IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Kyrgyzstan

Bodies recovered from crash site

Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday was observing a day of mourning as it recovered the bodies of the dozens of people killed when a Turkish cargo plane crashed into a village outside the capital a day ago. Authorities in the Central Asian country have blamed pilot error for Monday's crash of a cargo plane operated by ACT Airlines, a Turkish cargo carrier, as it was attempting to land in foggy conditions at the Manas airport in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

India

Tailor admits schoolgirl attacks

A tailor in India has confessed to abducting, molesting and raping "hundreds" of schoolgirls over the last decade, said Delhi police, uncovering what may be one of the biggest serial pedophile cases in the country in recent times. Sunil Rastogi, a 38-year-old married man with five children, was arrested by police investigating the sexual assault of three girls aged 9 and 10 in the east of the Indian capital. Police said that Rastogi could not remember the exact number of girls he had sexually assaulted since 2004.

Japan

Family safe after mountain ordeal

Four members of a family believed to be Australian were safe at a ski resort in central Japan after having spent a night in the bitter cold on a mountain, police said on Tuesday. Public broadcaster NHK said the mother and three sons, who appeared to be teenagers or in their 20s, had gone missing the previous day at the Nozawa Onsen ski resort in Nagano prefecture. While skiing or snowboarding near the top of a mountain, they were unable to find their way down, the report said.

United States

Last man to walk on moon dies

US astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon, died Monday at age 82, NASA and his family announced. Cernan was the spacecraft commander of Apollo 17 - his third space flight and the last scheduled US manned mission to the moon - in December 1972. "We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon," the US space agency said on Twitter. According to a family statement released by NASA, Cernan, a retired naval officer, died following ongoing health issues.

Dolphins found dead in Florida

More than 80 dolphins known as false killer whales have died off the southwest coast of Florida after getting stranded in shallow waters, US officials said. A pod of 95 of the dolphins, which are black in color and look like killer whales without white markings, became stranded in the Gulf Coast off Everglades National Park, the park said on Twitter.

Photos on social media showed dozens of the dolphins just a few feet from the shore.

(China Daily 01/18/2017 page12)