CHINA A 3-year-old girl has died after falling from a bouncy castle that was blown into the air in southern China’s Guangxi region. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the girl was playing in the inflatable castle outside a supermarket on Thursday when a freak gale blew it away.
CHINA-USA American officials said Friday that China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the U.S. government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington called such accusations “not responsible and counterproductive.”
MALAYSIA Rescuers on Malaysia’s highest peak yesterday searched for six climbers after recovering 13 dead from a strong earthquake that had trapped scores of trekkers.
BANGLADESH India and Bangladesh on Saturday finalized a much-delayed land swap agreement to settle a long-running border dispute. The deal — initially reached in 1974 but only recently ratified by India’s Parliament — calls for the transfer of 111 border enclaves to Bangladesh in exchange for 51 that will become part of India. More than 50,000 residents will get citizenship after the agreement is implemented.
BOSNIA Pope Francis heard about the horrors of Bosnia’s fratricidal war of the 1990s and its slow process of healing Saturday as he visited Sarajevo to urge Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics to put the “barbarity” of the past behind them and work together for a peaceful future.
SAUDI ARABIA’s Supreme Court has upheld a verdict against a liberal blogger who was flogged in January after being found guilty of insulting Islam and breaking technology laws. Raif Badawi was sentenced last year to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison. He was banned from traveling abroad for 10 years and fined USD266,000.
YEMEN A series of pre-dawn Saudi-led airstrikes yesterday targeted the headquarters of Yemen’s armed forces in the rebel-held capital, killing at least 22 people, security and hospital officials said.
JORDAN A government official says Jordan has approved a request by the family of former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to bury him in the kingdom. Aziz, 79, was Saddam Hussein’s staunchest defender to the world and the only Christian in the Iraqi dictator’s inner circle. He died Friday after suffering a heart attack in an Iraqi prison.
UK Britain’s royal family has released the first official photos of month-old Princess Charlotte, photographed by her mother in the arms of elder brother Prince George. Kensington Palace issued four images Saturday, taken by the Duchess of Cambridge in mid-May at Anmer Hall, the family’s home in eastern England.
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