world briefs

CHINA Twenty-two Chinese officials who had relatives living overseas have been punished for graft as part of a government campaign targeting corruption, China News Service reported yesterday. The so-called naked officials, all from Guangdong province, include the former deputy mayor of Guangzhou, the news agency reported, citing Huang Xianyao, the head of the provincial anti-corruption watchdog. The story didn’t give details about what the 22 had done.

HONG KONG closed 14 beaches in the New Territories after a sewage treatment plant was forced to discharge 95,000 cubic meters of household waste, enough to fill 38 Olympic-sized swimming pools, into the sea.
The Pillar Point sewage plant at Tuen Mun reported a malfunction in its sieving devices, or waste-separation units, at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Drainage Services Department said. An investigation is under way, the department said.

VIETNAM The United States has expressed alarm over prison terms handed down against three Vietnamese democracy activists for obstructing traffic. Human rights groups have described the charges used to convict Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh to 3 years, 2 years and 2 1/2 years respectively as “bogus.”

NORTH KOREA’s government said yesterday that the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, is evidence that the United States is a “graveyard of human rights.” The comments by a Foreign Ministry spokesman fit a pattern by North Korea of seizing any opportunity to turn the table on Washington’s longstanding criticism of the North as one of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

AUSTRALIA New counterterrorism units have been working at Australia’s two largest airports since last week and had already intercepted a person of interest, the prime minister says.

JAPAN Health authorities have reported the first locally transmitted case of dengue fever in the country in more than 60 years.

NETHERLANDS Experts working to identify the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 say they have gathered DNA samples from 283 different people and have positively identified 173 of them. Wim Heijnen of the Netherlands Forensic Institute said Wednesday the DNA samples do not all equate to a positive identification of a victim. Some of the samples could be from workers who gathered the bodies where the jet was shot down in eastern Ukraine.

SYRIA The Islamic State militant group is holding hostage a young American woman who was doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, a family representative says The 26-year-old woman is the third American known to have been kidnapped by the militant group.

LIBYA’s difficult transition from decades of dictatorship is getting even messier. U.S. officials say Egypt and the United Arab Emirates secretly carried out airstrikes against Islamic militias — another jolt to U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Libya three years after dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s overthrow.

FRANCE Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, is placed under official investigation for negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days as France’s finance minister. In a statement after a fourth round of questioning before magistrates, Lagarde says she will return to her work in Washington later in the day and says the decision is “without basis.”

USA A 9-year-old girl accidentally killed an Arizona shooting instructor as he was showing her how to use an automatic Uzi, authorities said Tuesday. Charles Vacca, 39, died Monday shortly after being airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Mohave County sheriff’s officials said. Vacca was standing next to the girl at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills when she pulled the trigger and the recoil sent the gun over her head, investigators said.