UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos is in Syria.

She says the situation on the ground in the country has worsened since her last visit in March.

Amos says the United Nations is working even harder now to try to help Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict.

Amos' comments have come following a visit to a school set up as an emergency shelter for displaced Syrians.

Amos says the UN is also looking for ways to support the Syrian Red Crescent and other local and foreign NGO's operating in Syria.

 

 

Standard Chartered agrees to pay $340m to settle US allegation

 

Standard Chartered has agreed to pay 340-million US dollars to settle allegations by regulators in New York the UK Company laundered money for Iran.

The bank has also agreed to install a monitoring system for at least the next 2-years to evaluate the money-laundering controls at the bank's New York branch.

Last week, New York's Department of Financial Services accused Standard Chartered's US unit of illegally hiding some 60-thousand transactions with Iran worth an estimated 250-billion dollars over the course of a decade.

A hearing scheduled for Wednesday has now been adjourned.

 

 

600,000 yuan reward for gunman manhunt informant

 

A unidentified person in Chongqing has recieved a 600-thousand yuan reward for a critical piece of information which eventually led police to Zhou Kehua.

He's the mass murderer gunned down by the authorities yesterday in Chongqing.

Zhou was killed by police yesterday after exchanging fire with two plain-clothes police officers.

Zhou was tracked down by the authorities amid a massive manhunt in Chongqing which started on the weekend.

The massive search began after two more people were killed in Chongqing by Zhou over the weekend, including a police officer.

Zhou Kehua had been the prime suspect in the murder of 10 people in different parts of China since 2004.

The 42-year old became infamous for being able to elude authorities after holding up people withdrawing money from banks.

 

 

Urban-rural income gap gets bigger: report

 

One of Chinese government's main think tanks says the income disparity ratio between urban and rural residents is growing.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says average incomes in this country's urban areas are 5.2-times higher than they are in the countryside.

The report by CASS suggests the growing disparity is, in part, because of the increase in expenses farmers are facing these days in rearing their crops.

The analysis by the Academy says the income gap here in China right now is 26-percent higher than it was in 1997.

The same report also says 51.27-percent of this country's population now lives in an urban setting.

 

 

Agriculture minister urges more pest control efforts

 

An outbreak of army worms in this country's major grain producing regions in the north and northeast is said to be posing a severe threat to corn and rice production.

So far, some 2 million hectares of the fall harvest is being affected by the outbreak of army worms.

The outbreak is taking place in Hebei, Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Beijing and Tianjin.

Army worms are moths in their caterpillar stage.

An infestation can devastate crops if they go undetected.

 

 

Egyptian court sentences 14 Islamists to death

 

A court in Egypt has sentenced 14 Islamic militants to death for their role in attacks in the restive Sinai region last year.

The group of 14 are among 25 members of the "Tawhid and Jihad" movement who were arrested last year for an attack on a police station and bank in the Sinai.

The attack left 7 police officers and soliders dead.

The death sentences come amid the massive crackdown on extremist elements in Egypt's restive Sinai region, following the border assault earlier this month which left 16 Egyptian soliders dead.

 

 

4 killed, 15 injured in clashes between Republican Guards, Yemeni troops

 

Internal fighting among Yemen's military forces has left at least 4 people dead.

Members of Yemen's Republican Guard became entangled in fighting with other Yemeni soliders guarding the country's defense ministry in the capital, Sana'a.

The fighting began during a demonstration by members of the Republican Guard, who have been protesting the continued re-organization of the military by Yemen's president.

At least 15 others have been hurt in the clashes.

Back in April, new Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi shuffled out 20 of the country's leading generals, many of whom were loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

 

 

U.S. Congress approval rating drops to record low: poll

 

New polling indicates the approval rating for the US Congress has slid to an all-time low.

A Gallop poll shows only 10-percent of people asked approve of the work US lawmakers are doing right now.

The same survey indicates some 83-percent of those asked 'disapprove' of the work Congress is doing.

The approval rating for the United States' lawmakers has been on a steady decline for over a year.

Congressional approval hit an all-time high of 84-percent following the 9/11 attacks, but has yet to come close to that figure ever since.

Lawmakers' handling of the economy and an inability to find compromise are considered the main factors for the historically-low approval rating.