IN BRIEF (Page 11)

France

Police net drugs in worldwide swoop

The international police body Interpol announced on Wednesday it had seized 55 tons of different drugs and detained 1,300 suspects in a global coordinated operation. Police confiscated more than 35 tons of cocaine, 5 tons of heroin, 15 tons of cannabis and 430,000 Captagon tablets. The operation, called "Lionfish", had also dismantled a clandestine lab in a private house in the Netherlands, with the capacity to produce 700,000 MDMA or ecstasy pills.

India

Cyclone death toll rises to 57

The death toll from cyclone Titli in India's eastern state of Odisha has risen to 57, local government officials said on Thursday. The local government spokesman said the cyclone inflicted an estimated loss of $300 million. Of the 57 deaths, 39 were reported from Gajapati district, officials said. Senior government official A.P. Padhi said restoration work was under way and medical teams were visiting the affected areas.

United States

Spammers blamed for data breach

The internet giant has tentatively concluded that spammers looking to make money, and not a nation-state, were behind the largest-ever data theft at the social media company, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The people behind the attack were a group of Facebook and Instagram spammers that presented themselves as a digital marketing company, and whose activities were previously known to Facebook's security team, the Journal reported.

Germany

Airlines could face more bankruptcies

Increasing competitive pressures inside and outside Europe could lead to additional airline restructurings and bankruptcies, the government said in a response to a parliamentary query that was published on Thursday by the Handelsblatt newspaper. Nordic budget airline Primera Air, which began in 2003, this month became the latest European carrier to go bust, telling staff that all flights were being halted and leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 10/19/2018 page11)