IN BRIEF (Page 12)

China Daily | Updated: 2018-01-12 07:25

United States

Search continues for mudslide victims

Hundreds of searchers continued the grueling work on Thursday of hunting for survivors and digging up bodies in the sea of mud and wreckage left by flash flooding in this wealthy coastal enclave. The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 on Wednesday as more bodies were found. Another 17 were still reported missing. By Wednesday, 500 searchers had covered about 75 percent of the inundated area, authorities said.

Middle East

8 earthquakes hit Iran-Iraq border

A series of eight earthquakes hit the Iran-Iraq border area and rattled even Baghdad and parts of the Iraqi countryside on Thursday, apparently aftershocks of a temblor in November that killed over 530 people. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Seven had a preliminary magnitude of at least 5, while the eighth earthquake was a magnitude 4. Earthquakes of magnitude 5 and up to 5.9 are classified as moderate.

Israel approves more settlements

Israeli authorities have approved more than 1,100 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, the Peace Now NGO said Thursday, the latest in a raft of such moves in recent months. The approvals were given on Wednesday by a defense ministry committee with authority over settlement construction.

Germany

'Tough day' in coalition talks

Chancellor Angela Merkel said her conservatives still had high hurdles to clear in Thursday's talks on forming a coalition with Social Democrats pressing for accelerated European integration. Merkel, weakened by an election setback in September, turned to the left-leaning SPD to seek a rerun of their so-called "grand coalition" after the collapse in November of talks on a three-way coalition untested at national level.

Switzerland

Lobsters must be stunned, govt says

Switzerland has banned the common culinary practice of throwing fresh lobsters into boiling water as part of an overhaul of its animal protection rules. Lobsters "will now have to be stunned before they are put to death," the government order read. The Swiss are not alone in trying to protect lobsters from what activists call cruel treatment. Italy's highest court ruled in June that lobsters must not be kept on ice in restaurants because it causes them unjustifiable suffering.

(China Daily 01/12/2018 page12)