IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Mexico

11 dead in latest gang violence

Mexican police found 11 people dead, apparently tortured, on carnival night in an eastern tourist town, the latest victims of drug-related gang violence, an official said on Wednesday. The nine men and two women were found in Boca del Rio in the violence-plagued state of Veracruz, state governor Miguel Angel Yunez told Oliva Radio station. They were found on Tuesday night just as thousands of people in the port city of Veracruz celebrated the annual carnival festival.

Thailand

Shooting kills 4, including boy

Police said gunmen in southern Thailand killed an 8-year-old boy, his parents and a relative when they shot at a truck carrying the family to a school. The attack happened on Thursday in Narathiwat, one of three southern provinces where separatists have been fighting a long-running insurgency in this predominantly Buddhist nation. About 7,000 people have been killed since the conflict escalated in 2004.

Sweden

Govt to bring back conscription

Sweden announced on Thursday that it will reintroduce compulsory military service starting this summer to respond to global security challenges. The Scandinavian nation, which has not seen armed conflict on its territory in two centuries, ended conscription in 2010 after it was deemed an unsatisfactory way of meeting the needs of a modern army.

Afghanistan

Death toll rises to 17 in Kabul blasts

The death toll has risen to 17 while 119 others were wounded in twin suicide bombings which struck Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, local media reported on Thursday. On Wednesday, Taliban militants attacked a police station with a massive car bomb in the western part of the city. They also launched another suicide bombing against a national intelligence agency office in the east of the city.

United Kingdom

Mouse delays flight for 4 hours

A little mouse made for a big delay on a British Airways flight from London to San Francisco on Wednesday. The passengers were all buckled up and ready to go when the crew told them that a mouse-spotting meant they couldn't take off. The crew joked that the mouse couldn't enter US airspace without a passport, and told everyone they needed a whole new plane. That meant a four-hour delay.

Brazil

Pele's son allowed to appeal against jail

The son of soccer legend Pele will be allowed to appeal against a 13-year jail term as a free man, a Brazilian judge ruled on Wednesday. Edson Cholbi Nascimento, known as Edinho, was originally given a 33-year prison sentence in 2014 for laundering money to a drug gang. The 46-year-old was detained last week and ordered to begin serving a sentence that had been reduced to 12 years and 10 months. But judge Antonio Saldanha ordered Edinho be released by Thursday evening.

(China Daily 03/03/2017 page12)