IN BRIEF (Page 11)

France

Yingluck meets exiled brother

Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra reunited on Thursday with her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier who is living in self-exile in Paris, Thai media reported. Yingluck departed from Thailand early on Thursday morning to start a vacation in Europe which would last about 20 days. She was later greeted by Thaksin, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup and fled Thailand in 2008 to avoid a two-year jail term, at a Paris airport.

Norway

Police warn of militant attack

Militant Islamists with fighting experience in Syria may be planning an attack in Norway in the coming days, police said on Thursday as they deployed armed units at borders, airports and railway stations. A small group of Norway-based militants who have gained combat experience in conflicts around the globe have become the biggest threat to the Nordic nation and up to 50 have traveled to Syria in recent years, police said.

India

Train rams bus, killing 20 people

A passenger train rammed into a school bus in southern India on Thursday killing 20 people, mostly young children, officials said in the latest fatal accident on the country's rail network. The train collided with the bus carrying about 30 children as it drove across an unmanned level crossing in the state of Telangana, dragging the mangled vehicle down the tracks, officials said. "There are 20 confirmed dead based on railway inputs. A lot of people who are critically injured were shifted to different hospitals," said K Samba Siva Rao, a spokesman for South Central Railway.

Venezuela

Opposition leader on trial

A top leader of the anti-government protests that wracked Venezuela for months this spring is getting his day in court. Opposition firebrand Leopoldo Lopez went on trial on Wednesday charged with inciting violence at early demonstrations. Lopez was arrested in February after he spoke at a rally that saw some activists clash with police after most protesters had gone home. The demonstration marked the start of three months of deadly street protests.

United States

Suspected Nazi guard dies

German efforts to prosecute aging war criminals suffered a setback this week with the death of a retired Philadelphia toolmaker who had long been in the crosshairs of Nazi hunters. Bavarian prosecutors had hoped to extradite 89-year-old Johann "Hans" Breyer over his alleged service as a Waffen SS guard at Auschwitz in 1944. However, Breyer died at a Philadelphia hospital on Tuesday, hours before a US judge approved the extradition request.

Xinhua - AP - AFP

(China Daily 07/25/2014 page11)