Pro-government forces intensified their assault on the rebel-held suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus, activists said Tuesday, a day after rebels beat back an attempted government advance, killing several soldiers. The fighting threw into sharp relief the fragility of a “cease-fire” that was supposed to bring calm to the besieged enclave inhabited by some 400,000 people. Opposition activists said government air raids and artillery fire have reached a rate of 60 to 70 strikes per day on areas held by the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel faction, which was not party to the cease-fire brokered by Egypt and Russia and signed on July 22. The information office of the Sichuan province government released an updated number of casualties early Wednesday, but it didn’t have more details on the victims of the Tuesday evening quake. European Union countries have begun the process of sending refugees who arrived over the last five months via Greece back there to have their asylum applications assessed, resuming a practice that was suspended as Greece struggled to cope with a massive refugee influx. South African President Jacob Zuma again survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Tuesday in the most serious attempt yet to unseat him after months of growing anger over alleged corruption and a sinking economy. [...] his ties to the Gupta family, immigrant businessmen accused of trying to manipulate government leaders and state companies for financial gain, also stirred public anger.
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