Briefly

Washington

Speakers square off on silicone-gel implants

Thirteen years after most use of silicone-gel breast implants was banned, the government reopened emotional debate Monday on whether to lift the restrictions — despite lingering questions about how often the devices can break inside women’s bodies and how bad those breaks really are.

In an extraordinary daylong hearing, dozens of women, many in tears, told federal health advisers of pain and crippling health problems when silicone leaked from broken implants into their breasts and beyond. Others, angry at their difficulty in getting what they called the most natural-feeling implant to rebuild cancer-ravaged breasts or to enlarge small ones, urged the Food and Drug Administration to lift its near-ban.

California

Jackson trial focuses on boy in former settlement

The mother of a boy who received millions from Michael Jackson in a lawsuit more than a decade ago told jurors Monday that Jackson pleaded with her to allow her son to sleep with him during visits to his Neverland ranch and on trips.

The woman said that during several months in 1993 she was treated by Jackson to trips and lavish gifts of jewelry after she agreed to let the boy sleep in Jackson’s room.

But during the woman’s testimony there was no inquiry on whether Jackson molested her son. She said she saw her son and Jackson on the singer’s bed but did not indicate that anything improper was going on.

Prosecutors in Jackson’s trial are trying to support a teenager’s testimony about being molested in 2003 by calling witnesses from the past to show that the singer has a pattern of molestation or inappropriate behavior with young boys.

NEW DELHI

India, China agree on ‘strategic partnership’

India and China agreed Monday to form a “strategic partnership,” creating a diplomatic bond between Asia’s two emerging powers that would tie together nearly one-third of the world’s population.

The agreement, announced during a South Asia tour by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, reflects a major shift in relations between the two nuclear countries, whose ties have long been defined by mutual suspicion. It also is another step in a charm offensive by Beijing, which is trying to build ties with its neighbors and ensure regional stability for economic growth.

India

Dozens of Hindus die during bathing ritual

At least 58 Hindu pilgrims bathing in a central India river during a religious festival drowned when the gates of a nearby dam were opened, police said Monday.

Local police official S.K. Raut said some of the bodies were recovered nearly five miles from the bathing site.

Nearly 100,000 Hindus had assembled Saturday night for an annual bathing festival, known as the “Bhootdi Aamavasya” — or “Moonless Night,” along the banks of the Narmada River in the town of Dharaji. Hindu religious rituals often include bathing in rivers seen as holy.

But as the pilgrims were bathing, water was released through a dam about 15 miles away, police said.

“We were not alerted by the state administration about the presence of so many pilgrims in the area,” said S. K. Dodeja, managing director of the state-run Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corp., which runs the newly built dam.

The release of the water was stopped about two hours later, he said.