News in Brief

UN atomic agency to visit Fukushima
Afp, Vienna

The UN atomic agency yesterday said it is sending a team from October 14-21 to review Japan's progress cleaning up areas around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
The 16-person team, visiting at the request of Japan's government, consists of international experts and International Atomic Energy Agency staff and follows an earlier visit in late 2011, it said.

Most Israelis support Iran strike: poll
Afp, Jerusalem

A majority of Israelis would support unilateral military action against Iran, according to a poll published yesterday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to act alone.
Some 65.6 percent of 500 Jewish Israelis surveyed by the pro-government Israel HaYom newspaper said they would support military strikes to halt Iran's nuclear programme, and 84 percent believed the Islamic republic had no intention of reining in its alleged drive to build a bomb.

Masked gunmen kill 2 Egyptian soldiers
Afp, Cairo

Masked gunmen fired on a military vehicle near the Egyptian city of Ismailiya yesterday, killing two soldiers and wounding an officer and another soldier, a security official said.
The attack took place on the desert road between Cairo and Ismailiya when the assailants in a car without number plates opened fire, said the official. More than 100 policemen have been killed across Egypt in attacks and clashes since Morsi's ouster.

Norway cuts Afghan aid over graft, rights
Afp, Oslo

Norway will cut its aid to Afghanistan in 2014 due to a lack of progress on women's rights and efforts to combat corruption, a senior Norwegian official said yesterday.
Norway's aid will be slashed from an annual 750 million kroner (92.3 million euros, $126 million) to 700 million kroner, a reduction of about seven percent.
According to a recent ranking by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International, Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.