World Briefs

CHINA Masked men attack a government office in western China, smashing vehicles and equipment and leaving 13 people injured in a regional dispute over farmland, local authorities and state media say.

AFGHANISTAN   An Afghan official says a suicide car bombing in the country’s east has wounded nine people, including six policemen.

JAPAN-AUSTRALIA Australia, one of most vocal opponents of Japanese whaling hunts in the Antarctic, threatens to take legal action against the lethal expeditions after Tokyo began its latest hunt.

JAPAN Interest in nuclear power has increased, mainly in Asia, despite the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

AUSTRALIA Actor Johnny Depp’s wife Amber Heard announces that she will fight charges that she smuggled the couple’s Yorkshire terriers into Australia.

USA-SYRIA Syrian refugees are scheduled to arrive in Texas after the state eased up in its legal fight against resettlement agencies and the federal government. Twelve Syrians, including six children, were expected to arrive in Dallas and Houston yesterday, joining relatives already settled in Texas. Another nine refugees are scheduled to arrive in Houston Thursday.

USA A recent MRI showing no cancer on Jimmy Carter’s brain is “very positive” news for the former U.S. president but will not end his medical treatment, doctors said. Carter, 91, announced Sunday that doctors found no evidence of the four lesions discovered on his brain this summer and no signs of new cancer growth.

UK It’s become the rallying cry of many who want the Muslim faith to be separated from the violence some commit in its name: “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv.” The comment, heard in the background of a bystander’s video following a stabbing at a London Underground station that prosecutors say was a terrorist act, has touched a nerve in Britain and become a trending hashtag on Twitter. Even Prime Minister David Cameron embraced it as a slogan.

FRANCE India’s environment minister is hinting that the country might contribute to a global climate donor fund — as long as richer countries fulfill their commitments first. The U.S. and other countries have collectively pledged to scale up climate financing to developing countries to USD100 billion annually by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions. That “should come first, because that will give us the confidence,” Prakash Javadekar said at the Paris climate talks yesterday. “Everything cannot be resolved here in Paris, let us leave something for future” climate meetings.