IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Japan

Fukushima plant finds 2nd leak

Radioactive water has apparently leaked from another underground storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday. The utility, known as Tepco, said the volume of the latest leakage is believed to be small. On Saturday, it said as much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from another nearby storage tank.

Afghanistan

US diplomat killed in attack

A car bomb blast killed five US citizens, including three soldiers and a young diplomat, on Saturday, while a US civilian died in a separate attack in the east. The diplomat, whose name was not released, and the others killed were in a convoy of vehicles in Zabul province when the blast occurred, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Nigeria

Gunmen ambush police in boat

Nigerian militants ambushed a police boat in the oil-producing Niger Delta region over the weekend, and 12 policemen are missing from the boat, police said on Sunday. Police Commissioner Kingsley Omire said the boat carrying 50 police officials was headed to a funeral late on Friday when it developed engine problems in one of the winding creaks of swampy delta region.

Syria

Airstrike kills 9 children

A Syrian government airstrike killed 15 people on Saturday, including nine children, in a district of Aleppo where Kurdish fighters have been battling forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, a violence monitoring group said. The watchdog said a warplane had bombarded the western edges of the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

Rebels urged to seek Sharia law

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Syrian rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in the war-torn country, in an audio message posted online on Sunday. "Let your fight be in the name of Allah and with the aim of establishing Allah's sharia (law) as the ruling system," he said in his first message on the Internet since November last year.

India

9 arrested for illegal building

Police say they've arrested nine people for colluding to illegally construct the residential building in India's financial capital that collapsed, killing 74 people. Police commissioner K.P. Raghuvanshi said on Sunday that they will be charged with culpable homicide and causing death by negligence at the end of an investigation into the accident.

Reuters -AFP

(China Daily 04/08/2013 page12)