World News for Students of English

13-03-2015 15:00

Russian customs thought they had drugs on them, but after detaining 34 Chinese citizens at a Moscow airport, it turned out that they’d mistaken something used to make Chinese tofu for crystal meth, as one of the detained passengers Song explains.

“It’s not crystal meth as some media said, but it a kind of food additive called beton, which people use in making tofu.”

Earlier, Russian media reports claimed he and those detained with him had 230 kilograms of crystal meth on them.

The Chinese embassy in Russia had to get involved. They said the Russian customs carried out tests on the substance to make sure it wasn’t crystal meth. The passengers from China were sent to Russia by a Chinese company in the Northeast. All 34 of them have now been released.

Difficult words: customs (the place where your bags are checked when you go into a country), detain (to stop somebody), crystal meth (a drug), additive (something which you add – put into food), claim (to say), embassy (people who represent their country in a foreign country), substance (a thing, material).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com