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World in Brief: 4/7/2014

GERMANY: Thirty-three people were injured in the town of Talhausen, south of Stuttgart, yesterday when a train collided with a lorry at a railway crossing.

Police said that the flatbed lorry, which was carrying a skip, got stuck on the crossing for reasons that remain unclear.

The train driver braked sharply but was unable to avoid the lorry, which was pushed about 50 yards along the track.

 

INDIA: Forty-six Indian nurses who were trapped in the Iraqi city of Tikrit when it fell to Islamic State forces are safe and will fly home this weekend, an official said yesterday.

The nurses, who were stranded for more than a week at a hospital in Tikrit, were moved this week to the militant-held city of Mosul farther north.

Kerala state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the nurses would return home on a special aircraft arranged by the Indian government.

 

HUNGARY: Five people were taken to hospital in the town of Tiszafured yesterday after eating meat which it’s feared was infected with anthrax.

Traces of the bacteria were found in improperly frozen meat from two cows slaughtered illegally in the town, the National Public Health and Medical Officer Service said.

Officials said that there was no immediate risk of the disease spreading and were vaccinating animals in the area.

 

EGYPT: A teenager was killed yesterday during clashes between security forces and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood on the anniversary of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi’s removal from office.

The 15-year-old was killed by birdshot pellets during  a demonstration in Cairo’s Zeitoun district.

Another unnamed protester was seriously wounded by live ammunition during a march elsewhere in the Egyptian capital.

 

CHINA: Christian church pastor Zhang Shaojie was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday in what his supporters claim is a crackdown on fast-growing religious activity.

Mr Zhang, who runs the Nanle County Christian Church in Henan province, has been involved in a dispute with local authorities over land for a new building.

He was convicted of fraud and of gathering crowds to disturb public order.

 

MYANMAR: Video reporter Zaw Pe and his assistant Win Myint Hlaing were released from jail yesterday after an appeals court reduced their sentences from one year to three months.

They had been convicted in April of trespassing and obstructing a civil servant as they filmed inside an education department office.

Mr Zaw Pe said that he felt no gratitude for his release as “we were doing our job and the interview was conducted in a public area with permission.”

 

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin sent US President Barack Obama an Independence Day message yesterday, stating his hopes that the two countries can improve relations.

Mr Putin said that “regardless of difficulties and disagreements” Russia and the US could “successfully develop relations on pragmatic and equal grounds.”

Relations between Russia and the US have deteriorated as the two countries have struggled to find common ground over Ukraine.

 

BRAZIL: Rescue workers recovered the body yesterday of a 25-year-old man who was crushed beneath an unfinished overpass that collapsed in the World Cup host city of Belo Horizonte.

The small car he was driving was flattened by the collapse.

One other person, a bus driver, was killed and 22 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

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