IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Japan

Anti-militarist feeling grows

A poll conducted in Japan has shown that 55.4 percent of interviewees are against the attempt to allow the country to exercise the right of collective self-defense, up from 48.1 percent the previous month. The nation wide telephone survey, which was conducted by Kyodo News Agency on Saturday and Sunday, found that only 34.5 percent support the controversial move. In the meantime, 57.7 percent of respondents are against Abe's move to lift the ban on collective self-defense by reinterpreting the Pacifist Constitution, instead of amending it.

Egypt

180 Islamists to be executed

An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed death sentences for more than 180 Islamists, including Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, after a mass trial that sparked an international outcry. The court in the central city of Minya initially sentenced 683 people to death, but on Saturday commuted death sentences of four defendants to life in prison and acquitted 496 others, prosecutor Abdel Rahim Abdel Malik said.

Nepal

US national gang-raped

A US national was allegedly gang-raped in Nepal's capital Kathmandu on June 14, police revealed on Sunday. The victim was reportedly raped at the Global Hotel in Thamel, located in Kathmandu's tourism hub. She filed a charge sheet against the accused on June 15. The woman, in her 40s, was in Nepal on a business visa and was in a relationship with a Nepali national allegedly involved in the rape case. Two men have been arrested in relation to the crime, both denying the charges.

Poland

Report: 'US ties worthless'

A Polish magazine says it has obtained recordings of a conversation in which Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says the country's strong alliance with the US "isn't worth anything" and is "even harmful because it creates a false sense of security." A short transcript of the conversation was released on Sunday by Wprost, a weekly magazine that set off a political storm last weekend with the publication of secret recordings of other top officials making compromising remarks.

Malaysia

Boat accidents kill 16 people

Malaysian maritime authorities recovered the body of an Indonesian woman on Sunday, raising the confirmed death toll from two boat accidents to 16. Two boats taking illegal immigrants back to neighboring Indonesia's Sumatra island for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan capsized early on Wednesday off Malaysia's west coast in two separate incidents. Sixteen people are confirmed dead, while 83 others have been rescued so far and 25 remain missing.

Xinhua - AFP - AP

(China Daily 06/23/2014 page11)