IN BRIEF (Page 12)

France

Police expel migrants

French police began expelling around 650 migrants from camps on Wednesday in the northern port of Calais. Some of the migrants, who were mainly Syrian and Afghan exiles, left voluntarily when they saw the busloads of riot police arrive and ring their camps, from which they had hoped to cross to Britain. The authorities say the expulsion is aimed at stopping an outbreak of scabies in the camps. The people in the camps live in makeshift shelters and tents constructed essentially with bits of wood and plastic sheeting.

Ukraine

Donetsk turns into ghost town

The bustling eastern Ukrainian hub of Donetsk resembled a ghost town on Wednesday with shuttered stores and deserted streets after a devastating two-day firefight with separatists who had seized the airport. The gleaming Sergei Prokofiev International Airport - rebuilt at a cost of $900 million for the Euro 2012 soccer championship - stood with its glass facade shattered after the army used fighter bombers and helicopters to attack more than 100 militants who had captured the building on Monday.

Nigeria

Ex-leader tries to broker deal

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to Boko Haram in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants, said a source close to the talks. Reports of the talks emerged on Tuesday as Boko Haram was blamed for fresh attacks targeting the security forces in northeastern Nigeria left at least 33 people dead.

Guatemala

Woman,120, may be world's oldest

A Guatemalan woman who used to pick coffee and tend sheep - and who will turn 121 in November - could be the world's oldest person by far, a national newspaper reported on Tuesday. Juana Chox Yac, who is an indigenous Kaqchikel Maya, was born November 29, 1893, in the farming village of Santa Lucia Utatlan, Solola department, the report in Siglo 21 said.

Cyprus

Officer to pay fine for video

A court has ordered a police inspector to pay 30,000 euros ($40,800) in compensation to a female colleague for posting without her permission a video of them having sex, reports said on Wednesday. The Nicosia District Court heard that the 32-year-old policewoman had allowed her then-lover to make a video of the sex with a cellphone camera but only on condition that it never be seen by anyone else.

Reuters-AFP-AP

(China Daily 05/29/2014 page12)