IN BRIEF (Page 11)

China

VP Li meets Peruvian leader

Vice-President Li Yuanchao on Monday met with visiting Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso in Beijing. Li said China and Peru's newly upgraded comprehensive strategic partnership will chart a new direction for the development of bilateral relations. Humala said he is glad to work with China's new leaders, adding that he expects more fruitful cooperation between the two countries.

Indonesia

Court upholds death sentence

A British grandmother sentenced to death for trafficking drugs into Bali faces a last-ditch appeal to Indonesia's highest court to avoid the firing squad, after her first bid to lift the sentence was rejected on Monday. Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in January after cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.4 million was found in her suitcase as she arrived on a flight from Bangkok last May.

Syria

Suicide car bomb kills 15

A suicide car bomb exploded in the main business district of Damascus on Monday, killing at least 15 people, setting cars ablaze and damaging buildings, according to state television. A Damascus resident said large plumes of black smoke were rising from the Sabaa Bahrat district.

Afghanistan

Explosion under bus claims 9

A roadside bomb exploded under a bus in Afghanistan on Monday, killing nine civilians, police said, two days after 11 children and a woman were killed during a NATO attack on militants in another part of the country. Also over the weekend, a car bomb killed five US citizens in the southern province of Zabul.

Italy

37 arrested in Mafia haul

Italian authorities arrested 37 people accused of involvement in the Sicilian Mafia, including the mayor of a town on the island, police said on Monday. The arrests, on charges including organized crime and extortion, were ordered by the Palermo anti-Mafia office to tackle what police said was a network to control businesses in towns around Sicily's capital.

Xinhua-AFP-Reuter

(China Daily 04/09/2013 page11)