IN BRIEF (Page 12)

India

Floods kill 270, displacing 1 million

Floods and landslides have killed more than 270 people in India this month, displaced 1 million and inundated thousands of homes across six states, authorities said on Wednesday, after two weeks of heavy monsoon rains. Rains from June to September are a lifeline for rural India, delivering about 70 percent of the country's rainfall, but they also cause death and destruction each year. The southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, and Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, were among the hardest hit by floods that washed away thousands of hectares of summersown crops and damaged roads and rail lines. At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing in Kerala, where heavy rainfall triggered dozens of landslides last week and trapped more than 100 people.

United States

Domingo faces sexual harassment probe

Opera legend Placido Domingo faced a growing#MeToo storm on Tuesday as the Los Angeles Opera opened an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him and two other major venues canceled his upcoming performances. Domingo defended himself after several women, one of whom was identified, accused him of using his position as one of opera's most celebrated singers to pressure them into sexual relationships. Eight singers and a dancer said that they had been sexually harassed in incidents going back to the 1980s. One said the Spanish singer had put his hand down her skirt while three said he had forcibly kissed them. Some said they felt their careers had been damaged by rejecting his advances.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/15/2019 page12)