IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China Daily | Updated: 2014-11-13 08:03

Iran

Centrifuge test confirmed

Iran has confirmed it tested a new centrifuge that could speed up its enrichment of uranium but dismissed suggestions the move may have violated last year's nuclear deal with world powers, as suggested by a US think tank. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham gave no indication that Iran had stopped feeding natural uranium gas into the so-called IR-5 centrifuge.

Libya

Bombs injure at least 20

A Libyan army spokesman says two car bombs have gone off in the eastern city of Tobruk, where the nation's elected parliament is temporarily located, injuring at least 20. Mohammed Hegazi said the bombs exploded in front of an oil institute early on Wednesday but that it was not immediately clear how many people had been killed or injured. He said the attack was meant to "terrorize" state institutions and the parliament, as well as deliver a "we are here" message from militants.

Afghanistan

Opium crop hits record high

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan hit a record high this year, rising by 7 percent from 2013 and accounting for 90 percent of the world's heroin supply, officials and the United Nations said on Wednesday. The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report that the increased cultivation could produce 6,400 metric tons of opium, or 17 percent more than in 2013. Afghanistan's Minister for Counter-Narcotics Din Mohammad Mubariz Rashidi urged countries around the world to give fresh impetus to controlling opium production and trade.

Syria

Airstrikes kill more than 860

Coalition airstrikes led by the United States against the Islamic State and other extremists in Syria have killed more than 860 people, including civilians, since they began in mid-September, an activist group said on Wednesday. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vast majority those killed - 746 people - were Islamic State militants. At least 50 civilians, including eight children and five women, were also killed.

DPRK

Pyongyang slams ROK drill

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea criticized the Republic of Korea's ongoing military exercise, code-named "Hoguk", on Wednesday, saying the drill is in fact a "preliminary war". "The rehearsal is a nuclear test war for aggression on the DPRK in light of its scale and content," the secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said.

Xinhua - Reuters - AP

(China Daily 11/13/2014 page12)