IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Two Nobel judges to step down over ethics scandal

Two members of the assembly that awards the Nobel Prize for medicine are to quit for failing to heed warnings about a major ethics scandal, the panel said on Tuesday.

First face transplant recipient dies at age 49

Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant, has died 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. She was 49.

Vietnam's 'Silicon Valley' sparks startup boom

Recent Vietnamese graduate looking for an English language teacher? There's an app for that. Or hunting the best bowl of pho in your Hanoi neighborhood? There's now an app for that, too.

Anti-drugs chief calls for tougher Philippine-style fight

Inspired by the Philippines "war on drugs", Indonesia's anti-narcotics chief plans to aggressively ramp up the country's fight against drugs by bolstering its police force with more personnel and heavy weaponry.

US Coast Guard's last lighthouse keeper looks to 300-year milestone

A singular lighthouse and its unique keeper are celebrating a milestone.

Conservation groups trample on native people

Some of the world's leading conservation groups are violating the rights of indigenous people by backing projects that oust them from their ancestral homes in the name of environmental preservation, a top UN expert said this week.

Teheran-Riyadh war of words heats up as Iranians miss pilgrimage

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi authorities of "bigoted extremism" late on Tuesday in an increasingly bitter war of words over Iran's exclusion from this year's hajj pilgrimage.

50 million children 'uprooted' worldwide

Almost 50 million children around the world are "uprooted", forcibly displaced from their home countries by war, violence or persecution, the United Nations children's program said on Wednesday.

Koizumi: Fukushima not 'under control'

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's promise that the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was "under control" in his successful pitch three years ago for Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games "was a lie", former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday.

Happy landings: 3 ISS crew members back on Earth

After watching more than 2,750 sunrises from above the Earth, three crew members of the International Space Station returned to the planet for a sparkling sunrise back on Earth on Wednesday.

Aiming for closer Lao ties, Obama honors its culture

Aiming to cement closer ties to Laos, US President Barack Obama toured a Buddhist temple on Wednesday and paid tribute to Lao culture after pledging Washington would fulfill its "profound moral and humanitarian obligation" to clean up millions of unexploded bombs.