Briefly

AFGHANISTAN

China sends winter supplies to aid neighbor

A special freight train loaded with more than 1,000 metric tons of daily necessities donated by China departed for Afghanistan on Saturday afternoon. The train is expected to reach its final destination in around 12 days. Loaded with 50 containers, the train left China via Horgos Port in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The donations include padded cotton clothes, cotton shoes, blankets, milk tea powder as well as naan, a type of leavened flatbread. These are all urgently needed by the Afghan people during the winter.

AUSTRALIA

Allies sign key deal in nuclear submarine pact

Australia formally embarked on a hotly contested program on Monday to equip its navy with nuclear-powered submarines in a new military alliance with Britain and the United States. Defense Minister Peter Dutton joined US and British diplomats to sign an agreement allowing the exchange of sensitive "naval nuclear propulsion information". It is the first agreement on the technology to be publicly signed since the three countries announced the formation of the military alliance AUKUS in September. The deal will help Australia to complete an 18-month study into the submarine procurement, Dutton said.

UNITED STATES

Police seeking 80 in organized store robbery

Californian police on Sunday were seeking about 80 suspects who they said swarmed into a Bay Area Nordstrom department store in a coordinated robbery, ransacking as much as they could carry and fleeing in cars they had parked outside. Three people were arrested at the scene.

Xinhua - Agencies