29 die in South Sudan cholera outbreak

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The U. N. children’s agency says 29 people have died in South Sudan’s latest cholera outbreak.

UNICEF said Friday that cholera had sickened 484 people by the end of June and that the number of cases continues to rise in the nation’s capital of Juba.

Children under 5 comprise 13 percent of the cases, UNICEF said, adding that funding is needed as the agency has been using its flexible internal resources to meet critical needs.

Last year a cholera outbreak in South Sudan infected more than 6,000 people and killed 167, according to World Health Organization figures.

Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and possible death.

Beijing says pollution in air getting better

BEIJING ( AP) — Beijing’s municipal government says air pollution in the capital improved during the first six months of 2015.

It said the concentration of PM 2.5 — tiny airborne particles that are particularly harmful to human health — dropped by 15.2 percent from a year earlier to an average of 77.7 micrograms per cubic meter during the first half of the year.

However, that level remains higher than the 10 micrograms per cubic meter average considered safe by the World Health Organization.

The city government said the amounts of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM 10 particles also decreased.

Chinese officials have vowed to clean up Beijing’s notoriously foul air and have closed some polluting factories in the region.

New data shows high poverty in rural India

NEW DELHI ( AP) — India has released new data showing that more than 70 percent of its people live in villages, with the majority extremely poor and dependent on manual labor.

The data from India’s socio-economic and caste census released Friday covers the period between 2011 and 2013. It’s the first time India has studied caste data since 1932.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says the data would help the government to properly channel its welfare spending to benefit those in need.

India conducts a census every 10 years. It examines the wealth, living conditions and other details of the country’s 1.2 billion people.

The previous government initiated a separate process of studying castes and analyzing socio- economic progress based on those divisions.

Man tied to Myanmar blast gets life in prison

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A court in Myanmar ordered a man linked to a 2013 bombing at one of the country’s most prestigious hotels to serve life imprisonment plus five years of hard labor.

The October 2013 blast at the Trader’s Hotel in Yangon ripped apart a guest room and wounded a 43- year-old American woman.

On Friday, a court in Yangon sentenced Saw Myint Lwin, 26, to life imprisonment for his role in the blast. He was also sentenced to five years of hard labor.

Police have said that Saw Myint Lwin was paid to carry out the bombing by a businessman tied to the Karen National Union ethnic rebel group.

The homemade bomb was attached the back of the toilet in a room on the hotel’s ninth floor.

All on capsized ferry accounted for; 45 dead

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Rescue workers are winding down the search for survivors and bodies aboard a ferry that capsized shortly after departing from a central Philippine port, leaving 45 people dead.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said Friday all 187 passengers and crew members of the M/B Kim Nirvana have been accounted for a day after the vessel overturned in choppy waters off Ormoc city. He says 142 survived and there are no more reports of anyone missing.

The boat was preparing to sail on its routine voyage to the Camotes Islands to the south when it capsized.

Balilo says they are waiting for the regional coast guard commander to declare an end to the search and rescue operation.

A floating crane has pulled the 36-ton wooden motorized outrigger close to Ormoc port.

Erdogan dedicates new mosque to the people

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a mosque on the grounds of his gigantic palace complex and opened it to the public in an apparent effort to stave off more criticism over his spending.

Erdogan, who has been accused of squandering state resources by building the 1,150-room presidential palace, on Friday dedicated the mosque to the people.

The “ Bestepe People’s Mosque” can accommodate 3,000 worshippers and is one of Ankara’s largest.

The ruling party, founded by Erdogan, lost its parliamentary majority in last month’s elections, in a blow to Erdogan’s ambitions to turn the largely ceremonial presidency into an executive post.

Opposition parties had made the palace a theme of their election campaigns, forcing him on the defensive and to deny that it had gold-plated toilet seats.

Thailand’s one MERS patient now virus-free

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s health ministry says a 75-year-old Omani man who became Thailand’s only known case of the often-deadly MERS virus is now free of the illness.

The ministry said Friday that five laboratory tests showed negative results for the disease.

The man had traveled to Bangkok last month for treatment of a heart condition and was then diagnosed with the virus. He was quarantined and treated at the ministry’s infectious diseases facility.

The statement says three relatives who traveled with the man show no sign of having contracted the virus.