IN BRIEF (Page 12)

UNITED KINGDOM

New PM selection process begins

Britain's ruling Conservative Party began selecting a new leader to replace David Cameron as prime minister on Tuesday with interior minister Theresa May and junior minister Andrea Leadsom the leading candidates for the top job. Cameron announced he would resign in the political maelstrom that followed the vote to leave the European Union.

TURKEY

17 new bombing suspects jailed

A Turkish court jailed 17 suspects pending trial on Tuesday in connection with last week's suicide bombing attack on Istanbul's main airport that killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, state media said. The arrest of the suspects, 11 of them foreigners, brought the number of those remanded in custody over the attack to 30 after 13 were sent to jail on Sunday.

SWITZERLAND

Military jets escort airliner

Switzerland sent warplanes to escort an Israeli El Al Boeing 747 flying over its territory on Tuesday after a bomb threat was made against the airliner, Israel's Airports Authority said. The El Al jet, flying from New York, continued on its scheduled route to Tel Aviv, where it landed safely in the afternoon.

INDIA

80,000 affected by floodwaters

Flooding in India's northeastern state of Assam has affected more than 80,000 people, officials said on Tuesday. The floodwaters affected 187 villages in four districts of the state - Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Nagaon and Jorhat - east of Dispur, the capital city of Assam. The state's disaster management authority has issued flood alert in parts of Jorhat, Nagaon, Golaghat and Barpeta districts for the next 24 hours.

ARGENTINA

Bear dies 2 years after petition

Authorities say the last captive polar bear in Argentina has died at the Mendoza Zoo in the country's west. A petition two years ago gathered more than a half-million signatures seeking to have the polar bear named Arturo moved to Canada. The bear was nearly 31 years old when it died on Sunday.

JAPAN

Jealous husband mutilates rival

A former boxer who chopped off the penis of his wife's lover with a pair of garden shears before flushing it down the toilet was jailed in Japan on Tuesday. Ikki Kotsugai, 25, carried out the "vicious" attack in August 2015 when he burst into the office of a lawyer who had an affair with his wife. Kotsugai became enraged after mistakenly believing his wife had been forced to sleep with her boss at a legal firm.

(China Daily 07/06/2016 page12)