IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Pakistan

7 police officers killed in attacks

The Pakistani Taliban killed five police officers in a rocket attack in the country's southwest, authorities and a Taliban spokesman said Friday. Another Taliban attack on a police bus in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, killed two police officers and wounded 14. Militants fired a rocket late Thursday at a vehicle carrying five police officers in the Loralai district of southwestern Baluchistan province, killing all five officers, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani said on Friday.

Bangladesh

10 pilgrims die in stampede

At least 10 Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens more were injured in a stampede outside the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Friday, police and witnesses said. The stampede occurred on the banks of the Brahmaputra River, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had converged for ritual bathing during an annual Hindu festival. Police said seven women and three men were confirmed dead.

United Nations

3 nations declared free of measles

Cambodia, Brunei and Japan have eliminated measles, according to a joint statement on Friday from the World Health Organization and the Cambodian Ministry of Health. The statement said there have been no laboratory-confirmed measles cases in Cambodia since November 2011.

Cambodia

3 convicted in kidney trafficking

A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced three people to between 10 and 15 years in prison for organ trafficking, after they persuaded poor Cambodians to sell their kidneys to wealthy compatriots undergoing dialysis in Thailand. The court also ordered the trio to pay $7,000 to each of their victims. The convictions were the first for organ trafficking in the nation.

United States

Japanese PM to address Congress

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will address a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives on April 29, becoming the first Japanese leader to do so. Abe will spend eight days on a state visit. US House Speaker John Boehner said Abe's speech will be an opportunity for US citizens to hear from a close ally about ways to expand cooperation on economic and security priorities.

Cat litter blamed in radiation leak

A radiation leak at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico was caused by "chemically incompatible" contents, including cat litter, that reacted inside a barrel of waste, causing it to rupture, scientists said on Thursday. The US Energy Department report on last year's radiation accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant showed that a drum of waste containing radioisotopes like plutonium was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe before arriving for disposal.

AP - AFP - Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 03/28/2015 page11)