IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Afghanistan

Suicide bomb kills at least 20, injures 90

A powerful early morning suicide truck bomb devastated a hospital in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing as many as 20 people and wounding more than 90 others, Afghan officials said, while a deadly drone strike in the country's east was blamed on US forces. The Taliban, who claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, have carried out nearly daily attacks since peace talks with the United States collapsed earlier this month. Thursday's massive explosion destroyed part of the hospital in Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province, and left a fleet of ambulances broken and battered. Local residents, many of whom had come to see their sick family members, used shawls and blankets to carry the wounded inside the destroyed building, while authorities scrambled to take the worst of the wounded to hospitals in nearby Kandahar.

Canada

Trudeau apologizes for brownface in 2001

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on Wednesday for wearing brownface makeup in 2001 after a picture emerged less than five weeks before a national vote in which he faces a tough fight for reelection."I should have known better then, but I didn't and I did it and I'm deeply sorry," Trudeau told reporters on his campaign plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after Time magazine published the image. His comments were carried live on Canadian television. The Time magazine said the image was provided by Vancouver businessman Michael Adamson earlier this month. Adamson was part of the West Point Grey Academy community where Trudeau, then 29, worked at the time, the magazine said. The picture was in the Vancouver private school's yearbook. "I dressed up in an Aladdin costume and put makeup on. I shouldn't have done it," Trudeau said.

South Korea

Serial killer identified after 33 years

Police have identified a suspect in one of the country's most notorious serial murder cases more than 30 years after the first of the 10 killings, they said on Thursday. Between 1986 and 1991 a record number of police officers for a single case were mobilized to find the person who raped and murdered women in rural parts of Hwaseong, south of Seoul. Police investigated about 21,000 individuals and compared the fingerprints of around 20,000 more without success, and the case inspired South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho's 2003 box office hit Memories of Murder. But using the latest forensic techniques officers have identified Lee Chun-jae, 56, as a suspect in at least three of the killings, police said. The suspect is currently serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his sister-in-law in 1994, but denies involvement in the Hwaseong murders and the statute of limitations has expired, meaning he will not be prosecuted, police added.

India

Public transport drivers strike in Delhi

Commuters in India's capital are facing difficulties as much of the city's public transportation, including private buses, auto-rickshaws and some ride-hailing services, remains off the roads as drivers protest a sharp increase in traffic fines. The government hopes a new Motor Vehicles Act will bring order to India's chaotic roads with an almost tenfold increase in fines for traffic offenses. The minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said higher fines are needed to improve the appalling safety record for India's roads, where more than 100,000 people are killed and nearly 500,000 injured in accidents every year.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/20/2019 page11)