IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Russia

Putin hits back at West's sanctions

Russia vowed on Saturday to take retaliatory measures against a fresh round of punitive measures, after the United States and Canada followed EU steps to ratchet up sanctions over Crimea and for what they say is Russia's role in the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed defiance of the latest Western sanctions. "No one will succeed in intimidating us, to deter, to isolate Russia," Putin said.

Jordan

11 men hanged after 8-year ban

Jordan executed 11 men convicted of murder by hanging on Sunday, the interior ministry said, as it ended an informal eight-year moratorium on the death penalty. Authorities said the men were all Jordanians convicted on murder charges in 2005 and 2006. Jordan's most recent previous executions were in June 2006, and 122 people have since been sentenced to death.

Australia

Mother charged in child deaths

An Australian mother has been charged with the murder of eight children, seven of them hers, two days after their bodies were found in a home in the city of Cairns. Police said the 37-year-old woman was charged in a bedside hearing at a Cairns hospital, where she is recovering from stab wounds, with the murder of four girls and four boys, aged from 18 months to 15 years.

Afghanistan

Roadside bomb kills 7 civilians

At least seven people including children were killed when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday. The number of civilian casualties has soared to a record high this year. The explosion occurred late on Saturday when the pickup truck was driving from Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, to Nari district, close to the border with Pakistan.

ROK

Govt halts US poultry imports

The Republic of Korea has suspended imports of US poultry and poultry products because of an outbreak of bird flu in the United States, the government said on Sunday. The suspension, from Saturday, comes as Seoul is struggling to contain its own outbreak of bird flu. "This import suspension is a quarantine measure to prevent the HPAI virus from entering the country," it said, referring to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.

Indonesia

Landslide death toll increases

Indonesian rescuers on Sunday ended their search for victims of a landslide on the main island of Java, officials said, giving a new death toll of 95. "The team found the bodies of a mother and her child today. A total of 95 people were killed and 13 others were missing," National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

AP - Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 12/22/2014 page11)