BRAZIL
Teen arrested in U.S. student’s rape
Rio de Janeiro police arrested a 14-year-old boy suspected of participating in the brutal gang rape of an U.S. student inside a moving public transit van. Monday’s O Globo newspaper said the teen was apprehended in downtown Rio on Sunday. He is the fourth suspect arrested after the March 30 attack on the woman and her French companion, who were held for six hours, robbed and beaten before being dumped by the roadside. The other suspects, ages 20-22, include the van’s driver. The teenager was the van’s money-taker, the report said. He acknowledged robbing the couple and beating the man but denied taking part in the rape, the newspaper reported.
PAKISTAN
30 soldiers killed in four-day battle
Four days of fierce fighting in northwestern Pakistan left 30 soldiers and nearly 100 militants dead as the army attempted to wrestle control of a remote, mountainous valley from the Taliban and their allies, military officials said Monday. The army launched its offensive in the Tirah Valley on Friday after weeks of fighting between rival militant groups forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee the area.
CHINA
More bird flu infections confirmed
Chinese and World Health Organization officials said Monday that they had still not yet found any human-to-human transmission of a spreading form of avian influenza after confirming five more infections among humans over the weekend and three more Monday. Chinese health officials have acknowledged 24 cases and seven fatalities from H7N9 influenza in the past week, counting the eight infections confirmed by laboratories over the last three days. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have begun work on a vaccine.
EGYPT
Tourist flights from Iran suspended
Egypt suspended tourist flights from Iran following an outcry from hard-line Sunni Muslims angered about visitors from the mostly Shiite country, only a week after direct flights between the two countries resumed for the first time in more than three decades. Tourist Minister Hesham Zaazoua did not give a reason for the move late Sunday. The suspension, which will last until June, comes days after a group of ultraconservative Salafis, angered by the Egyptian government’s push to improve ties with Tehran, threw rocks and tried to storm the residence of Iran’s top diplomat in Cairo.
EGYPT
Opposition presses Morsi after violence
After Egypt’s worst sectarian violence in months left seven dead the past two days, Egypt’s leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday called on the Islamist president to make serious concessions to bring the opposition into decision-making, saying national reconciliation is the only way out of the country’s myriad problems. The opposition has blamed months of unrest on attempts by President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to monopolize power.
MALI
French forces step up efforts in Gao
French military forces launched a fresh offensive Monday against jihadists in the northern Malian region of Gao who have staged a series of attacks since being ousted from power earlier this year, a French colonel said. By nightfall, no direct fighting had been reported between French forces and the radical Islamic fighters from MUJAO, or Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. The French troops were proceeding cautiously because one of the French hostages being held by the al-Qaida-linked militants is believed to be in the area.
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