IN BRIEF (Page 8)

United States

Pelosi says will be House speaker

Top congressional Democrat Nancy Pelosi has brushed off concern about simmering internal party opposition to her leadership, expressing confidence that she will be elected speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi has led House Democrats since 2003, including a historic four-year stint as the first female speaker. With Democrats reclaiming the majority after last week's midterm elections, House Republicans will relinquish the gavel, and Pelosi recently said she had"100 percent" confidence in reclaiming it.

Dprk

Detained US man to be deported

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will deport a US citizen detained since October after he entered illegally and told his captors he was controlled by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the DPRK's state news agency KCNA reported on Friday. It identified the man as Bruce Byron Lowrance. In May, Pyongyang released three US prisoners and handed them over to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, clearing a major obstacle ahead of an unprecedented summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, top leader of the DPRK, in Singapore on June 12.

Syria

Airstrikes kill 105 people in 7 days

At least 105 people have been killed over the past seven days in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour as a result of US-led airstrikes against positions of the Islamic State group, a war monitor reported on Thursday. A total of 80 children and women were among those killed by the intense airstrikes that have been targeting the last IS-held pocket in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The London-based watchdog said the death toll will likely rise as people are still stuck in the rubble.

Afp - Ap - Xinhua

(China Daily 11/17/2018 page8)