AFP, Caracas
A new assembly packed with allies of unpopular President Nicolas Maduro and with sweeping powers was to begin work on Saturday, deepening divisions in a crisis-wracked Venezuela.
The Constituent Assembly, headed by a former foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, is tasked with rewriting the 1999 constitution into a charter Maduro has promised will end the turmoil rocking his impoverished yet oil-rich nation.
One dead as Italy heatwave breaks in Alps
AFP, Rome
One woman died after her car was swept away by an avalanche of water and mud as a heatwave broke into storms in the Italian Alps, police said Saturday.
The incident occurred overnight near the top ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites range in the northeast of the country.
The car was recovered in a river bed covered in detritus but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the woman.
US ends search for missing sailor in S. China Sea
AFP, Tokyo
US naval forces have suspended their search for an American sailor who went missing during a joint drill in the South China Sea with Japan on Tuesday.
“After more than three days of continuous search efforts, the US Navy suspended operations to locate a Sailor assigned to guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem” on Friday, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement.
Road accident kills 4 Spanish
nationals in India
AP, Hyderabad
Four Spanish nationals and their Indian driver were killed Saturday in a collision between their bus and a trailer truck on a highway in southern India, police said.
Seven other Spanish nationals were injured in the accident at a road bend and were hospitalized, said police officer Hari Prasad.
Prasad said the Spanish nationals were volunteers with the Rural Development Trust, a nongovernmental organization that assists poor villagers in Anantpur district, 560 kilometers (350 miles) south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
