WORLD IN BRIEF: China: Animal food tainted

The industrial chemical melamine, under scrutiny in recent tainted milk and egg scandals, is commonly added to animal feed in China to fake higher protein levels, state media reported Thursday in a tacit admission by the government that the country’s food supply could be rife with contamination. The Nanfang Daily said it was an “open secret” in the industry that melamine scrap is being repackaged into an inexpensive product called “protein powder” that is sold to food suppliers.

Vietnam abandons motorbike rules

Faced with mounting public criticism, Vietnam’s Health Ministry suspended a widely ridiculed plan to ban short, thin and small-chested motorbike drivers. When the plan hit the media this week, it prompted disbelief and scorn among members of the public, who envisioned the police pulling over female drivers to measure their busts.

Vatican moves on pedophile issue

The Vatican issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians Thursday —- the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of pedophile scandals. The guidelines stress that if a future priest shows “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” his seminary training “would have to be interrupted.” They also say priests must have a “positive and stable sense of one’s masculine identity” and the capacity to “integrate his sexuality in accordance” with the obligation of celibacy.

Missiles found in Sinai desert

An Egyptian security official said police discovered eight surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles in an underground bunker in the northern Sinai desert. It not uncommon for police to find explosives, light weapons and mines in the Sinai. But they rarely report discovering missiles. Most of the weapons are believed to be intended to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

Sainthood for Pius could be stalled

Rabbi Ravid Rosen said after a meeting with Jewish leaders on Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI had agreed to give “serious consideration” to a request to freeze the sainthood process for wartime Pope Pius XII. Some Jewish leaders and historians have said Pius didn’t speak out enough during World War II to save Jews from Hitler’s extermination campaign.

Peacekeepers fired on in Darfur

Gunmen opened fire Wednesday night on a group of South African peacekeepers guarding a well in Sudan’s violence-torn Darfur region, killing one and seriously wounding another. The death raised to at least 11 the number of peacekeepers killed since the U.N.-African Union mission deployed this year.

Israelis knock down West Bank shacks

The Israeli army knocked down shacks in a West Bank village for the second straight day Thursday, leaving dozens of Palestinian Bedouins homeless, a United Nations official said. The Israeli military said the structures were built in a closed military zone without permits and that the villagers were warned in advance. Forty-five people lost their homes Wednesday in a village near Hebron, and Thursday’s operation in the village of Mughayir el Dir, 8 miles northeast of Jerusalem, destroyed 25 homes and left dozens more homeless, the U.N. said.

Pirates seize Turkish freighter

Pirates hijacked a Turkish freighter, the M/V Yasa Neslihan, with 20 crew members off the coast of Somalia, but at least six other ships have fended off pirate attacks in the last two days, officials said Thursday. At least 77 ships have been attacked in the African waters this year. Thirty-one ships have been hijacked, and 10 remain in the hands of pirates along with nearly 200 crew members.