Four dead after driver ploughs car into Australian pedestrians

A man deliberately drove into pedestrians, killing four and injuring more than 20 in the center of Australia's second largest city Melbourne on Friday, but police said the lunchtime incident was not terrorism-related.

IN BRIEF (Page 8)

Thai floods threaten key region for rubber

First came drought, then came floods. Rubber farmers in Thailand's south are counting the cost of extreme weather in the world's top growing region.

Eight found alive in avalanche-hit hotel

Eight people have been found alive under the avalanche that hit an Italian mountain hotel almost two days ago and rescuers are working to free them from the snow on Friday.

Sex-slave statue protesters keep unending vigil

Every night they sleep above cold concrete, curled up in sleeping bags on rubber mattresses in a tent made of plastic sheets held together with tape. Their heads are inches away from cars zooming by - and from a bronze statue of a young girl that sits across from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

Iconic moped lives on in the hearts of Moroccans

In France it slipped into legend after delighting long-haired teenagers in the 1970s and 80s, but in Morocco the tireless moped trundles on despite an invasion of cheaper Chinese scooters.

Samsung chief staves off arrest

A South Korean court on Thursday denied a special prosecutor clearance to arrest the head of Samsung Group, the country's largest company, amid a graft scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

Brazil police separate gangs in prison

Heavily armed police on Wednesday entered the prison where 26 inmates were butchered in recent days and separated members of rival drug gangs waging a turf war that set off a wave of riots in Brazil's overcrowded penitentiary system.

Another sign of worrying revisionist trend in Japan

The news that the Japanese hotel chain operator APA Group has put books in its rooms that, in both English and Japanese, deny the Nanjing Massacre took place and that "comfort women" were forced into sexual slavery by Japan's imperial army, reveals the stark reality that historical revisionism is on the rise in Japan.

EU's manufacturing muscle

Some feel worried that the United States' intensified efforts to bring US manufacturing enterprises overseas back to the US will directly affect China.

Falsifying of economic data by officials only serves themselves

IN HIS ANNUAL GOVERNMENT WORK REPORT to the provincial legislature, Chen Qiufa, governor of Northeast China's Liaoning province, admitted that officials of cities in his province fabricated economic data and exaggerated the GDP growth rate from 2011 to 2014. It is good for a governor to admit mistakes, but will the officials that fabricated the data pay for their misdeeds? Beijing News comments:

Beijing legislature sets good example

LEGISLATIVE DELIBERATION on a proposal to restrict the use of private vehicles in Beijing has been delayed due to a "lack of consensus" among residents in the capital, according to the ongoing session of the local legislature. Beijing News commented on Wednesday: