IN BRIEF (Page 12)

JAPAN

US to return land in Okinawa

The United States military plans to return a portion of land in Okinawa to the Japanese government by the end of the year, the largest transfer since 1972, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday. Carter made the announcement during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. A senior US defense official said the US plans to return nearly 4,000 hectares of land in northern Okinawa, with a formal ceremony set for Dec 21 and 22.

INDIA

Supporters mourn star politician

Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the hugely popular south Indian actress who later turned to politics and became the highest elected official in the state of Tamil Nadu, died on Monday. She was 68. The Apollo Hospital in the southern Indian city of Chennai said Jayalalithaa died at 11:30 pm after undergoing surgery following a heart attack hours earlier. Thousands of Jayalalithaa's supporters, wailing and crying, had gathered outside the hospital to pray for her recovery. Police were deployed across the state to ensure security out of fear that her death could trigger widespread violence and riots.

FRANCE

Cazeneuve takes over as Valls quits

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was appointed as the new prime minister on Tuesday after Manuel Valls resigned to seek the Socialist nomination in next year's presidential election. Cazeneuve, who has overseen the reaction to jihadist attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over the past two years, will take control of the Socialist government until the election in May. The former lawyer was named after President Francois Hollande accepted Valls's resignation on Tuesday.

UNITED STATES

Dad gets life for son's car death

A father was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on Monday for leaving his toddler son to die in a hot car while he sent sexually explicit messages from his office. Justin Ross Harris, 36, was given the maximum sentence after lead prosecutor Chuck Boring said 22-month-old Cooper Harris perished in "the most torturous, horrific, unimaginable way possible". Harris has said he forgot to drop his son off at a daycare center in Georgia on June 18, 2014 and didn't realize he had left the boy strapped in his car seat until after he had left work.

Reuters - Ap - Afp

(China Daily 12/07/2016 page12)