IN BRIEF (Page 11)

China Daily | Updated: 2014-07-17 07:08

Mexico

Kids saved from vile refuge

Mexico announced on Tuesday that it rescued 458 children from a vermin-infested refuge for abandoned boys and girls, some of whom it believes had been sexually abused. The attorney general's office said the police and army raided a home known as La Gran Familia, or The Big Family, in the western city of Zamora on Tuesday, following at least 50 complaints about its operators. Infested by rats, bedbugs and fleas, the refuge was run by Rosa Verduzco, who is now being questioned by authorities.

Pakistan

US drone strike kills at least 20

A US drone strike on Wednesday morning killed at least 20 people and injured several others in Pakistan's northwest tribal town of Datta Khel, local media reported. Express TV said four missile strikes, coming from an unknown number of unmanned aircraft, pounded a compound of suspected militants in North Waziristan, a restive tribal region on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Also on Wednesday, Pakistan said its jets killed 35 suspected militants as part of an anti-Taliban offensive.

United States

Obama, Merkel exchange views

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone, vowing to improve intelligence cooperation between the two countries. Obama and Merkel exchanged views on US-German intelligence cooperation during their first conversation since a new revelation of US spying damaged the allies' relations. Obama said he would remain in close communication on ways to push cooperation forward, according to a White House statement.

Britain

660 pedophile suspects held

Police forces across Britain have arrested 660 suspected pedophiles during a six-month covert operation targeting people accessing indecent images of children online, Britain's National Crime Agency said on Wednesday. Doctors, teachers, youth leaders, care workers and former police officers were among those held in the action, which involved 45 police forces from around the United Kingdom.

AP - AFP - Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 07/17/2014 page11)