World briefs

HONG KONG Vincent van Gogh’s “Vase with Daisies and Poppies” was received at a ceremony at Sotheby’s auction house in Hong Kong on Saturday. Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on November 4 sold the painting to Chinese movie mogul and Chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers Media Corp., Wang Zhongjun, and set a new record for any still life by the artist at USD61.76 million.

CHINA An earthquake struck southwest China, collapsing a wall of a house and killing a 9-year-old boy sleeping inside, state media reported. The official Xinhua News Agency said the quake hit a rural area of Yunnan province on Saturday evening, causing many people to rush out of buildings. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake had a magnitude of 5.5.

VIETNAMESE police have detained a second blogger in a week in the latest crackdown on dissent in the Communist country.

N KOREA releases a statement denying responsibility for but clearly relishing a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, which is producing an upcoming film that depicts an assassination plot against Pyongyang’s supreme leader. More on p12

MEXICO More than two months after they disappeared at the hands of police, the fate of 43 college students whose case has engulfed Mexico in anger is finally becoming clear as a lab identifies at least one of the young men from burned remains found near a garbage dump.

UK Several dozen breast-feeding women have protested outside a luxury London hotel where a mother was asked to cover up with a napkin as she fed her baby. Louise Burns said she felt humiliated by staff at Claridge’s in the incident last week. The group Free to Feed organized the “nurse-in” Saturday outside the hotel in the upmarket Mayfair district.

RUSSIA French President Francois Hollande met with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during an impromptu visit to Moscow on Saturday, a rare display of goodwill as tensions remain high over the ongoing conflict in east Ukraine and France’s decision to suspend the delivery of two warships to Moscow.

SYRIA’s state news agency says Israeli airstrikes have hit two areas near the capital, Damascus. SANA says the strikes hit yesterday near the capital’s main airport as well as the town of Dimas northwest of Damascus. It called the attack “an aggression against Syria” and said there were no reports of casualties.