IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Russia

Cargo spaceship launched to ISS

Russia on Wednesday successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft taking food and equipment to the International Space Station after the previous such ship crashed to Earth shortly after launch in December. A Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress cargo ship lifted off on schedule at 5:58 am from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

United States

Flooding forces hundreds to flee

Murky, waist-high floodwaters swamped neighborhoods along a rain-swollen creek in the northern California city of San Jose on Tuesday, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders or advisories for more than 1,000 homes, city officials said. The state's third-largest city, a hub of the high-tech Silicon Valley corridor south of San Francisco, has about 1 million residents and declared an emergency as Coyote Creek overflowed its banks from days of heavy showers.

Pipeline protest camp to be shut

The Army Corps of Engineers' plan to close a Dakota Access pipeline protest camp that's been around for more than six months isn't likely to be the demise of on-the-ground opposition in North Dakota. Wednesday's deadline for the protesters to leave also may not spell the end of heavy law enforcement presence near where the Dallas-based developer is finishing the last big section of the pipeline, which will carry oil from North Dakota through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

Afghanistan

Penalties target boy sex slaves

Afghanistan was set to lay out stringent penalties for bacha bazi - sexual slavery and abuse of boys - for the first time, officials said, in a landmark move against the deeply entrenched practice. A raft of punishments will now be listed in the revised penal code - from up to seven years in jail for sexual assault to capital punishment for "aggravated cases" such as violating more than one boy.

New Zealand

National memorial for quake victims

The New Zealand city of Christchurch unveiled a national memorial on Wednesday to commemorate the 185 people who died in an earthquake six years ago. Prime Minister Bill English joined other dignitaries to unveil the memorial wall on the anniversary of the 2011 quake.

Germany

Police probe possible attack

German police rushed to a vocational school in the western town of Menden after an alarm was triggered indicating a possible armed attack. A spokesman for Menden police said a large number of officers had been dispatched to the Hoenne vocational school after police were alerted to a possible incident.

(China Daily 02/23/2017 page12)