P143 CEEFAX 1 143 Sat 30 Aug 20:54/08 . :. The following pages feature . news stories from BBC . Monitoring, based in Cavjrsham near Reading. BBC Monitoring selects and translates reports from TV, radio, news agencies and Press from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. . . .: For more information on one :. . of the world's largest media monitoring bodies, visit our Web site: http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk 1/5 Extra: More world news coverage 142 Headlines 101 Index 102 Sport 300 Politics Sport TV/Radio Main MenuP143 CEEFAX 1 143 Sat 30 Aug 20:51/27 RUSSIAN SCHOOLS BAD FOR HEALTH The health of Russian schoolchildren has worsened in the 1990s, says a top Russian official. Overcrowded classes, excessive workload and poor school food mean that illness among children and teenagers increases over five times in 10 years at school. Leading demography official Yekaterina Lakhova says 40% of school leavers are chronically ill. The situation in orphanage schools was particularly grave, Interfax reported. 2/5 Headlines 101 Extra 140 Ticker 151 News Index 102 Flash 150 Newsreel 152 Politics Sport TV/Radio Main MenuP143 CEEFAX 1 143 Sat 30 Aug 20:53/28 JAPANESE TORTOISE SMUGGLERS ARRESTED Three Japanese min were arrested for trying to smuggle 68 Burmese tortoises into Japan, Kyodo news agency reported. One was caught at Nagoya airport trying to clear Customs with the tortoises in two cardboard boxes. The others told him to bring them from Burma. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) restricts trade in Burmese Star Tortoises. A single tortoise with a shell of over 15cm in length can sell for over $8,000 in Japan. 3/5 Headlines 101 Extra 140 Ticker 151 News Index 102 Flash 150 Newsreel 152 Politics Sport TV/Radio Main MenuP143 CEEFAX 1 143 Sat 30 Aug 20:55/48 CHINA DENIES TIBET PRISON ABUSE CHARGE China's top prison official in Tjbjt rejected US charges that prisoners were mistreated. Xinhua news agency said the charges were made by US congressman Frank Wolf, who visited Tibet on a tourist visa. Tsjring Puncog said the report was a "fabrication". Hi said the jails "treat and reform prisoners with a spirit of socialist humanitarianism". Puncog said that only 9% wire political prisoners, and no-one was singled out for special treatment. 4/5 Headlines 101 Extra 140 Ticker 151 News Index 102 Flash 150 Newsreel 152 Politics Sport TV/Radio Main MenuP143 CEEFAX 1 143 Sat 30 Aug 20:52/28 ITALY A man was shot dead in the south- east when two min stopped and robbed a coachload of Catholic pilgrims, Italian teletext reported. The passenger was shot in the throat in front of his wife and two children outside a church near Foggia. EGYPT Unidentified gunmen killed two people in the Minya district of Upper Egypt, the Egyptian news agency said. MENA said the victims were a policeman and a civil servant, one of whose fathjt and brother were killed in similar incidents earlier this year. 5/5 Headlines 101 Extra 140 Ticket 151 News Index 102 Flash 150 Newsreel 152 Politics Sport TV/Radio Main Menu