11.   Filipinos are eating less rice because of a combination of poverty and the influence of fast foods, the agriculture secretary said Wednesday.

12.   Health authorities are set to inspect two former U.S. military bases after claims that toxic wastes may have been buried there, the Philippine health secretary said Thursday.

13.   Kabila was in Bukavu but sent an envoy to represent him in Cape Town, said his secretary, Moise Nyarubebo Muhizi.

14.   Nasir denied making the remark, said the secretary general of the ministry, Zawawi Mahmuddin.

15.   North Korean embassy spokesman Cho Yong Man said third secretary Hyun Sung Il failed to arrive at his embassy office as scheduled on Friday.

16.   Scheffer, who was with Albright when she visited Rwanda Thursday, said the secretary only found out about the deadly attack after her departure for neighboring Congo.

17.   She died of cancer after an illness of less than a year, said her secretary at the embassy, Waesia Sawicka.

18.   She died on Tuesday after an illness of less than a year, said her secretary at the embassy, Waesia Sawicka.

19.   South Korea is on the verge of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said the secretary general of the Paris-based think tank.

20.   The government will soon lift a ban on Filipino maids going to work in Singapore as the two nations normalize relations, the Philippine foreign secretary said Tuesday.