China

Armenian ties to be improved

State Councilor Yang Jiechi met visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on Thursday and said that China is willing to make joint efforts with the country to raise bilateral relations to a new level. Yang said that Sino-Armenian relations are developing in a sound and stable way, featuring growing exchanges and cooperation across the board and sound communication and coordination on major international and regional issues.

Italy

Explosion at fireworks plant

At least one person was killed and three were seriously injured on Thursday after a fireworks factory exploded in central Italy, the local fire service said. Firefighters were searching for three missing workers at the plant in Picciano, near Pescara on Italy's east coast, and were trying to extinguish a large fire, a fire service spokesman said.

South Africa

Serial rapist hangs himself

A man suspected of being South Africa's worst known serial rapist has been found dead in his prison cell hours before he was to go trial on charges that included sexually assaulting 34 children, prosecutors said on Thursday. Sifiso Makhubo, 42, was facing a total of 122 charges for murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder by infecting his victims with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Iraq

Sunni gunmen execute drivers

Dozens of Sunni militants set up a roadblock on a highway north of Baghdad early on Thursday, stopped trucks, checked IDs and then summarily executed 14 Shiite drivers, officials said. The attack was reminiscent of the darkest days of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian bloodshed in Iraq in 2006-07, when thousands of people were killed due to their religious affiliation or forced to abandon their homes under threat of death.

Bangladesh

Govt defends new labor laws

Bangladesh on Thursday defended its new labor laws, and said it was angry at criticism from the International Labour Organisation, which called the legislation inadequate. Parliament passed the legislation last week in the wake of a garment factory disaster in April that killed 1,129 people, highlighting poor safety standards in the industry. Lawmakers said the new law ensured full trade union rights for millions of laborers.

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 07/26/2013 page12)