IN BRIEF (Page 12)

India

100m more defined as poor

An additional 100 million Indians have been classified as poor by an expert panel that has reset the country's poverty benchmark after a storm of protests over an earlier proposal from the government, news reports said on Monday. The government-appointed panel estimated that nearly 30 percent of India's mammoth population - or 363 million people - were living in poverty in 2011 and 2012, after raising the poverty line proposed by the Planning Commission, the country's top economic planning body.

Australia

Court blocks return of refugees

A high court on Monday barred Australia from handing back a boat carrying 153 asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka, a day after Canberra returned another vessel following a week of secrecy. The interim injunction from a late-night judicial hearing applies at least until the hearing resumes on Tuesday afternoon. It was granted after lawyers argued that the transfer at sea was illegal. Refugee advocates claim the asylum-seekers have been deprived of the ability to have their claims for refugee status properly vetted, with their screenings reportedly being carried out at sea via video link.

Japan

Alert issued for super-typhoon

Japan's weather agency on Monday extended its highest alert to Okinawa's populous main island as super-typhoon Neoguri approached, saying it may be one of the worst storms in decades. The top-level warning means the typhoon poses a threat to life and could inflict massive damage from gusts of up to 270 kph and torrential rains. There are about 1.2 million residents on the main island. An earlier alert covered only the Miyako Island with a population of 53,000.

Lebanon

28 charged for jihadist ties

Lebanon on Monday charged 28 people, including a Saudi citizen and two French nationals, with belonging to the jihadist Islamic State group, a judicial source said. The men, only seven of whom are in custody, also face charges of seeking to carry out suicide attacks, said the source. A Saudi citizen and one of the French nationals were arrested in June, on the basis of US intelligence, as Lebanon was rocked by three suicide bombings in less than a week.

Mexico

Quake felt in wide area; 3 die

A magnitude-7.1 earthquake on the Pacific Coast rocked a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America. It hit on the Pacific Coast 8 km northeast of Puerto Madero, near the Guatemala border. At least three people were killed in the Guatemalan town of San Marcos.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 07/08/2014 page12)