IN BRIEF (Page 12)

THAILAND

Pompeo hopes to ease Japan-ROK row

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would encourage the two biggest US allies in Asia-Japan and the Republic of Korea - "to find a path forward" from a dispute that has roiled their ties when he meets their foreign ministers this week. Relations between Japan and the ROK are arguably at their lowest ebb since they normalized ties in 1965. Japan has already tightened restrictions on the export to the ROK of some high-tech materials in what is seen as a response to ROK court rulings ordering Japanese compensation for wartime forced laborers. Pompeo was due to meet the foreign ministers of the two countries separately and then in a three-way discussion on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, this week.

ITALY

116 migrants allowed to disembark

Italy will let 116 migrants on the Gregoretti Coast Guard ship disembark "within hours", Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday, after other European Union countries agreed to share responsibility for looking after them. "I will give authorization (for the migrants) to disembark in the coming hours," the minister wrote on Facebook of the migrants and asylum-seekers who have been stuck on the boat docked in Sicily for five days. An EU Commission spokeswoman said earlier on Wednesday that France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal would join the Italian Roman Catholic church in caring for the migrants.

INDIA

Politician accused of rape faces probe

India's Supreme Court will look into accusations that a powerful regional politician threatened the family of a woman who accused him of rape, the chief justice said on Wednesday, stepping into a case that has triggered outrage. The case has become a political embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party as the legislator belongs to the ruling party and opposition groups accuse the government of moving too slowly to investigate. The woman is battling for her life after a weekend car crash in her northern home state of Uttar Pradesh that police are investigating after her family said they were being targeted.

PAKISTAN

83 killed, 74 injured in rain-related accidents

At least 83 people were killed and 74 others injured in separate rain-related accidents across Pakistan last month, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Tuesday. According to official data from July 1 to 25, the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was the worst hit in the ongoing spell of torrential rains where 25 people were killed and 21 others injured. In the east Punjab province, 23 people were killed and 36 others injured in various accidents caused by rains.

Agencies - Xinhua

(China Daily 08/01/2019 page12)