Briefly

UNITED STATES

Stopgap bill mooted to avert shutdown

Republican US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday proposed a three-month stopgap funding bill as lawmakers look to avert a month-end partial government shutdown. Johnson laid out the plan in a letter to colleagues released just eight days before the government's current $1.2 trillion in discretionary funding runs out. The chamber will aim to vote on the measure on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the plan said. Failure to act by then would furlough thousands of federal workers and shut down a wide swath of government operations weeks before the Nov 5 election.

JAPAN

Riverbanks combed after floods kill 7

Rescuers combed the debris-strewn banks of a river in central Japan on Monday, searching for drowning victims after homes were swept away in flooding and landslides that claimed at least seven lives. The river on the Noto Peninsula overflowed on the weekend, becoming a muddy torrent that inundated roads and a remote hamlet. After the skies finally cleared, police and firefighters from across Japan were joined by residents and the father of a 14-year-old girl who is among the seven missing. The number of deaths reached seven, with one severely injured and 11 mildly injured as of Monday afternoon, Ishikawa Prefecture said on their website.

Agencies via Xinhua