Briefly

Italy

Cable car plunges to the ground, killing 14

Italy's Transport Minister Enrico Giovannini was heading on Monday to the scene of a cable car disaster that killed 14 people when the lead cable apparently snapped and the cabin careened back down the mountain until it pulled off the line and crashed to the ground. The lone survivor of Sunday's horrific incident, a 5-year-old Israeli boy living in Italy, remained hospitalized in Turin on Monday with multiple broken bones. The Israeli Foreign Ministry identified him as Eitan Biran. His parents, younger brother and two great-grandparents were among the dead, the ministry said. The disaster, in one of the most picturesque spots in northern Italy－the Mottarone mountaintop overlooking Lake Maggiore and other lakes near Switzerland－raised questions anew about the quality and safety of Italy's transport infrastructure.

IRAN

Inspection agreement extended by 1 month

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog and Iran have agreed to extend an understanding to monitor Teheran's activities by one month, the agency said on Monday, while talks in Vienna try to save the 2015 nuclear deal. "The equipment and the verification and the monitoring activities that we agreed will continue as they are now for one month expiring on June 24, 2021," Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, told a news conference. Iran in late February limited the IAEA's access to nuclear sites it has been monitoring as part of the 2015 landmark deal. Grossi said that besides extending that understanding, Teheran had also agreed that information collected so far by agency equipment in Iran would not be erased.

JAPAN

Mass vaccine centers opened for Olympics

Japan mobilized military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka on Monday as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a one-year delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country's 36 million elderly people by the end of July, despite skepticism it's possible. Worries about public safety while many Japanese remain unvaccinated have prompted growing protests and calls for canceling the games, set to start on July 23. Currently, Tokyo and nine other areas that are home to 40 percent of the country's population are under the emergency and a further extension is deemed unavoidable.

Agencies - Xinhua