IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Ukraine

Kiev claims new Russian incursion

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that more Russian soldiers had crossed the border into eastern Ukraine, entering the small town of Amvrosiyivka in five armored infantry carriers and a truck. The report of a further cross-border incursion by Russian troops followed the capture by Ukrainian government forces of a group of Russian paratroopers in roughly the same area. Moscow said the captured troops had strayed into Ukraine by mistake, but Kiev said they had been on a "special mission" linked to the separatist rebellions in the east.

India

Woman, 56, wins fight with leopard

A 56-year-old Indian woman is recovering in a hospital after killing a leopard that attacked her as she tended her fields armed only with a sickle. The woman said she battled with the leopard for a half hour on Sunday morning before finally delivering a killer blow with her sickle. "The leopard lunged at me many times and we fought for a long time," she told Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN from her hospital bed in the northern state of Uttarakhand, her arms bandaged and a large scar across her right cheek.

United Nations

Report slams Syrian atrocities

Mass atrocities by government forces and nonstate armed groups continued to take place in Syria, inflicting immeasurable suffering to civilians, said a UN report released on Wednesday. The latest report, from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, noted the brutality and human cost of the ongoing conflict on the basis of 480 interviews and documentary materials. "Hundreds of civilians are dying each day as the fighting goes on with no regard to law or to conscience," said Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the commission, in a statement.

Reuters - AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 08/28/2014 page12)