federal grants for pro-marriage programs

In step with President Bush’s faith-based initiative, the government on Thursday sent money from its child support programs to religious and nonprofit organizations so they can promote marriage.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced more than $2.2 million in grants to 12 states and a variety of religious, nonprofit and tribal organizations to advance the nation’s child support enforcement system.

Among them are two organizations and a state agency that emphasize the importance of a healthy marriage to a child’s well-being.

Beijing

China unveils plans to send manned craft into space

After a decade of secretive preparation, China disclosed plans Thursday to launch a manned spacecraft this year, an achievement the communist government hopes will win it public support at home and respect abroad.

A successful launch would stand as a trophy to China’s progress after two decades of economic reform. It would make it only the third nation — after Russia and the United States — capable of sending a human into space.

The Shenzhou V capsule carrying at least one of the country’s astronauts — dubbed taikonauts after the Chinese word for space — is to be launched in the second half of 2003, according to the official China News Service.

India

Train crash kills at least eight

A passenger train slammed into a freight train late Thursday in southern India, killing at least eight people and injuring 25 others, railroad officials said Friday.

A railroad spokesman in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh state, said the death toll could rise to at least 10.

Three passenger cars were thrown off the rails in the collision, which occurred near Parli, 185 miles west of Hyderabad. The train was traveling from the southern city of Secunderabad to Manmad in western Maharashtra state.