IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Brazil

Nursery arson death toll rises

A girl who was burned in an arson attack at a nursery school in Brazil succumbed to her wounds on Saturday, bringing the overall death toll to nine people. The 4-year-old had been transferred to a hospital in Belo Horizonte, the state capital of Minas Gerais, around 600 kilometers north of the small town of Janauba where the attack occurred, according to Folha de Sao Paulo, a local newspaper. A security guard at the nursery sprayed his young victims with alcohol before setting fire to the building. He himself died from burns a few hours later.

Syria

Army encircles IS in al-Mayadin

Syria's army and its allies have encircled the Islamic State group in al-Mayadin, a city in eastern Syria, a Syrian military source said on Sunday. Al-Mayadin is one of the last strongholds of Islamic State as it falls back upon the fertile area downstream of Deir al-Zor in the Euphrates valley and launches counter attacks in the central desert after losing swathes of territory this year.

Denmark

Police find severed head

Danish divers found the decapitated head, legs and clothes of a Swedish journalist who was killed after going on a trip with an inventor on his submarine, police said on Saturday. The body parts and clothing were found on Friday in plastic bags with a knife and "heavy metal pieces" to make them sink near where 30-year-old Kim Wall's naked, headless torso was found in August, Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said.

Dprk

No let up on nuclear program

The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un, has said Pyongyang will go forward with nuclear and missile development despite numerous UN sanctions, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday. Speaking at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on Saturday, Kim said the development of the nuclear and missile programs by the DPRK was the only means of defense against "protracted nuclear threats".

United States

JFK speedboat fetches $75k

A mahogany speedboat that belonged to John F. Kennedy sold for $75,000, and a flight suit that belonged to CIA operative Francis Gary Powers sold for $2,750 on Saturday at a New York auction of Kennedy-era memorabilia. The sale at Guernsey's included a rocking chair that Kennedy used in the White House, which specially made for him because of a back injury. It sold for $30,000.

(China Daily 10/09/2017 page12)