Flooding ravages 3 more Pakistani areas
ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistani military stepped up rescue efforts as floods wreaked havoc in more districts of the country's eastern Punjab province Friday, affecting 1.9 million people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
The monsoon floods began Sept. 3 in the divided Kashmir region. They so far have killed 274 people in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, while 200 have died in the India-controlled part of the region.
Another wave of flooding is expected to hit southern Pakistan next week.
After destroying hundreds of villages in the Jhang district this week, the floods on Friday hit three more Punjab districts -- Multan, Bahwalpur and Rahim Yar Khan.
At a Friday meeting of Pakistan's Cabinet, officials told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the floods had damaged 43,000 homes and affected 1.9 million people.
3 get death, 1 gets life for slayings of 31
BEIJING -- A Chinese court sentenced three men to death and a woman to life imprisonment Friday after convicting them of terrorism and murder for the killings of 31 people in a knife attack outside a railway station in Kunming earlier this year.
The railway station attack in March shook the country as tensions between the Uighur Muslim minority and the majority Han ethnic group spread beyond the Uighur homeland of Xinjiang. The court did not identify the suspects' ethnicity, but all have Uighur-sounding names.
The three men sentenced to death, Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad, had been charged with organizing and leading a terrorist group and murder.
The woman, Patigul Tohti, the only assailant captured alive at the scene of the attack, was convicted on the charges of joining a terrorist group and murder. The court said Tohti could not be sentenced to death because she was pregnant.
The Kunming court said the four influenced by religious fundamentalism, were part of a terrorist group that plotted the March 1 attack, when five knife-wielding assailants hacked 31 people to death and injured another 141 people.
43 Israelis refuse to spy on Palestinians
JERUSALEM -- Dozens of reserve soldiers from an elite Israeli intelligence unit publicly declared Friday that they refuse to operate in the Palestinian territories, citing moral reasons.
Soldiers from Unit 8200 -- Israel's equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency -- aired their grievances in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper after sending a letter to the military chief of staff and the prime minister.
"We veterans of Unit 8200, reservists past and present, declare that we refuse to take part in activity against Palestinians and refuse to be tools to deepen the military control in the occupied territories," the soldiers wrote.
The 43 soldiers, including some officers, said some of their unit's intelligence work prevents Palestinians from leading "normal lives" and only serves to prolong the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel has long relied on a network of Palestinian informers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who help target militants and tip off security services to imminent attacks. Informers are often recruited through blackmail, the lure of travel permits and money.
U.S., Vietnam reach adoption agreement
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam and the United States will soon resume limited intercountry adoptions, both nations said Friday, six years after a ban was imposed because of allegations of widespread baby-selling and children offered without the consent of their birth parents.
Under the new agreement, Americans will be able to adopt children with special needs and those over 5 years old once the Vietnam government announces which U.S.-based adoption-service providers are authorized to represent American parents, the U.S. Embassy said.
Nguyen Van Binh, director of the adoption agency at the Ministry of Justice, said two U.S. agencies would be given licenses next week to operate in Vietnam.
Before the ban in 2008, Vietnam was a popular destination for Americans wanting to adopt children.
But the popularity led to concerns within the U.S. Embassy that the demand had led to a poorly regulated industry supplying babies to prospective parents prepared to pay significant sums, raising ethical questions.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 09/13/2014