IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Afghanistan

Two service members killed

A man in an Afghan police uniform on Thursday shot dead a NATO service member in the east of the country, the second such killing in less than a month, the alliance said.

Separately, another NATO service member died following an insurgent attack, also on Thursday in eastern Afghanistan, the volatile second front of the nearly decade-long war in this country. Most of the fighting takes place in southern Afghanistan. NATO did not provide details or nationalities of the two deceased, pending notification of their relatives.

The international coalition said the first killing occurred "when an individual wearing an Afghan National Police uniform turned his weapon against" the NATO soldier.

Haiti

Tropical storm damages homes

Tropical Storm Emily caused flooding and damaged hundreds of homes in Haiti on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of vulnerable earthquake victims around the capital waited nervously in flimsy shanties and tents for the full brunt of the storm.

Strong winds whipped through palm trees in the capital while heavier rains fell further north, damaging homes as well as a cholera treatment center, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, the country's civil defense director. But there were no reports of deaths.

The storm was nearly stationary off the coast of the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, but forecasters said they expected it to head north-northwest.

Australia

Fake bomb chained on teen

Police were hunting on Thursday for a masked man who chained a fake bomb to a young woman's neck after breaking into her wealthy family's home in an extortion attempt that Australia's prime minister said resembled "a Hollywood script".

In a climactic scene late on Wednesday, bomb squad specialists safely freed Madeleine Pulver after 10 harrowing hours with the device attached around her neck. The 18-year-old was not hurt and police later determined the device contained no explosives.

A note of demands had been attached to the device, New South Wales State Police Detective Superintendent Luke Moore said, though he declined to specify what the demands were.

AP-AFP

(China Daily 08/05/2011 page12)