Briefly

UNITED STATES

Arrest made over White House ricin

Authorities have arrested a person suspected of sending the deadly poison ricin in an envelope addressed to the White House but intercepted before it could be delivered, a law enforcement source said on Sunday. In response to a Reuters query seeking confirmation of media reports that a woman accused of mailing the ricin-tainted letter had been taken into custody at the US-Canadian border, the FBI field office in Washington issued a statement saying that the investigation is ongoing. The law enforcement source, familiar with the case but speaking on condition of anonymity, said the "suspicious letter" referred to in the FBI statement was the same as the envelope found to have contained ricin. The source also said the person arrested was a woman of Canadian citizenship.

AUSTRALIA

Aid assessed for 70 whales stranded in bay

Rescue efforts were being assessed for around 70 whales found stranded in a bay on the Australian island state of Tasmania, officials said on Monday. The whales are in Macquarie Harbour, on the island's rugged and sparsely populated west coast, where they are believed to be stuck on a sandbar. Police are on site and marine experts are being deployed to assess the situation, Tasmania's environment department said. The department added that additional crews with whale rescue gear were expected to arrive later on Monday. The creatures are believed to be pilot whales but the species has not yet been confirmed. Mass whale strandings occur relatively often in Tasmania, but the large numbers involved present a daunting rescue prospect. The latest stranding comes as a humpback whale that was stuck in a tropical river in Australia's north finally returned to the ocean after more than two weeks.

SOUTH KOREA

Seoul schools go back to in-person classes

Schools in the South Korean capital Seoul and nearby areas resumed in-person classes for the first time in almost a month on Monday after daily coronavirus cases dropped to the lowest levels since mid-August. Students returned to schools under a hybrid schedule of in-person and online classes to limit the number of people at schools at any given time. Students will attend in-person classes once or twice a week. South Korea managed to contain the virus and avoid a full lockdown earlier this year, but infections at a church and political rally in August sparked the country's largest outbreak. That forced authorities to impose social distancing curbs.

Agencies Via Xinhua