IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Israel

Air force bombs Gaza targets

Israeli aircraft attacked at least six militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hours after rockets fired from the Palestinian territory set a factory in Israel on fire, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Palestinian medics said two people were wounded in airstrikes on eight sites. Israeli officials said only six sites were bombed. Three people were injured in the attack on the Israeli factory, a paint manufacturing plant in the southern town of Sderot that caught fire, police said.

Japan

Protester sets himself on fire

A man was badly injured after burning himself on Sunday at the crowded Shinjuku train station in Tokyo to protest against the Japanese government's attempt to exercise the rights to collective self-defense. The man was transferred to a hospital where he remained conscious, a local report said, citing local police that the man made a one-hour speech opposing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration and its efforts to lift the country's self-imposed ban on collective self-defense rights before burning himself on a bridge connecting buildings.

India

22 killed as buildings collapse

Police in southern India detained two construction company directors on Sunday as rescuers searched for dozens of workers believed buried in the rubble of a building that collapsed during monsoon rains. It was one of two weekend building collapses that killed at least 22 people. The 11-story apartment structure the workers were building collapsed on Saturday as heavy rain and lightning were pounding the outskirts of Chennai. Police said 31 construction workers had been pulled out so far.

Brazil

Anti-World Cup protests continue

Police in Brazil fired tear gas on Saturday to break up protests outside Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium, where Colombia and Uruguay were playing a World Cup knock-out-stage match. About 350 anti-World Cup protesters marched toward the Maracana, closely guarded by about 250 police, who fired tear gas to disperse them just as they came within sight of the stadium. Mass protests erupted just over a year ago in Brazil, drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to condemn the record $11 billion spent on the World Cup and shoddy schools, hospitals and public transport.

Ukraine

Rebels release OSCE observers

Separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine have released a second group of four monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who had been seized on May 29. The release on Saturday followed the freeing of another group of OSCE monitors early on Friday, and came after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a 72-hour extension to a cease-fire in the east.

Reuters - AFP - AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 06/30/2014 page11)