IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Russia

15 injured in ship repairs

Russian investigators on Tuesday said 15 servicemen had been hospitalized after a fire during repairs on a nuclear-powered submarine in the Far East, with the vessel sustaining significant damage. The Russian Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in Russia, said it had opened a criminal probe into suspected abuse of authority over the fire on the Tomsk submarine in the Bolshoi Kamen shipyard in the Russian Far East.

Afghanistan

Leader says no rush for US deal

Afghanistan's president says he is in no rush to sign a security deal with the United States, once again dashing American hopes that a pact can be quickly finalized. President Hamid Karzai told a youth conference in the capital on Tuesday that a deal could be signed by his successor after next April's election for a new head of state. The security deal will give the US a legal basis for having forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Greece

Hospital doctors join strikes

Doctors on Tuesday joined the latest wave of strikes to hit the debt-stricken country, with thousands of public sector workers protesting against government plans for lay-offs and redeployments. Teachers from schools and universities, civil servants and lawyers are also on strike, against reforms that the government of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is undertaking in return for international bailout funds.

United States

Colorado flood death toll rises

The confirmed death toll from massive floods in the US state of Colorado has risen to eight, while more than 600 people remain unaccounted for, officials said early on Tuesday. Helicopters resumed search and rescue missions, helped by clearer weather after days of torrential rain that has left over 1,500 homes destroyed and more than 17,000 damaged.

Austria

Poacher kills 3, takes 1 hostage

A poacher in Austria has shot dead two police officers and an emergency worker and has taken a fourth person hostage, the Austria Press Agency reported on Tuesday. The shootings happened overnight in Annaberg, some 100 km west of Vienna, APA reported. He was holding the hostage at a farm, and it cannot be ruled out that the gunman's children are also inside, APA said.

Mexico

42 dead in two massive storms

Two powerful storms pummeled Mexico as they converged from the Pacific and the Gulf on Monday, killing at least 42 people and stranding some 40,000 tourists in the Pacific resort of Acapulco amid some of the worst flooding in decades.

AP-AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 09/18/2013 page11)