Briefs | Switzerland: 8 missing after mudslide
Police said eight people were still unaccounted for in a Swiss Alpine valley yesterday, a day after a mudslide and rockslide hit a small village near the Italian border. The village of Bondo, about 130 kilometers north of Milan, was evacuated as the slide hit Wednesday morning. Police in Graubuenden canton (state) said buildings were damaged, and images from the scene showed a trail of destruction left by a river of mud and stone. They initially said that there were no injuries. However, police said Thursday that they haven’t been able to reach eight people who were believed to have been in the Bondasca valley at the time of the slide — nationals of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Six of those people have been reported missing by relatives, none of them children.
Sudan: Russian diplomat found dead
Sudan’s foreign ministry says Russia’s ambassador to the African country has been found dead in his residence in Khartoum. In a statement carried by the state-run SUNA news agency, the ministry said Ambassador Mirgayas Shirinsky died Wednesday and offered its condolences to the government and people of Russia. The ministry praised Shirinsky’s diplomatic efforts while in office but offered no details on the circumstances surrounding his death. Shirinsky, who was in his 60s, had been in the Russian diplomatic service since 1977 and had previously served in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Rwanda.
Yemen: Thousands back ex-leader
Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have rallied in Sanaa in a public show of support for a former president amid rising tension between his loyalists and Shiite Houthi rebels, components of the rebel alliance fighting a Saudi-led coalition in the country. Thursday’s rally brought together some 300,000 Yemenis to the capital to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Conference Party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh’s supporters said in a statement that the party will evaluate its partnership with the Houthis, referring to a recent power struggle between the two factions.
