IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Pakistan

Militants torch primary schools

Militants set fire to two primary schools in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Tuesday as authorities extended winter holidays amid threats of attacks, officials said. The incident comes two weeks after the massacre of 150 people at an army-run school in Peshawar, where 134 children were among the victims gunned down by Taliban militants. The pre-dawn arson attacks took place in two villages in the Kurram tribal district, where Taliban insurgent activity and violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims are rife.

DPRK

Leader guides rocket-firing drill

Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un recently guided a multiple-rocket firing drill, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Kim was satisfied with the drill by the women's subunits of the Korean People's Army Unit 851 and praised the women artillery as "crack shots". He warned that a war may break out right now and the military should be well prepared, via intensified drills.

Russia

Top critic found guilty of fraud

Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday received a suspended sentence in a fraud case, but saw his younger brother jailed in a move that he angrily denounced a "disgrace". A court found both brothers guilty of embezzling money from French cosmetics firm Yves Rocher and sentenced both to three and a half years. But while Judge Yelena Korobchenko suspended Navalny's sentence, his younger brother was ordered to serve time and handcuffed in the courtroom.

United States

Bush awaits to be discharged

Former US president George H.W. Bush is breathing normally and awaiting doctors' approval to be discharged from a Houston hospital where he has been receiving treatment for nearly a week, his spokesman said on Monday. The 90-year-old former president was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital on Dec 23 after experiencing shortness of breath and has remained there under observation.

Japan

Ruling coalition approves tax cuts

Japan's ruling coalition has approved a tax reform plan that will cut corporate taxes from April and pledges further reductions in coming years in a bid by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost profitability and bolster economic growth. The plan approved by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito on Tuesday would cut the overall effective corporate tax rate by 2.51 percentage points to 32.1 percent from April and then to 31.3 percent the following year.

AFP - Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 12/31/2014 page12)