IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Australia

Couple want their son back

An Australian couple at the center of a Thai surrogate scandal on Sunday denied they deliberately abandoned their baby son because he has Down syndrome and said they will fight to get him back. David Farnell, 56, a convicted child-sex offender and the biological father of the boy, Gammy, said he and his wife, Wendy, had "wanted to bring him with us". It was their first interview since sparking controversy after leaving the boy in Thailand with his 21-year-old Thai surrogate mother and taking only his healthy twin sister back home.

Romania

First Ebola suspect reported

A 51-year-old Romanian suspected of having contracted Ebola was admitted to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest on Sunday for further investigation, according to local media. The man is from Ploiesti, about 70 km north of Bucharest, the Romanian capital. He returned to Romania on July 25 from a business trip to Nigeria.

Philippines

Progress made on self-rule law

Peace negotiators for the Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group said on Sunday they had "reached agreement on substantial portions" of a draft self-rule law aimed at ending years of bloody rebellion. Both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels said in a joint statement they were committed to completing the draft bill by Aug 18 so it could be passed by Congress as soon as possible.

Afghanistan

4 civilians die in suicide attack

A suicide attacker targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul on Sunday, killing four civilians and wounding at least 35 others, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the capital as politicians wrangle over election results. The NATO force said none of its soldiers had been killed, but did not give any details of injuries in the blast, which came as foreign troops wind down combat operations at the end of a 13-year war against Taliban insurgents.

Netherlands

65 MH17 victims are identified

Dutch forensic experts have identified a total of 65 victims of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the government said on Saturday, as the last of the team investigating the crash returned from eastern Ukraine. Forty-two more victims were identified from remains taken from the crash site of the passenger jet, where an operation to recover victims' belongings has been halted because of intensifying clashes between Ukrainian troops and separatists.

AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 08/11/2014 page12)