IN BRIEF (Page 11)

China

Govt blasts shrine visits

Beijing expressed outrage on Tuesday over Japanese lawmakers' visits that day to the Yasukuni Shrine. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the shrine is Japan's negative asset, and that it damages relations between Japan and its neighbors. The shrine, which 146 Japanese lawmakers visited on Tuesday, honors Japan's 14 Class-A war criminals from World War II.

India

Treatment of kids criticized

Some Indian teachers force children from lower castes and minority religions to clean toilets and sit apart from their classmates as part of "persistent" discrimination in classrooms, a rights group said on Tuesday. Human Rights Watch said students from marginalized communities often drop out of school and work as laborers rather than face continued humiliation at the hands of teachers and principals.

South Sudan

Rebels dismiss massacre claims

South Sudanese rebels rejected on Tuesday UN accusations that they massacred hundreds of civilians in ethnic killings when they captured a key oil town last week, turning the blame instead on the government. "The government forces and their allies committed these heinous crimes while retreating," rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said.

Somalia

Extremists kill legislator

Two gunmen belonging to an Islamic extremist group shot and killed a Somali legislator on Monday as he stepped out of his home in the capital, the second fatal attack on a member of Parliament in as many days, police said. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility in a radio broadcast for the attack on Abdiaziz Isaq Mursal.

Italy

Over 1,000 migrants saved

Italy has rescued over 1,000 migrants over the past 48 hours, the navy said on Tuesday, amid rising criticism from the political right over the high cost of the operation. The Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) operation, launched in October, plucks people from floundering vessels in the Mediterranean Sea almost daily at a cost of 9 million euros ($12.4 million) a month, according to Italian media reports.

Turkey

Syrian refugees 'almost 1 million'

The number of Syrians who have fled their country's war for Turkey has reached "almost 1 million", Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, pledging to keep accepting the refugees. "Are we supposed to ask our brothers not to come and to die in Syria?" Erdogan said as he addressed his party's lawmakers in the National Assembly.

AP-AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 04/23/2014 page11)