US evangelist Billy Graham's son visits North Korea :

The son of veteran U.S. evangelist Billy Graham arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to deliver aid to the impoverished country more than six months after the isolated regime kicked out all American humanitarian groups.

Billy Graham's family has had relations with the communist North for years. The senior Graham went to North Korea in 1992 and in 1994 at the invitation of late North Korean President Kim Il Sung, father of current leader Kim Jong Il.


The North's official Korean Central News Agency also reported on Graham's arrival Tuesday in a brief dispatch, quoting him as saying at the airport that he made the visit to "play the role of a bridge for better relations" between the two countries.

Graham leads the U.S.-based aid group Samaritan's Purse, which has provided the impoverished North with more than $10 million in aid since 1997.

Pterodactyl fossil fills gaps in evolutionary tale :

Scientists say a very rare find of some 20 fossilized pterodactyls has produced the first clear evidence of a controversial theory of evolution.

The fossils were found in north-east China earlier this year, embedded in rock dating back 160 million years, and have been called "Darwinopterus" after the renowned naturalist Charles Darwin.


The creature's discovery has astounded scientists because their age puts them within two recognized groups of pterodactyls -- primitive long-tailed forms and advanced short-tail forms -- and they display characteristics of both.

The combination of features indicates that the primitive pterodactyls evolved relatively quickly, and that certain groups of features changed at the same time.

Dutch tourists die in China balloon crash :

Four Dutch tourists died in the crash Wednesday in Guilin, a popular tourist spot, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Five of the balloon's passengers were foreigners, all of them Dutch nationals, four of whom died in the tragedy.

The balloon is one of three carrying a total 18 Dutch tourists for a 45-minute tour of Lipu County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It was returning to Guilin when the accident happened.


Investigators say the balloon hit trees while it was trying to land and caused a fuel bottle to leak. The fuel then caused the fire.

Cuba Won't Let Blogger Travel To U.s :

A Cuban blogger who has criticized her government has been denied permission to travel to New York to pick up a prestigious journalism award

Yoani Sanchez had hoped to go to Columbia University for a Wednesday ceremony to receive her Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the oldest international award in journalism.

In May, Cuban authorities denied Sanchez permission to fly to Madrid to accept the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating Generation Y, which gets more than 1 million hits a month. Around the same time, Time magazine deemed Sanchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Her commentaries shed light on taboo topics such as harassment and the thriving black market. And she is openly critical of the government. In one recent entry, she complained she can't find detergent in stores despite warnings about the spread of H1N1 flu.