Briefly

ALBANIA

Hopes fade as quake death toll hits 40

Hopes were fading on Thursday of finding anyone else alive beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in Albania, two days after a deadly quake struck the country's Adriatic coast. The death toll stands at 40 after more bodies were pulled from the ruins. Authorities said search and rescue operations were continuing in three collapsed buildings in the port city of Durres, 33 kilometers west of the capital Tirana. Searching had stopped, however, in the nearby town of Thumane, where no more people are believed to be buried in collapsed apartment buildings after six bodies were recovered from the rubble overnight. The Health Ministry said on Thursday that more than 750 people were injured in the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck before dawn on Tuesday and has been followed by hundreds of aftershocks.

AFGHANISTAN

Roadside bomb kills 15 in wedding group

Afghan officials on Thursday said a roadside bomb has struck a civilian vehicle going to a wedding, killing at least 15 people, almost all of them women and young girls. Nasrat Rahimi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said two other civilians were wounded in the blast in the northeastern Kunduz Province. He said six women, six girls and two infants died in the explosion, as well as the male driver. Enamudin Rahmani, police spokesman for Kunduz Province, confirmed the report. The Interior Ministry blamed the Taliban for Wednesday evening's bombing. The insurgent group has not commented. The Taliban today control or hold sway over half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target Afghan forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.

JAPAN

Beer exports to Seoul dry up amid tensions

Not a single drop of Japanese beer was exported to South Korea last month, according to official figures on Thursday, as a boycott campaign against Japan over a historical dispute dries up demand. Japanese beer shipments to South Korea stood at 7.9 billion yen ($72 million) last year, accounting for more than 60 percent of the country's global exports of the amber nectar. But the finance ministry in Tokyo said exports had plunged to zero, as the two countries remain locked in a dispute over trade and Japanese wartime atrocities. Already in September, year-on-year beer exports had fallen 99 percent, dealing a blow to Japanese brewers such as Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo. Exports of Japanese instant noodles and sake to South Korea have also plummeted.

THE NETHERLANDS

Father charged with sexual abuse

Dutch prosecutors said on Thursday they suspected the father of a family that was found locked away in a farmhouse room of having sexually abused two of his nine children. Police discovered five siblings and their ailing father last month in a hidden room at a farm, where they appeared to have lived in seclusion for years. The discovery in the northern part of the country followed a tip-off from a brother who said he had escaped. The 67-year-old father was detained at the time on charges of abuse, unlawful detention and money laundering. In addition to the five children found at the farm and the one who escaped, the man had three other children who did not live at the farm. Prosecutors said on Thursday they now also suspected the father of having sexually abused two of those siblings.