World briefs

CHINA A knife-wielding man in a northeastern Chinese city near the North Korean border went on a slashing spree yesterday, killing two people and injuring 14 others, a state broadcaster said. The attack at a shopping mall in the city of Yanji was carried out by a local Chinese man of Korean ethnicity, China Central Television, or CCTV, reported. One victim died at the scene, while another died in a hospital.

INDONESIA A boat carrying foreign tourists sank in central Indonesia, leaving 15 people missing, officials said yesterday. The boat was on its way from Lombok island to Komodo island carrying 20 foreign tourists, four Indonesian crewmen and an Indonesian guide when it sank at about 6 p.m. Saturday, said Budiawan, head of the search and rescue agency in Mataram, the provincial capital of West Nusatenggara. Ten people, including at least six of the foreigners, were rescued.

S KOREA Lee Yong-soo hopes a meeting Monday with Pope Francis will provide some solace for the pain that still feels fresh more than seven decades after Japanese soldiers forced her into prostitution during WWII. More on p12

IRAQ Islamic extremists shoot scores of Yazidi men to death in Iraq, lining them up in small groups and opening fire with assault rifles before abducting their wives and children, according to an eyewitness, government officials and people who live in the area. Meanwhile, warplanes target insurgents around a large dam captured by the Islamic State extremist group earlier this month, nearby residents say.

SYRIA Syrian government warplanes pounded an Islamic State group stronghold as well as other towns controlled by the jihadis yesterday, conducting more than a dozen airstrikes and killing at least 11 people, activists said. For more than a year, President Bashar Assad’s air force rarely targeted territory controlled by the Islamic State group in northern Syria, instead focusing on mainstream rebel groups. But government jets have begun hitting the extremists more regularly since the jihadis overran much of neighboring northern and western Iraq in June.

GAZA A Palestinian negotiator said yesterday his side is “less optimistic” about indirect talks with Israel over the Gaza war as a deadline on a temporary cease-fire looms. The Palestinian team reassembled in Cairo yesterday after members returned from consultations in Qatar, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Israeli team also returned yesterday to resume the Egyptian-mediated talks. A current five-day cease-fire is due to end later today.

UKRAINE’s government said yesterday that separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane after army troops entered deep inside a rebel-controlled city in the east in what could prove a breakthrough development in the four-month long conflict. Ukraine’s national security council said government forces captured a district police station in Luhansk after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood.

MALI The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali says one of its patrols was attacked, killing a peacekeeper and wounding five others.