China

Japan urged to promote peace

The spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry has urged Japan to pay sufficient attention to the concerns of countries in the region and contribute more to promote regional peace and stability. "Developments concerning Japan are closely watched by its Asian neighboring countries for historical reasons," Hua Chunying said on Thursday, responding to a question on Japanese leaders' recent comments on historical issues.

Sudan

At least 60 die in mine collapse

Dozens of people have been killed in a gold mine collapse in Sudan's Darfur region, said the chief of the district where fighting over gold in January led to the region's worst unrest in years. "The number of people who died is more than 60," Haroun al-Hassan, the local commissioner in Jebel Amir, North Darfur, said on Thursday.

Thailand

6 shot dead at store in south

Suspected Muslim insurgents shot dead six people, including a 3-year-old boy, in a convenience store in southern Thailand, police said, just two days after peace talks in Malaysia aimed at ending the violence ended in deadlock. The attack took place on Wednesday when four gunmen on motorcycles pulled up at the store in Pattani province, just 500 meters from a military checkpoint.

Saudi Arabia

SARS-like virus claims 5 people

Five Saudis have died of a new SARS-like virus during the past few days and two more are being treated in an intensive care unit, the health ministry said. In a statement cited by the Saudi SPA agency late on Wednesday, the ministry said that all the deaths as well as the infections occurred in the Ahsaa province in the oil-rich eastern region of the kingdom.

Austria

Survivor of Nazi camp dies at 107

Leopold Engleitner, the oldest known survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, has died at the age of 107, his biographer said. Engleitner, a conscientious objector whose life was documented in the book and film Unbroken Will, was imprisoned in the Buchenwald, Niederhagen and Ravensbrueck camps between 1939 and 1943.

United Kingdom

Soap star faces rape charge

British police will charge Coronation Street star William Roache, the longest-serving star in the world's longest-running soap opera, with two counts of rape, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday. Roache, 81, has played Ken Barlow in the series portraying life in a fictional northern English town since its first episode on Dec 9, 1960.

Xinhua-Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 05/03/2013 page11)