IN BRIEF (Page 11)

United States

Obama adds 3 to cabinet

US President Barack Obama on Monday added three new names to his second term cabinet. The president picked top air quality official Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, physicist Ernest Moniz to lead the Energy Department and Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be the new director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Republic of Korea

11 hospitalized after gas leak

A toxic gas leak on Tuesday at a chemical factory in the ROK left 11 workers hospitalized and forced the evacuation of residents living nearby, local officials said. The incident occurred at a factory in the southeastern industrial city of Gumi, where a hydrochloric acid leak at another factory last September left more than 3,000 people seeking medical treatment.

Russia

Suspect held in acid attack

Moscow police on Tuesday detained a suspect who allegedly splashed acid in the face of the artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet. The 42-year-old Sergei Filin was struck with sulphuric acid by a masked assailant as he was entering his apartment building through a dark parking lot in mid-January.

Mali

15 militants killed in fighting

15 Islamist militants were killed by French and Chadian troops in fighting overnight in northern Mali's Ametetai valley, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.

Egypt

Police clash with protesters

Police shot into the air and fired tear gas during clashes with hundreds of protesters in Egypt's Port Said on Tuesday, the third day of violent protests in the port city, a Reuters witness said. Waves of demonstrations have been erupting in Port Said since January after the detention of dozens of people in connection with a soccer riot last year when 70 died.

Drc

At least 5 die in plane crash

At least five people were killed on Monday when a twin-propeller plane crashed as it tried to land in bad weather in the eastern Congolese town of Goma, the airline said. CAA, the airline operating the Fokker 50 plane, said five crew members were killed while another was still missing after the crash.

Thailand

Online ivory trade warned

Conservationists say there's a new threat to the survival of Africa's endangered elephants that may be just as deadly as poachers' bullets: the black-market trade of ivory in cyberspace.

Illegal tusks are being traded on countless Internet forums and shopping websites worldwide, according to activists.

Reuters-AFP-AP

(China Daily 03/06/2013 page11)