IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Guinea

Ebola outbreak could linger

Ebola could continue to spread in West Africa for months in one of the most challenging outbreaks of the disease the international community has ever faced, health experts said on Tuesday. Dr Keiji Fukuda of the World Health Organization said that the current outbreak is remarkable for the wide area over which it has spread - from Guinea's remote tropical forests to the country's capital and over the border to Liberia.

Italy

Nation rescuing boat migrants

Italy has rescued about 4,000 immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean by boats to reach its shores in the past two days, the interior minister said on Wednesday, calling the crisis "increasingly glaring". "The landings are nonstop. ... Right now two merchant ships are rescuing two boats with 300 and 361 people aboard. It appears there's at least one corpse on board," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said.

Japan

251 whales killed in last hunt

Japan killed 251 minke whales during the 2014 Antarctic hunt, in what is expected to be the last "research whaling" mission in the Southern Ocean after an international court ruling. According to Japan's Fisheries Agency, the catch was more than double last year's tally of 103 minke whales, but much smaller than the target of 935.

India

Mars mission at halfway point

India's maiden Mars mission, Mangalyaan, crossed the halfway mark on Wednesday en route to the red planet, sources in the state-owned space agency said on Wednesday. "Mangalyaan crossed the halfway mark at 9:50 am local time. If everything goes well, then it will reach Mars on Sept 24 this year as scheduled. It has traveled 337.5 million km so far," the sources said.

AP-AFP-Xinhua

(China Daily 04/10/2014 page11)