In Brief

Rescuers race to quake-hit villages GAUHATI – Rescue workers raced yesterday to clear roads blocked by mudslides as they attempted to reach remote villages cut off after a powerful earthquake killed at least 55 people and damaged more than a 100 000 homes in northeast India, Nepal and Tibet.

Brits hold 7 in counter-terrorism raids
LONDON – British police said yesterday they had arrested seven people in a counter-terrorism operation in Birmingham but said the arrests had no connection to a conference of the Liberal Democrat party underway in the central English city.

Merkel allies in free fall after vote drubbing
BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition allies were yesterday picking through the rubble of an election disaster in Berlin that weakened the government ahead of a crucial vote on the eurozone crisis.

PLO council shows of support for Abbas at UN
RAMALLAH – Members of the Palestinian parliament in exile met in Ramallah yesterday to show support for the campaign to seek full membership in the United Nations, a senior official said.

Court extends Breivik’s detention, isolation
OSLO – Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was ordered to remain in pre-trial detention for eight weeks yesterday during a closed court hearing in which he was cut off from making statements irrelevant to the case, a judge said.

BBC: Filmmakers held in Iran
LONDON – The BBC says 6 independent filmmakers have been detained in Iran but has denied an Iranian media report that the group are employed by the British public broadcaster.

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