IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China

VP to visit South America

Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao is to pay an official visit to Argentina and Venezuela from Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday. Li will visit the two South American countries from May 8 to 16 at the invitation of Argentine Vice-President and President of the Senate Amado Boudou and Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Arreaza, she said.

Ecuador

Govt tries to calm spat

Ecuador and Peru have decided to reassign their ambassadors in a bid to resolve a diplomatic crisis that broke out when the Ecuadoran envoy got into a fight with two women in a supermarket checkout line. Peru had asked Ecuador to recall Ambassador Rodrigo Riofrio over the April 21 skirmish, even after the ambassador apologized, though he insisted he did not start the scuffle.

United Kingdom

Queen to miss gathering

Queen Elizabeth II is cutting down on her traveling and will skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka later this year - the first time she's missed the biennial gathering since 1971, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday. The queen has long been a major supporter of the 54-nation Commonwealth.

Pakistan

Suicide bomber kills at least 9

A suicide bomber killed at least nine people and wounded a candidate campaigning in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, taking the death toll in the nation's bloody election build-up to more than 100.

AFP-AP-Reuters-Xinhua

(China Daily 05/08/2013 page12)