South Korea | No MERS infections reported for 2 days

No new cases of MERS were reported in South Korea for two straight days, with no deaths being added, the health ministry said yesterday. The number of MERS cases totaled 182, making no change for two days in a row, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. It marked the first time since May 25 when no new infection was reported for the second straight day. The first case was discovered on May 20. No new deaths meant the death toll remained at 32 and the fatality rate at 17.6 percent. Two patients were discharged from hospitals as they completely recovered after being infected. Those discharged increased to 93, accounting for more than half of the total infectees. Excluding the dead and those discharged, 57 patients are still under treatment. Among them, 14 are in unstable conditions. The number of those quarantined rose from 2,562 on Sunday to 2, 682 yesterday.

Pakistan | Cops bust armed militants planning attack, 4 killed

A Pakistani police officer says authorities have killed four militants, arrested two and seized a large cache of weapons that were meant to be used in an upcoming attack. Senior police officer Shahzad Sultan says a militant exploded a suicide vest during the raid yesterday on a house near the eastern city of Lahore, injuring nine officers. Sultan says a search turned up six suicide vests, dozens of hand grenades, assault rifles and other weapons. The raid was carried out jointly with intelligence officials. The police official said the militants were planning to target important buildings in Lahore during the current Ramadan holiday, which lasts almost three more weeks. For years, Pakistani security forces have battled insurgency originating from tribal regions near the Afghan border.

India | Police investigate mob killing of school director

Police are investigating the mob killing of a school director in northern India after two of the school’s students were discovered dead, officials said yesterday. The mob attacked the boarding school’s director on Sunday after the bodies of two boys aged 10 and 11 were found in a nearby pond, Nalanda district police Superintendent Siddhartha Kumar Jain said. The students had disappeared a day earlier from the school grounds, and villagers accused school staff of killing them and dumping them in the pond. Autopsies later showed the boys had drowned. Local TV stations broadcast video of the man being beaten with sticks and writhing on the ground as other people watched and stomped on his chest, stomach and limbs. He died of his injuries Sunday night. When police arrived, the mob allegedly pelted them with stones and injured six officers. Police suspended an officer for failing to stop the attack in Nirpur village, about 90 kilometers southeast of Patna, the capital of Bihar state. Residents of the director’s home village held angry protests after the man’s death, blocking road and train traffic and setting a vehicle on fire.