World news in brief

RUSSIA: The country's top investigative agency has closed its probe into the death in prison of an anti-corruption lawyer just days before his posthumous trial is to begin.

The Investigative Committee declared today that no crime had been committed in the arrest and imprisonment of Sergei Magnitsky, who died from untreated pancreatitis in 2009.

Russia's presidential human rights council found in 2011 that prison officials repeatedly beat Mr Magnitsky and denied him medical treatment.

Nearly 95% support contitution change

ZIMBABWE: The official election body said today that 94.5 per cent of those who cast ballots in a referendum on a new constitution gave a Yes vote to reforms that call for a strengthening of human rights and curbing of presidential powers.

The electoral commission head said just over three million had voted for the draft constitution and 170,489 voted against.

Afghan pull-out

DENMARK: The government said today that it will end combat operations in the Nato-led mission in Afghanistan in August, about six months earlier than planned.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said that around 350 Danish soldiers will be pulled out, leaving 300 to train Afghan forces. Denmark's force is mainly situated in the volatile Helmand province under British command.

Capriles oil threats

VENEZUELA: Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said today that he would stop trading oil to Cuba for services such as Cuban doctors providing medical care for Venezuela's poor.

Mr Capriles said he opposes selling petroleum to Cuba under preferential terms because it doesn't benefit Venezuela.

Strike violence leaves man dead

BANGLADESH: Violence surrounding a political shutdown has left a man dead and is being blamed for a train derailment.

The opposition Islamist BNP party led today's shutdown.

In the capital Dhaka opposition activists detonated crude bombs and vandalised vehicles.

And a train derailed after suspected opposition activists removed plates from the track. Fifteen passengers were slightly injured.

37 die as overnight bus falls off bridge

INDIA: A bus packed with passengers crashed through a guard rail and fell off a bridge in western India early today, killing at least 37 people and injuring another 15.

The overnight bus was carrying passengers from the beach resort state of Goa to Mumbai when it crashed in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

Man 'gave secrets to Chinese lover'

US: A civilian defence contractor who works in intelligence at the Pacific Command has been charged with giving national security secrets to a 27-year-old Chinese woman he was dating.

Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, is accused of sending the woman an email last May with information on existing war plans, nuclear weapons and US foreign relations.

Marine killed in base accident

US: The Marine Corps said today that seven marines had been killed in a training accident at a depot in Nevada.

The names of those who died were not released pending notification of their families.

The Hawthorne depot stores and disposes of ammunition.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party withdraws from coalition

INDIA: Tamil activists and students burn a Sri Lankan flag during a protest against Sri Lankan wartime abuses in Chennai today.

The ethnic Tamil Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party withdrew from the Indian coalition government over its unmet demands that India amends a UN resolution to declare that Sri Lanka committed genocide during the final months of its civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels.