IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China Daily | Updated: 2014-10-31 07:55

Russia

$25b rail deal with DPRK eyed

Russia is eyeing a project worth about $25 billion to overhaul the railway network of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in return for access to mineral resources, Moscow's government daily reported on Thursday. Alexander Galushka, Russian minister for the development of far eastern Russia, told Rossiskaya Gazeta that the mammoth project would involve the modernization of about 3,000 km of the DPRK's railroads over a 20-year period.

Burkina Faso

Protesters torch parliament

Protesters stormed Burkina Faso's parliament on Thursday, setting the main chamber ablaze, in the most significant challenge to President Blaise Compaore's rule. The protesters' goal was to block a vote in parliament that would have increased term limits and allowed Compaore to run for a fifth time. The prime minister's office later issued a statement saying it was canceling the vote.

Sri Lanka

Search goes on for victims

Soldiers stepped up their search on Thursday for 100 people feared buried alive in a landslide at a tea plantation, but there was little hope of finding any survivors. Hundreds of troops using heavy diggers clawed through tons of mud that buried scores of tin-roofed homes at the picturesque plantation in the island's center on Wednesday.

United States

Welles' final film may be released

Renowned director Orson Welles' last film, The Other Side of the Wind, may finally be nearing release after decades as one of cinema's most storied unfinished creations. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that a Los Angeles-based production company, Royal Road Entertainment, has agreed to buy the rights to the movie, starring John Huston and shot in 1971. The film was unfinished when Welles died in 1985.

Poland

Polanski queried at US request

Prosecutors in Krakow have questioned filmmaker Roman Polanski at the request of US prosecutors who are seeking his extradition on 1977 charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors said the 81-year-old Polanski remained free but available for further proceedings. He is living in Paris, where - as a French citizen - he is immune from US justice. In 2010, he was freed from Swiss house arrest after the government refused to extradite him.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 10/31/2014 page12)