IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Iraq

Checkpoint attack kills 31

Iraqi officials say the death toll from a late-night suicide attack targeting a police checkpoint in Baghdad has risen to 31, most of them civilians. The explosion also left at least 58 wounded. The bomber rammed his explosives-packed car into a checkpoint in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah where people lined up in cars for security checks en route to a revered Shiite shrine during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

United States

Scores arrested in crackdown

US officials have made almost 200 arrests and seized more than $625,000 in illicit profits in a monthlong crackdown on human smuggling in response to an influx of illegal immigration into Texas, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the campaign underscored the government's pledge that US borders were not open to illegal immigrants "and that if you enter the United States illegally, we will send you back".

AP - Reuters

(China Daily 07/24/2014 page12)