IN BRIEF (Page 8)

China

Yu: Disputes need resolution

Top political adviser Yu Zhengsheng said on Friday that prominent issues including those concerning history and the Diaoyu Islands must be properly resolved to improve Sino-Japanese ties. Yu made the remarks in a meeting a Japanese delegation headed by Takeshi Noda, a veteran lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Yu said the two countries should be "friendly neighbors" and overcome the current difficult situation by "efforts of both sides".

Syria

Govt troops enter old Homs

Syrian government troops have entered the last rebel-held districts of the old city district of Homs for the first time as part of a deal that also has granted opposition fighters safe passage out of the city. Homs Governor Talal Barazi said engineering units were combing the old neighborhoods of the city, including the former opposition stronghold of Hamidiyah, in search of mines and other explosive devices to dismantle.

United Kingdom

TV star charged with sex assaults

A prosecutor told a British court on Friday that veteran TV and music entertainer Rolf Harris got away with brazen sexual assaults on young girls because his fame made him untouchable. The 84-year-old celebrity is charged with 12 counts of indecent assault on four victims aged 19 or under between 1968 and 1986. Harris denies the charges.

Cambodia

Record 3 tons of ivory captured

Cambodian customs officials seized more than three metric tons of ivory on Friday - the country's biggest haul ever of elephant tusks. The contraband was hidden in a container of beans. The haul was made after the container was scanned at the southwestern port of Sihanoukville, said Bun Chiv, deputy head of the port's customs office. He declined to name where the container had been shipped from or where the tusks were going. Local media reported that the container was sent from Malaysia.

Saudi Arabia

Mystery virus claims 126 lives

Saudi Arabia's death toll from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has risen by four to 126 since the mystery virus first appeared in the kingdom in 2012, the health ministry said on Friday. Two men, aged 47 and 60, died in the western city of Medina on Wednesday; an 84-year-old man died in Mecca; and a fourth died in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

China Daily-AFP-AP

(China Daily 05/10/2014 page8)