World in brief: Sale of leukemia drug suspended

China’s drug watchdog announced Saturday it has suspended the sale of a drug used to treat acute leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis in the latest move to hit the country’s scandal-ridden drug industry.

The Chinese government has been trying to toughen its drug regulation amid mounting criticism – at home and abroad – that the quality of its drug, food and other products is poorly regulated.

In the past week alone, a former department head at the State Food and Drug Administration was sentenced to death on bribery charges, and it was announced that production licenses of five drug makers had been pulled over the last year and that 128 others had been penalized.

In a notice posted late Saturday on its Web site, the State Food and Drug Administration said it had suspended the sale of methotrexate made by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Paris

‘Housewives’ star heads down aisle

The sun smiled on Tony Parker and Eva Longoria’s wedding day, breaking through after days of gray Paris skies. Their VIP guests, though, were concealed by big black umbrellas.

Glamour and security went hand-in-hand as the NBA champion and star of “Desperate Housewives” exchanged vows Saturday in a church across from the Louvre Museum.

The Roman Catholic ceremony at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church – frequented by French royalty in centuries past – was stage two in a weekend wedding extravaganza.

First, the mayor of Paris pronounced Parker, 25, and Longoria, 32, husband and wife in a civil ceremony Friday. Then, a priest married them Saturday afternoon. Following that: an exclusive bash at a storied French chateau.

Lochgoilhead, Scotland

BBC reporter back with family

BBC reporter Alan Johnston was reunited with his family Saturday after four months as a hostage in the Gaza Strip and said one of the hardest parts about his ordeal was imagining his parents’ anguish.

“I felt that I had brought the very worst of the world’s troubles into their normally peaceful lives,” Johnston, still looking gaunt, told reporters outside his parents’ home in Scotland.

But “one of the better moments” was when one of his captors allowed him to watch television and he saw his father, Graham, speaking at a news conference.

“It was just dad at his best, in the depth of a crisis, calm and dignified and so strong. I was so relieved,” he said.

Johnston, 45, was seized in March by a small armed group, the Army of Islam, and freed Wednesday.