News in Brief (21-08-2018)

Thailand's Queen Mother admitted to hospital

BANGKOK, Aug 20: Thailand's 86-year-old Queen Mother Sirikit is being treated for influenza at a Bangkok hospital, the Royal Household Bureau said in a statement on Monday in a rare statement on her health. Sirikit, who was queen consort to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after seven decades on the throne, is mother to the current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 66. The queen has seldom been seen in public in recent years but last week the palace released photographs of Sirikit to mark her 86th birthday on Aug. 12. The queen was pictured with several of her children, including King Vajiralongkorn. Sirikit was admitted to Bangkok's Chulalongkorn Hospital on Sunday after developing a high fever and cough, the bureau said. — Reuters

China first internet court handles over 10,000 cases

HANGZHOU, Aug 20: China's first court specializing in Internet-related cases has handled more than 11,000 cases since its inception a year ago. The Hangzhou Internet Court, located in the e-commerce hub of Hangzhou was set up on August 18 last year to cope with increasing online disputes in a country with nearly 800 million internet users by the end of 2017. — Xinhua

Toll in flood-hit Kerala reaches 357

NEW DELHI, Aug 20: The death toll in India's floods-hit southern state of Kerala has risen to 357, even as rescue and relief work is being carried out on a war footing. Banana and paddy crops spread over 850 acres of land have been destroyed, said unofficial estimates. Nearly 250,000 people have been shifted to over 1500 relief camps. — Xinhua

S Koreans head for family reunions in North

SOKCHO, Aug 20: Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans entered the North Monday to meet relatives for the first time since the peninsula and their families were divided by war nearly seven decades ago. The three-day reunion - the first for three years - will take place at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort in North Korea, following a rapid diplomatic thaw between the neighbours. Millions of people were swept apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, which separated brothers and sisters, parents and children and husbands and wives. — AFP