News In Brief

Spanish PM to meet head of Catalan
separatist govt
AFP, Madrid
Spain’s prime minister has said he will meet the head of Catalonia’s separatist government in early February, although discussion on any independence referendum will be off the table.
The meeting will come ahead of negotiations between Quim Torra’s regional government and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez aimed at finding a way out of the political crisis that has rocked Spain since 2017 after a disputed referendum in the northeastern region.

Five Indonesian
fishermen kidnapped by Islamic militants
AFP, Jakarta
Abu Sayyaf militants from the Philippines seized five Indonesian fishermen from a vessel off eastern Borneo, Jakarta officials said Tuesday, the latest in a series of abductions in the area.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry said it was working closely with Malaysian and Philippines authorities to rescue the crew, while urging other fishermen to avoid the area.

Chinese tourists among dead in fatal New Zealand bus crash
AFP,
Rescue efforts are under way in New Zealand after a bus carrying a group of Chinese tourists crashed on a highway on the North Island in poor weather.
Chinese officials said six people had been killed, although the police have yet to confirm the number of deaths or the nationality of the passengers.

Eleven dead in Siberia fire
AFP, Moscow
Eleven people including 10 Uzbek workers died when a fire ripped through a one-storey wooden shack in a remote village in the Siberian region of Tomsk, officials said on Tuesday.
“The bodies of 11 people have been found,” Russia’s emergencies ministry said in a statement.Citing preliminary information, regional authorities said that ten of the victims were citizens of Uzbekistan.
The regional governor arrived at the scene of the tragedy and tasked officials with conducting a fire safety inspection in the entire region.