IN BRIEF (Page 12)

South Korea

Bridge collapse kills 2 Chinese

Two Chinese workers were killed and another was injured when a bridge that was under construction collapsed, police said on Tuesday. The accident occurred at around 1 pm local time on the southern part of Banghwa Bridge in western Seoul on Tuesday. A piece of heavy equipment fell from the bridge and crushed the workers, according to local media reports.

United States

Israel, Palestine hold direct talks

Israeli and Palestinian officials met for direct talks for the first time in three years Monday, with the United States urging both sides to make the tough compromises needed to reach a peace deal. In a symbolic message of peace and tolerance, Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erakat, sat down side-by-side opposite US Secretary of State John Kerry to share a traditional Muslim itfar meal just after sunset.

Pakistan

Taliban fighters stage jailbreak

In an operation carried out with militarylike precision, Taliban fighters disguised as police and armed with bombs broke 250 prisoners out of a Pakistan jail on Tuesday with the help of what appeared to be insider informants. The attack in the city of Dera Ismail Khan showed the ability of the al-Qaida-linked Pakistani Taliban to strike at the heart of Pakistan's heavily guarded prison system.

Ghana

Three children locked in house

Ghana police are questioning a couple who locked their three children in a house in Accra for years possibly to try to protect them from society's evil, a police inspector said on Tuesday. Acting on a tip, police broke into the four-bedroom house in the Madina neighborhood of Ghana's capital, Accra, and rescued the children, aged 8, 6 and 2, who had been living in the house with their parents, a sheep, a goat and dogs.

AFP - Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 07/31/2013 page12)