IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Venezuela

Supreme Court to prosecute lawmakers

Venezuela will prosecute seven lawmakers who backed last week's failed coup orchestrated by opposition leader Juan Guaido, the country's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The court said in a statement that it asked Attorney General Tarek William Saab to handle the "criminal investigation" into opposition deputies for "high treason" and "conspiracy". Soon after the announcement, the Constituent Assembly stripped the seven lawmakers of their parliamentary immunity. Meanwhile, US Vice President Mike Pence announced that sanctions against Venezuela's sacked intelligence chief General Christopher Figuera were being lifted.

United States

Request for Trump tax returns denied

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration won't be turning US President Donald Trump's tax returns over to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. In making that determination, Mnuchin said he relied on the advice of the Justice Department. He concluded that the department is "not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information". The move, which was expected, is sure to set in motion a legal battle over Trump's tax returns. The chief options available to Democrats now are to subpoena the Internal Revenue Service for the returns or to file a lawsuit.

Japan

Car hits 13 children, kills 2, police says

A car slammed into a group of 16 mostly kindergarten children who were strolling on a sidewalk in the lakeside city of Otsu in western Japan, leaving two dead, police said on Wednesday. The accident occurred in the morning after the compact car bumped into another passenger car at an intersection and veered off to the sidewalk, Shiga prefectural police said. The children, aged 2 to 3, were escorted by three teachers. A girl and a boy, both 2 years old, were pronounced dead after they were rushed to a hospital, police said. Conditions of others in the group were not immediately known.

Sri Lanka

All involved in attacks dead or arrested

Two bomb experts were among the suicide attackers who struck churches and hotels on Easter in Sri Lanka and all those directly involved in the bombings are either dead or under arrest, police said late on Monday. Acting police chief C.D. Wickramaratne also said in a statement that explosives the Islamic State-linked group stocked for use in more attacks have been seized. The bombings killed 257 people and wounded hundreds at three churches and three hotels. Police have detained 73 suspects for investigation since the bombings and have seized stocks of explosives, improvised explosive devices and hundreds of swords. They also found $140,000 in cash in bank accounts connected to the group and another $40 million worth of assets in land, houses, vehicles and jewelry.

Syria

Over 150,000 people displaced in one week

Violence in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib has displaced more than 150,000 people in the past week, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as the government upped deadly bombardment of the jihadist bastion. "We are alarmed by ongoing reports of aerial attacks on population centers and civilian infrastructure," said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "More than 152,000 women, children and men have been displaced in Aleppo and Idlib governorates over the past week alone," he said.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 05/09/2019 page11)