IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Iran

Thousands mourn late president

Hundreds of thousands of mourners led by Iran's supreme leader gathered at Teheran University early on Tuesday for the funeral of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. State television showed people pouring on to the streets around the campus where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the eulogies for Rafsanjani despite their "differences". The heavyweight politician, who died on Sunday at the age of 82, will be buried inside the crypt of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, was a father figure for Iran's moderate and reformist camps.

Mexico

Nation seeks to tame prices

Mexico's government, business leaders and agricultural groups agreed on Monday to prevent increases in the cost of basic goods after a gasoline price hike sparked daily and sometimes violent protests. As thousands marched again in Mexico City, President Enrique Pena Nieto did not signal any backpedaling on the government's unpopular decision to increase gasoline prices by up to 20.1 percent. The government will apply austerity measures including a cut in the salaries of senior officials by 10 percent in addition to a previously announced 1.7 percent budget reduction.

Myanmar

13 killed, 18 injured in highway crash

Thirteen people have been killed and 18 others injured in a truck crash on a highway near Nay Phi Taw, Myanmar's capital, local police said on Tuesday. The six-wheeler, carrying 32 people as well as a cargo of bamboo, crashed and overturned on Monday evening. The victims, all villagers returning from logging, fell into a deep gorge near the highway, police said. The injured were treated at a hospital A mechanical failure was blamed for the crash.

(China Daily 01/11/2017 page12)