IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Canada

5 die in house party stabbing

A recent graduate of the University of Calgary was charged in the fatal stabbing of five people at a house party that the police chief called the worst mass slaying in the western Canadian city's history. Matthew Douglas de Grood, the son of a 33-year veteran of the Calgary police force, picked up a large knife shortly after arriving at the party and stabbed the victims one by one shortly after 1 am on Tuesday, said police Chief Rick Hanson.

India

Bus catches fire; 6 killed

Six people were burnt to death as a sleeper bus traveling from Davangere in the southern Indian state of Karnataka to Bangalore caught fire early on Wednesday, news channel CNN-IBN reported. According to the report, 29 passengers were on board, and the driver fled after the incident.

Australia

Govt to launch galactic study

The Australian government is planning to launch a new A$13 million ($12.2 million) instrument that will help astronomers explore the origins of the Milky Way at the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced on Wednesday. The instrument, known as "HERMES", can capture and analyze light from up to 400 stars or galaxies at the same time.

United States

Sides to meet over peace talks

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet on Wednesday to try to extend peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline, the US State Department said on Tuesday. The two sides will meet despite Israeli anger at the killing of an off-duty Israeli policeman in the occupied West Bank on Monday on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday. The policeman's wife and a child were wounded.

Iraq

Suicide attacks leave 8 dead

Officials in Iraq say suicide attacks against security forces in a restive western city have killed at least eight security personnel. A police officer says two suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into security checkpoints leading to the military operation command in the city of Ramadi on Wednesday, killing five soldiers and three police officers.

South Korea

Envoys discuss comfort women

Senior diplomats of South Korea and Japan started talks on Wednesday about Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women ahead of US President Barack Obama' s visit to the two countries next week. It was the first time the two countries held talks about the comfort women, a euphemism for women coerced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

AFP-Xinhua-Reuters

(China Daily 04/17/2014 page11)