IN BRIEF (Page 12)

India

50 dead after bus plunges into valley

Fifty people died when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a valley in southern India on Tuesday, one of the deadliest accidents on the country's notorious roads in recent years. More than half of those killed were women, and there were at least three children. At least 25 others were injured. A local official said the driver lost control as he tried to avoid another bus on the crowded road leading from the popular temple Anjaneya Swamy in Telangana state. An investigation has been ordered.

Sudan

94 trafficking victims rescued

Police in Sudan have rescued 94 victims of human trafficking, including 85 minors, from open-air gold mines near Khartoum and the city's international airport among other places, Interpol said on Monday. A statement by the international police organization, which coordinated the operation late last month, said 14 people, 12 of them women, have been arrested. The rescued victims came from a half-dozen countries including Chad, Eritrea, Niger, Congo and South Sudan. Sudanese were also among the victims.

Ethiopia

Leaders join to mark new year

Celebrating their dramatic diplomatic thaw, the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea on Tuesday marked the Ethiopian new year at a border where a war and ensuing tensions had divided them for decades. Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki were visiting the Bure Front along with members of their militaries, Abiy's chief of staff Fitsum Arega said in a Twitter post. Photos posted by Arega showed Abiy in camouflage and sunglasses walking alongside Isaias in olive drab.

Japan

546 hogs culled over swine fever

Following Japan's first outbreak of swine fever in 26 years, the local government said on Tuesday it had culled 546 hogs in the center of Honshu, the country's largest and most populous island. An official with the Gifu prefecture government said that more than 65 hogs had died since Sept 3, and the cull was carried out in an attempt to contain the outbreak. Checks had been undertaken at other farms in the prefecture and no other cases had been found, he said. The disease found in Gifu is classical swine fever, also known as hog cholera, an official said. It occurs among pigs and wild boar, and is not infectious for humans.

Peru

Nation celebrates return of mask

Peru is celebrating the return of an ancient funeral mask made of gold following a two-decade legal battle to repatriate the smuggled antiquity from Germany. The Sican mask was shown publicly for the first time at the presidential palace since its return to the South American nation. The 8th century mask depicting a pre-Incan deity was seized in 1999 in Germany from a Turkish art dealer arrested for selling looted objects. It was handed over last week to Peru's embassy in Berlin. The mask made of hammered gold alloy with silver eyes is one of the most emblematic of 9,000 art objects Peru has repatriated the last decade.

Ap - Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 09/12/2018 page12)